Last 16: Argentina (1F) vs Switzerland (2E)

Lumiere, you are right. They do deserve some credit for such a high rank. One possibility is that they mainly played weak teams but still they deserve some credit. I think people did respect them at the start of the tournament but after that game against France they began to be treated like laughing stocks.

I think Di Maria is on some wired drugs. How can some one simply run non stop for 120 mins ...unreal stamina.

Brady2Moss wrote:

windkick wrote:

messixaviesta wrote:

The Dutch are also trolling their way to the semis. The big question is who's not.

Dont think so. The Dutch have looked convincing while Argentina is just bleh + Messi's magic.

Columbia is in fine form as well, no trolling with them

Netherlands looked so convincing?

lol

Yes, after they gave up the goal Mexico didn't know what to do. Took them a while to wake up, but once they did Mexico couldnt push them back

What an emotionally draining match...

It's odd that after looking like a good unit throughout the qualifiers the team seems so disjointed at the world cup. The team as of right now is Messi + Rojo + 0. Not to discount Di Maria's performance, I certainly yelled his goal in public and received weird stares, but his match was a lot more mixed than people here are giving him credit for. He was a turnover machine. He tried cross after cross after cross, all of them unsuccessful. He should play simpler and would be better for it.

And can we talk about Gago for a minute? What is it that he does, exactly? He did not seem to connect with Messi especially well today, which is the entire point of him starting, he had a few tackles but nothing outstanding. He seemed like a spectator. And then Sabella brought on Biglia. What's the point of leaving Banega at home in favor of Enzo Perez if he is not going to get a chance?

After the last match I defended Higgy. I thought in spite of not scoring he did a good job making runs and creating space for his teammates. Unfortunately he did not do any of that today, and other than missing good heading opportunities, did not do anything worthy of note. I thought he should have left for Palacio, not Lavezzi. Higuain needs to do more against PTB teams, because after Iran people have certainly noticed we are not that good at creating in possession.

Hard to believe I'm saying this but I will really miss Rojo during the next match.

Finally Romero had his first bad match today. I don't need him to be Neuer but he needs to come out on 1-1s.

Anyways my .02.

Robespierre wrote:This Argentina is similar to 1990. It is just a player.
The only difference is this Argentina can do better because this is a team very good while Argentina 90 was Diego Armando Maradona + 10 , and another difference is this Argentina plays to win ( but it plays badly) , while this Argentina was a negative team

just my thought....

messixaviesta wrote:

Zealous wrote:This world cup has been very unfair on the "smaller teams" imo.

Well hopefully at least for once no refereeing accusations from the defeated or is that asking for too much. Fate we cannot control. Maybe this time Lady Luck smiles on Argentina. As an Argentine fan one is bound to feel very relieved right now because a penalty shootout can go either way.

damn...i cant sustain an argentina penalty shootout anymore after that   loss in Germany

windkick wrote:

messixaviesta wrote:

windkick wrote:Argentina is trolling their way to the semis, and then the Dutch will curb stomp them

The Dutch are also trolling their way to the semis. The big question is who's not.

Dont think so. The Dutch have looked convincing while Argentina is just bleh + Messi's magic.

Columbia is in fine form as well, no trolling with them

either you are not watching Argentina game or using typical GL blame here. otherwise one being honest cant ignore the contribution of Gago and most importantly Di Maria. Tell me one game where Di maria did not give his best in this WC. saying this Argentina is only Messi magic is a pure insult to the talent and hardwork the guy putting through.....

Ganso wrote:

Robespierre wrote:
argentina can convince more than brazil just because they have more better players

you can't compare Argentina with other top NTs in terms of performance simply because they are stuck with a bunch of teams who are technically pretty limited.They faced Boznia,Iran,Nigeria,Switzerland and are going to face Belgium/USA.When you look at who the other top NT's faced you see the likes of Spain,Chile,Mexico,Portugal,Colombia etc

if anything Argentina have been the worst of all the favorites.I mean,they won every single one of those matches with only a 1 goal difference over those scrubs

Its nice to see Portugal has become term can be used based on your need. Portugal is scrub team carried only by CR when the discussion is about Messi vs CR. And now portugal has become a top team that other teams had to face, to show Argentina did not face such team. I feel pity for portugal to be honest....

If you just want to say, we did not face top teams i wont disagree...

Argentina were crap.

Was expecting a lot more of them coming into this world cup and have been disappointed for the most part.

BC, until this game i thought Gago was ok. i wish its just an off game for him but todays performance is no way acceptable. most of the first half we had no connection between mid and attack. messi and higuain was completely disconnected. di maria was trying hard on the left but was well marked by three always even after his successful dribbles Messi and higuain were far from him. what else could he do other than crossing which ended up nothing. so the blame should be carried by both mashcherano and gago.

I was completely shocked to see lavezzi coming out instead of Higuain. So, sabella also bias to higuain??? he had been flop since the beginning of this tournament and today he even did not try much.....

Lumiere_Blanche wrote:

messixaviesta wrote:

Lumiere_Blanche wrote:I have a question. Switzerland is ranked 6th in the world, just one behind Argentina.  and yet why they are considered a weak team and how come people were expecting Argentina to thrash the Swiss today?
If Swiss would have won, it wouldnt have been an upset therefore I guess.

That's because very few take the Fifa ranking seriously.

yea man. but still there must be a reason Swiss is ranked no.6 above big teams such as Italy, and France.

I have heard today the commentators saying they only lost 2 of their last 21 games or something (please note I dont know which all teams they have played against in those 21 games btw). even still thats pretty impressive. So even the records say they are good, so how come the respect and expectation is low then.

another reason is the number star players playing for big european clubs. Example : bosnia playing WC first time but still many people expected them to do well because people are familiar with some of their players. same goes for Belgium as well. they are receiving praise more than other similar teams because of having number players well known in europe. Switzerland on the other hand does not have so many....but i think they really played well. many expected them to park the bus vs us but they surprised all. i din see their game vs France but cant beleive this team conceded 5 goals to that match....

Swiss played very well and as expected their structure as a unit defending so well. I think Inler, Behrami, Shaqiri had top games. Too bad their other players and especially up front is just not on the required level, meaning they dont have the cutting edge and couldnt finish the chances. So lucky for Argentina.

But Argentina although far from perfect I though deserve credit too, always press and try to win the ball back so quickly. That spell in the second half was immense I kept thinking soon Argentina gotta score.... Di Maria and Messi as expected the 2 key players though by far. U gotta love Di Maria bar his diving and probably final ball can be way off often, but he just has so many likable qualities. I read the article about his past cant remember the exact details but can understand his determination when he plays. His slim frame also means he has that stamina, a bit like Alves I guess.

I gave up towards the end and thought Argentina really flop bad if they went out to Swiss by penalties, then that goal, was worth the suffering for the other 116 mins

Lumiere_Blanche wrote:I have heard today the commentators saying they only lost 2 of their last 21 games or something (please note I dont know which all teams they have played against in those 21 games btw). even still thats pretty impressive. So even the records say they are good, so how come the respect and expectation is low then.

Among those were friendly matches against Brazil (Sui 1:0 Bra) and Germany (Sui 5:3 Ger).

neuro11 wrote:another reason is the number star players playing for big european clubs. Example : bosnia playing WC first time but still many people expected them to do well because people are familiar with some of their players. same goes for Belgium as well. they are receiving praise more than other similar teams because of having number players well known in europe. Switzerland on the other hand does not have so many....but i think they really played well. many expected them to park the bus vs us but they surprised all. i din see their game vs France but cant beleive this team conceded 5 goals to that match....

Well, half the Swiss team plays in the Bundesliga and so many of the players are well-known in Germany. Another group are well-known in Serie A.

LOL, this was supposedly sent out from the official Vatican twitter account: