La Selección Argentina

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Just purchased 2 tickets for the game against Ecuador, they were a bit pricey, so Messi better do his magic on that game

Seats are okay, given that I didn't want to pay 100 for them. So I purchased the ones going for $45 US. All the way up, but at the very front of them.

cheapest ones for Brazil one are $80 and they are all the way at the top

Sabella completed the list with the following players:

Orion y Clemente Rodríguez (Boca); Andújar, Desábato y Braña (Estudiantes)

No surprises really. Desabato and Brana are not NT material, though. Brana is a poor man's Masche and Desabato is a thug.

Gino Peruzzi had a very good game for Velez today. Definitely a name to keep track of. He's a 19 year old defender.

I know Neymar has no idea who I am, but he will get to know me soon enough," the 19-year-old laughed in Wednesday's interview with Ole.

"I would tell him to watch his back. I am a player who hits hard and who has a lot of character. I give everything on the pitch."

Asked what he would do if Neymar pulled out his famous bicicleta overhead flick, the defender gave an unequivocal response.

"If I grab him afterwards, I'll break him in half! No, it's true that it is annoying when he does these things while winning but he always plays like this. He likes the tricks," he admitted.

"I have to keep cool; the Brazilians love to show off and I'm a bit of a hothead!"

Peruzzi

Dat Argentine spirit

Matias Rodriguez amazing chilena golazo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0syRXmr5WWs#!

-----------------Romero
-------Coloccini Camagnaro Mascherano
Matias--------------------------------Di Magia
-------------Gago----Biglia
-------Missi-------------------Kun
-----------------Pipita

Rumored team against Ecuador:

Sergio Romero
Pablo Zabaleta, Federico Fernández, Ezequiel Garay y Clemente Rodríguez
Fernando Gago, Javier Mascherano y Angel Di María
Sergio Agüero, Gonzalo Higuaín y Lionel Messi.

Di Maria as a midfielder? That worked great for Maradona...

No Sosa? I'm shocked, won't be surprised to see Gago dropped for Sosa honestly.

Gago is the only part of that midfield that is actually a CM... at least the defense is starting to look established. Haven't seen Fede Fernandez in forever, but the rest are close to the best we got in each position. Can't have both Clemente and Matias play, they would leave the defense too exposed. It's the midfield that makes me facepalm. Di Maria is not a CM. Masche hasn't played there in forever and a half. I'm worried Messi will have to track back all the way to the halfline to get the ball...

I'm worried about Pipita and Kun being able to play together, they will both take up similar spaces and make similar runs I believe, let's hope we don't get embarrassed.

we are playing with our b defense....the only thing that is going to be embarrassed is thiago silva after the massacre

Di Maria has played as a CM for us before. I don't think he is bad there, he is a bad short passer but he can also give some really nice long balls. And he knows how to defend properly aswell.

Albiceleste wrote:No Sosa? I'm shocked, won't be surprised to see Gago dropped for Sosa honestly.

Today's updates show that Sabella has dropped Gago for Sosa

Albistradamous

My deception level: Xavi

Sabella...y u play Sosa?ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)

Di Maria can definitely lock a wing down now he's not the same player he was under Maradona.

(You're welcome lol)

Sabella, between Higuain and Sosa: "I have to see whether it's best to have more equilibrium in the midfield or give the attack greater strength. " So he's essentially choosing between a 4-4-2 with Sosa and a 4-3-3- with Pipa. I honestly might prefer the 4-4-2, we've looked very solid with it.

Messi is so much better in real life

I had a great experience, largely thanks to him. My seats were great, much better than I expected. Here's a panoramic pic I took there:

Spoiler:

https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/img829/3681/monumentalparonamic.jpg

Nice one, was it first time you saw Messi live?

It was. It was very striking how different he is from his teammates just by his class, and it's even more striking at the stadium. I went with a friend that doesn't really follow the sport very much, so he had a hard time telling apart the players, but it was always obvious to him which one was Messi by just the way he played.

The Monumental would be a much better stadium without that track. I dislike any stadium with a track its just unnecessary imo

Higuain was just aweeeesome in the final third. He has great chemistry with Messi.

Great game, deserved scoreline against a team we should be beating.

Garay was great last night, his first touch long passes are

I'm still not sold on Fed. Fernandez, Masche - Garay is still my dream partnership but Mascherano was superb in midfield yesterday his distribution is great these days.

We need another player on the right we were weak there, especially against Brazil, imo we should play with Campagnaro at RB with Gaitan, Salvio or even Matias in front of him.

If we play Maxi or Sosa I will probably



Btw, great pic BC, nice that you got to see an official game. Watching Messi in person is so much better than on TV

That's the only problem with the lop-sided 4-3-3 Argentina play..... it gives little to no support for the RB and teams that are strong on the left side will exploit this and who has a better left side than Brazil lol?

I think Zabaleta is good enough defensively as long as there is someone infront of him...... just drop Aguero/Higgy for Gaitan.

It is a difficult thing to do because its one less attacking option going forward but if you persist with Higgy Smalls ( my name for your front 3 ) then Brazil will exploit the *bleep* outta your RB.

BTW Colo and Garay would be GOAT and you are missing out

I lost hope in Colo being called up honestly, after the season he has had and he still doesn't get called up

and yeah I think dropping one of Higuain or Kun is what needs to happen unfortunately, because if we leave either flank open Hulk can shoot from distance and Neymar/Marcelo speak for themselves. Higuain should be there honestly, he is more clinical and it is imperative we finish our chances.

Albiceleste wrote:I lost hope in Colo being called up honestly, after the season he has had and he still doesn't get called up

Same tbh hopefully a top CB can come through or a top midfielder and Masch goes to CB.

Garay is fantastic i still cant get over how Barca rejected him for Caceres

And yeah it is difficult, Aguero offers better link up play and ability to create more outside of the 6 yard box but Higuain is more clinical.

Mind you id rather choose between Aguero and Higuian than Welbeck and Carroll

Romero - 6: had a good game but didn't get challenged that often, needs to fix his nickname as "Rebound Romero" though
Clemente - 5: Provided width going forward but often left his flank exposed, and Valencia exposed this.
Garay - 6.5: Good when called upon, the best defender. Needs to be an assured starter.
Zabaleta - 6: Regular game for him
Masche - 6.5: his passing ability is greatly improved, but I don't think he's comfortable playing DM anymore, he should be played as a CB.
Gago - 6.5: good retention of the ball and distribution, another definite starter.
Di Maria - 7: proved to be a great resource for Messi and as always a great work rate
Higuain - 7: tracked back, scored and assisted, good game though perhaps uninvolved when he didn't have the ball or was in a scoring position
Messi - 9: every attacking play went through him, fantastic game
Kun - 7.5: the birthday boy was very lively and had a great game

The 4-3-3 worked very well against Ecuador, but they were frankly terrible. Against Brazil I expect to see the 4-4-2 again because they pose more of a threat. Also, the 4-3-3 sometimes looked more like a 4-3-1-2 while attacking, given how centrally Kun and Higuain sometimes got, although when defending they reverted back to the wings.