Argentina 2-1 Perú - Players ratings by Dave P.

As we usually do here on Mundo Albiceleste, here are Dave P's player ratings for the match between Argentina and Perú

Mhmm, it feels really really good right now, almost didn’t happen and thought it was going to be a déjà vu of our past games but PALERMO right spot right time. It feels great to get 3 points. This new look team that MARADONA fielded today worked out very well in the first half even though we did not score. We were combining well and there was finally a link between the attack and the midfield which AIMAR and DI MARIA did well.

The second half was a completely different story we got an early goal by a great run by HIGUAIN and slicing ball by AIMAR, two new faces made a huge impact. However, as the 2nd half went on we eventually reverted back to our old selves and seemed lost, then the hurricane winds and torrential down pours came. At this point anything could have happened, “anything” did happen, defensive break downs on our side and then PALERMO…Lucky that Uruguay won and now our fate is completely on us and only us…ok here are the ratings…

Sergio ROMERO, (7.5): In the entire first half had to make only 1 or 2 saves. Was solid in the air and big in the net. The second half was when he came up huge, SCHIAVI and HEINZE were caught out of possession and he came to the rescue getting down low to block a shot. Huge save from our starting goalie. When the rains came he was caught out of position a couple of times, and on Peru’s goal he could not really do anything because the winds and rain were un real. Good play and should be our starter, immense talent

Jonas GUTIERREZ, (7.5): Great to see Jonas back in the line up after missing out on the last two qualifiers. He deserves to be a starter with all the passion and work rate he encompasses. In the first half he was showing this work horse-ism by moving up the entire right flank and getting
all the way back in defense very effectively. He combined well with Enzo PEREZ as well as MESSI. In the second half he was still in defensive mode but once Demichelis came in he kind of moved into an advancing position. He was always there when he was needed. Excellent moves on the end line and crosses throughout the game. Great game for Jonas so much passion in his game

Rolando SCHIAVI, (5.5): Very quiet game in the first half for SCHIAVI as for much of our defense. He was moving the ball well with HEINZE in the first half and seemed to be confident on the ball. However, as the game went on he seemed to grow with nerves. With Peru’s two good chances before they scored he was out of position and also over committed where he should have been dropping and staling for more players to help out in defense. On Peru’s goal the entire team was for fault in the box because everyone was standing, but SCHIAVI was one of the ones standing around. Would feel much better with Demi, PAREJA, or OTAMENDI in his spot. Also, SCHIAVI induced no threat on set pieces with his height.

Gabriel HEINZE, (6.5): Much like SCHIAVI played well in the first half with a lot of control of the ball and smooth passes. Not many mistakes throughout the entire game for HEINZE and bodied players around easily. In the second half HEINZE maintained his intensity and pursuit of tackling, played well however, was caught out of position on Peru’s chances he was pushing too far up at times and at other times giving the opponent too much room. He has to continue to find his form and he will be solid, there were no typical HEINZE moves in this one and it was less
never wrecking as usual.

Emiliano INSUA, (6.5): Glad to see a young new left back instead of PAPA and HEINZE. INSUA was solid throughout the game and really didn’t have to do much at all. Maybe pushed forward a couple of times too far but in the long run recovered well and combined well with DI MARIA when he needed too. Really, not much else to say about INSUA good first outing for the youngster and hope to see him get more action on the left back position.

Enzo PEREZ, (6): Played well but only for 45 mins until he was subbed out. He had our first chance to score within the first 2 minutes of the game but his shot went wide. He combined well with the new look offense of AIMAR, MESSI and HIGUAIN and worked hard down the right flank.
With the workhorse Jonas behind him he was pretty much free to attack as much as possible. Seemed to enjoy the movement inside when MESSI moved outside for a little bit in the first half and was always making threatening runs. Good to see some actual attack from the right wing
instead of seeing Maxi contribute nothing.

Javier MASCHERANO, (6): Good game for our captain, but not one of his best either. In the first half he was holding down the midfield extremely well, pressuring the Peruvian’s and even making some good distribution with AIMAR. However, in the second half after we scored much like our entire team he seemed to fall asleep and gave the Peruvian’s too much room in the midfield. This may have been because of the 3 man midfield that MARADONA seemed to move to in the second half which gave the Peruvian’s a lot more room to move on the wings and in the center of the pitch. On the whole MASCHERANO can play a lot better, a lot of the reasons why SCHIAVI and HEINZE were out of position has to do with the fact that MASCHERANO was out of position as well.

Pablo AIMAR, (7.5): The clown was back in good fashion today. After not playing for almost 3 or 4 years on the NT I believe. AIMAR playing the attacking midfield roll that I felt we have so desperately needed since RIQUELME left the team and MARADONA took over the team. AIMAR provided the much-needed link in attack with the strikers, and in the first half it worked out extremely well and looked dangerous, just the final shot was missing. He distributed the ball well everywhere well out wide, in the middle, and even beat players himself. Excellent movement and support with MESSI and dare I say looked a little bit like the Xavi-MESSI connection (not quite). In the second half played a great through ball to HIGUAIN behind the defense and got us the goal.
He seemed to struggle a little with less midfield support but still was an attacking threat. There was one time in the first half when he had the ball just inside the box and chipped it to the back post instead of shooting himself. Either way I approve very much of AIMAR in the attacking midfield role and hope to see him in Uruguay’s game not VERON.

Angel DI MARIA, (8): Wow very solid performance by Angel. Good to see him back after the 4-game suspension for his stupidity in the red card. Right from the start on the left side DI MARIA was pushing and beating defenders. He would always look to create with AIMAR or take it himself and play good balls across to the middle. Played dangerous balls to HIGUAIN and MESSI and had a few shots himself. I don’t know what else we could want from DI MARIA other than scoring goals, but he kept this style of play up for the entire 90 mins even in the hurricane conditions. Extremely creative and fast talent. He was the one who kept the ball alive and chipped it over to Jonas who set up our winning goal. Great game.

Gonzalo HIGUAIN, (7): His first official international call up and was very impressed. Early in the game did not really do much at all, but as the game went on in the 25 min on seemed to find more space in the box but couldn’t finish. The ball from DI MARIA he put over the net was a little embarrassing, and then again he was found in open space and had his shot save miraculously by the Peruvian goalies tiny boot. Then seemed to drift off completely in the last 10 mins of the first half. To start the second half made a great run to stay onsides which AIMAR
found. Took his goal very well and find the left side of the net, felt amazing to see us finally have a lead in a game and HIGUAIN’s face showed it. Drifted as the game went on again and was taking off for DEMICHELIS in the 68th min. Good Debut but could have been better.
Anyway if he continues to look this dangerous and score keep him as the starter.

Lionel MESSI, (7): In the beginning of the game he did not do much, but as it moved on he dropped back a little bit and received the ball. Everytime he touched the ball 3 Peruvians were on him and he made them look silly many many times. He linked up with AIMAR and Enzo very well in the first half and had some world class runs and passes but unfortunate to get a final touch. Had an excellent shot and unlucky it did not find its way into the upper left corner, missed by maybe a half foot. MESSI did not seem to get as frustrated as he usually does and it showed with one of his better outings for the NT under MARADONA. The AIMAR help was huge in making Messi more dangerous, they played off eachother well. For some reason however, he did absolutely nothing in the second half. The midfield link seemed to fall apart as well in the second half and he could not conjure up any of his magic.

Subs

Martín PALERMO, (7.5): Came on in the second half for Enzo PEREZ and got involved early with a few runs and balls played through to him. He showed his passion and was always threat with balls played into the box either from crosses or set pieces. Took a boot to the face while
going for a header, as well as, an elbow to his eye too. Other than that did not really do anything else but score the 3-point goal. Was at the right place at the right time and proved his worth in the dieing seconds. As much as I am speculative about PALERMO, I am loving him right now he is a passionate player and shows it well. Great goal!!!

Martín DEMICHELIS, (6.5): Came in the 68th min for HIGUAIN for more defense. Demi played well in the last 20 minutes and in the end was a smart sub for the fact that their was pretty much a hurricane on the field. I trust DEMICHELIS a lot in the back and he had a few key enforcing tackles. Good to see him back from his injury, and hopefully he will start against Uruguay instead of SCHIAVI.

Federico INSUA, (n/a): Came on for AIMAR in the 76th min, did not really do much due to the weather, but he played a part in PALERMO's goal.

Really enjoying this victory right now, in perspective it would have been nice to beat the worst SA team by more then 1 gol in the last seconds of the game. But either way we got 3 points. The first half of this game had many many positives and if we can come out like that against Uruguay but actually finish we will be looking good. In the second half we got the 2 gols but the tactic that MARADONA chose once we scored to sit back and pretty much play with no midfield was not
smart. It allowed Peru to get back into the game and put too much pressure on our players. The attacking midfielder tactic worked very well…I can’t write anymore I’m celebrating, eventhough we are not through yet, but because I forgot what it’s like to win a game.

As always...feel free to contribute your very own player ratings and discuss Dave's grades.

Argentina 2-1 Perú - Match Highlights (Part 2)

Argentina 2-1 Perú - Match Highlights

Pipita to start. This surely will be the lineup

The same lineup we published here on Mundo Albiceleste a couple of days ago, seems to be the one that will take the field to face Perú on Saturday.

Have a look and discuss:

Sergio ROMERO

Jonas GUTIERREZ (as right back), Rolando SCHIAVI, Gabriel HEINZE and EMILIANO Insua;

Enzo PÉREZ, Javier MASCHERANO, Angel DI MARIA;

Pablo AIMAR

Lionel MESSI and Gonzalo HIGUAÍN

Mundo Albiceleste Pod - Lets get ready to rumble

The World Cup Qualifiers are about to finish in South America and Argentina are suffering something we last suffer in 1993. We are on the verge of missing out of the next World Cup and we really need our team to come up big in the last two rounds.

First stop is Perú in Buenos Aires. To discuss the team news and the possible scenarios we could see on Saturday, John, Roy and Seba are joined by Johnny, who will be watching the game at the Monumental stadium.

Simply click the audio player above or right-click on the following link and save it as an MP3 file or listen to it in your computer: download.

Enjoy! And don't forget to send us your views to argentina.correspondent@gmail.com or right here in the comments' box. If you want to participate in a future edition of our podcast, make sure to drop us an e-mail too.

Possible scenarios (get your calculators!)

Right, I know you are probably doing the same at home. Getting a calculator and doing the math to see what Argentina need to do in order to qualify for the next World Cup in the last two rounds of qualifiers.

Mundo Albiceleste is here to provide you with this service so you know what to expect, who to support and what needs to happen on Saturday for Argentina to stay alive in the race for South Africa 2010.

First things first. Argentina cannot qualify automatically or get eliminated on Saturday. No matter the combination of results, there is no way for Argentina to guarantee 4th place and there is no way to get into a position in which the 5th place will be out of our reach.

With that said, and knowing we need to wait until the very end (next Wednesday in Montevideo), there are a few scenarios that can guarantee Argentina of at least 5th place (and some others that can freak you out -trust me...they freaked me out first!-)

Here's what needs to happen for Argentina to at least make sure that we will face off with the 4th-placed team from CONCACAF and avoid the embarrassment of missing out of South Africa 2010 automatically.

The most important thing is, of course, to beat Perú. If that happens, Argentina will guarantee 5th spot if:

Uruguay lose in Ecuador.
Venezuela lose to Paraguay at home.
Colombia lose to Chile at home (a draw will also be good enough for Argentina to clinch 5th place)

With those results the table would looks like this, and the only thing to play for would be that sacred 4th place position that Ecuador and Argentina will fight for. (NOTE: we are not calculating goal-difference for our probable scenarios, but we are including them as they stand before this Saturday's matches so you have an idea of how good or bad we compare with our rivals):


Chile would qualify for 2010 and Uruguay, Venezuela and Colombia would all be eliminated.

Now, what if those other relevant three matches from Saturday end in draws and Argentina still win in their meeting with Perú:



This last table looks better on paper because we would be in 4th place and we can even reach those 28 points Chile have in the final round. But disaster could be waiting to happen. If Saturday leaves us with the table looking like this, then we could be eliminated (even from the playoffs) if we lose in Uruguay, provided Ecuador beat Chile away (or even with a draw in Santiago -depending on goal-difference).

If you ask me, I'd rather see Uruguay getting nothing from their trip to Ecuador (they got draws the last two times they've been to Quito and they even got a point from La Paz -2-2 draw after trailing 2-0 at half-time-) and Venezuela losing to Paraguay so we can at least rest assured that we won't crash out of the World Cup without the chance of booking our ticket with a playoff.

Now if you like playing with fire and think of the worst case scenario everytime Argentina play, the following table is the one you're looking forward to seeing. This, to us at Mundo Albiceleste, is the worst possible scenario from Saturday and ahead of the last round of qualifiers:



Right...what needs to happen for us to end in 8th place after only one round of matches?

Easy:

Argentina lose at home to Perú
Uruguay win at Ecuador
Venezuela beat Paraguay at home
Colombia beat Chile at home

I know, it'd be terrible. We would still have chances to qualify in the last round. We would need to:

Beat Uruguay (there would be no other possible result from us if we want to qualify to South Africa)
Chile to beat Ecuador
Brasil to beat Venezuela
Paraguay to beat Colombia.

With that, we'd be back in 4th place and automatically qualified!

See how tricky all of this is?

You can go from 5th, to 8th and up to 4th in only 5 days.

Getting a draw would of course be a very bad result for Argentina and we would again depend on what happens with the rest of the teams.

We can get to the final round of qualifiers with every team in contention with the same difference between them if all the relevant matches end in draws. The table would look like this:



With that combination of results, a draw in Uruguay may give us the ticket to South Africa or may mean we miss out if Venezuela beat Brazil in Brazil.

One final scenario. What happens if we draw and all our chasers lose?



We would still have to travel to Uruguay, but this time a draw in Montevideo will keep Uruguay at bay and behind us and should probably be enough for Argentina to finish above Venezuela thanks to our better goal-difference -Venezuela would need to put 6 on Brazil in Brazil-.

So...there you have it. Numbers have never been my thing and right now I'm sick of these figures. I just need to see Argentina play the level of football we know we are capable of playing and then things will be OK.

There'll be time for us to calculate the numbers from the CONCACAF region (if needed) after next Wednesday.

Until then, make sure you have the tables above very handy so you know exactly where we stand in the race to South Africa.

Probable line-up vs. Perú

According to what MARADONA is testing in Ezeiza, this is a likely starting XI for Argentina to face Perú on Saturday:

ROMERO

Jonas GUTIERREZ (as a right back), SCHIAVI, HEINZE, INSUA (as left back)

Enzo PEREZ (as right midfielder), Javier MASCHERANO, Angel DI MARIA

Pablo AIMAR

Lionel MESSI and Gonzalo HIGUAIN

A few initial thoughts from me (if these names are to be confirmed)

Curiousity? Three players with roots in River Plate (MASCHERANO, AIMAR and HIGUAIN) compared to only one from Boca Juniors (INSUA -SCHIAVI also played for Boca Juniors but he is not originally from Boca).

Enzo PEREZ, Emiliano INSUA and Gonzalo HIGUAIN given the responsibility to make his full international debut at a crucial time. SCHIAVI to play from the start for the first time also. Not sure that's the best recipe to face a challenge like this.

Jonas to be played out of position as right-back. This is one thing I can't believe. With ZABALETA injured, not only we miss out on the chance to see him, but we also have no replacement for him. That's something I can't explain. You have one of the most talented pool of players to pick from. Every player born in Argentina at your disposal. Yet you pick 26 or 27 footballers for a crucial couple of World Cup Qualifiers and you have no cover for right back?

MARADONA shouldn't blame injuries, Manchester City, an excessive number of fixtures for European clubs...MARADONA should take responsibility for this. It could work out with Jonas as right back, but the truth is he will be playing out of position and that's something that shouldn't happen to the national team of Argentina.

On the other hand, MESSI finally playing probably more to the right with another player (Pablo AIMAR) taking the play-making responsibilities.

How do you see this lineup working?

Happy?

Furious?

Let us know!

Diego: "We'll wait and see if I stay in charge"

Now this is surprising!

Diego Armando MARADONA has hinted he may be on his way out as boss of Argentina even if the team manage to make it to the World Cup.

We should take this like a quote coming from MARADONA. It can change just as fast as MESSI goes through two or three defenders or as HEINZE fouls an opponent.

What MARADONA said today was:

"Our life is on the line every time we play. It's not easy. But I don't have to complain. Tomorrow we'll stay here in Ezeiza and we'll keep preparing for Saturday's game."

"I'm staying because I have a commitment with my players and because I said 'yes' to GRONDONA when he invited me to his place and offered me the job. I became the world's happiest man. Then a lot of things happened and I didn't like them. Now, when the WCQ end, I'll tell him all the things I didn't like. If I stay in charge, it would be under my conditions."

There you have it. 100% MARADONA.

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In other news...Pablo ZABALETA picked up an injury, oddly enough, on injury time when he was playing for Manchester City against Aston Villa on Monday. He is ruled out for Saturday and we have to wait and see if MARADONA calls someone from the domestic league to replace him as, in the absence of Javier ZANETTI, he is the only natural right-back in the squad preparing to face Perú.

Diego Names The Remaining Nine Home Based Players

I’ve just got this news and hopefully it is genuine one. Diego has just named the nine players from the domestic league that will now complete the squad for the upcoming World Cup Qualifier against Peru and Uruguay.

After heading remarkable goal for Boca in their 3-2 win over Velez Sarsfield, Martin PALERMO (not surprisingly) makes the cut and now rumours has it that he is likely to start and lead our attack.

Here are the complete list of the local league players.

Goalkeeper
Diego POZO (Colon de Santa Fe)

Defenders
Rolando SCHIAVI (Newell's Old Boys),
Nicolas OTAMENDI (Velez Sarsfield),
Fabian MONZON (Boca Juniors)

Midfielders
Mario BOLATTI (Huracan),
Enzo PEREZ (Estudiantes),
Juan Sebastian VERON (Estudiantes),
Federico INSUA (Boca Juniors)

Forwards
Martin PALERMO (Boca Juniors)

And now, please let us have your say on this.

MILITO to miss out against Perú and Uruguay

It's just his luck, isn't it?

Diego MILITO started this season with Inter in a great form and scoring almost at will. Nobody can really tell whether he was going to have a chance to start against Perú and/or Uruguay, or if he was going to watch Martín PALERMO, Gonzalo HIGUAIN, Carlos TEVEZ or Sergio AGÜERO from the bench.

Things have changed, though, as MILITO suffered an injury on Saturday against Udinese that will keep him out of action for at least one month, which means there is no way he'll see action in our last two World Cup Qualifying matches.

It remains to be seen whether Diego MARADONA will call someone from Europe to replace MILITO.