Probably I have not seen many Argentina midfield and defence players playing in club football, but that midfield and defnece options look so bad. How are they going to beat Mexico and Poland ?

Helmer wrote:Probably I have not seen many Argentina midfield and defence players playing in club football, but that midfield and defnece options look so bad. How are they going to beat Mexico and Poland ?

Its a better midfield and defense than Argentina usually have.

They'll beat Mexico and Poland, as hilarious as it was today, its just a hiccup.

[quote="Beautiful Football"]Argentina is highly overrated team as far as i can remember. Look at their most player, where they play? Mostly mid table level "team" in Eurpoean leauge. Look at Brazil, France Germany player, where they play? Top team in European Leauge. Argentina wouldn't even go to R16. Probably out of group stage.[/quote]

and what of the saudi players? where do they play? at the end of the day, the game still has to be played on the pitch, with some level of guts regardless of what league anyone plays in

How Qatar won the fight to host the WC is open secret I thought? Just bribe Blatter/Infantano & Co...

Ppl starting to realize Messi's problem with the NT all these yrs... n today he had Di Maria to help a bit... all these yrs Arg still havent managed to produce much help That 2014 final he didnt even have that, n would have won it pretty much with Higuain screwing a few 1v1s...

I think this a blessing in disguise. They haven't lost in a very long time so getting that out of the way now is best for them imo

‘There won’t be any more surprises than normal’

‘with Messi in current form, Argenrina is a shoo in to win it all’

‘ blessing in disguise’ to move to other side of draw where other strong favourites will be!

Beautiful Football wrote:Argentina is highly overrated team as far as i can remember. Look at their most player, where they play? Mostly mid table level "team" in Eurpoean leauge. Look at Brazil, France Germany player, where they play? Top team in European Leauge. Argentina wouldn't even go to R16. Probably out of group stage.

Where was this hot take before we lost to Saudi?

Looking at the clubs that players play for and then going "well lots of midtable fluff there, just not a good team" is a ridiculous way to assess teams. You have guys like Dibu Martinez and Cuti Romero that perform at a high level for midtable teams. Better than than eating bench time for a top side.

Part of the issue here was the lack of proper training month before the WC. We lost Lo Celso (starter) and today we played a few options to see what fit. Papu in the first half, who in spite of being dangerous played like a winger and totally ceded control. Enzo Fernandez later on who brought control but less danger.

Not an excuse and all teams deal with this, but ideally you do have a month before the WC to figure these things out before, and I think that goes some way towards explaining the performance today.

The biggest problem that I saw is that our defense kept losing the ball when trying to play from the back. Today, that lead to 1 goal but against a better team it could lead to a lot more, and that's more complicated to fix than a simple personnel change

lol how could they give my man Messi the early kickoff...

still lol though, obviously not over for them, and they could still top the group because Saudi in theory should lose their next two games

also i thought the new offside system would allow narrow offside calls such as Lautaro's goal.

futbol_bill wrote:‘There won’t be any more surprises than normal’

let's remind ourselves your Spain also lost their opening match in 2010

Clutch wrote:I think this a blessing in disguise. They haven't lost in a very long time so getting that out of the way now is best for them imo

Agree but they don't look anywhere near world cup contenders. Semis is their ceiling imo.

This is an old ageing squad relying on players in their mid-thirties to provide width and creativity

BarcaLearning wrote:

Ppl starting to realize Messi's problem with the NT all these yrs. .

I didn't expect the "Let down Messi" narrative to start from the first game. against mighty Saudi Arabia no less ffs.

Messi was crap,  he dropped a 3/10 individual performance and was shambolic throughout the game. Expect the same to happen in the other two games.

As-salamu alaykum to all Muslims and Saudi Arabians and good day to the rest.

Saudi Arabia, showed no fear. Defeating one of the world cup favorites.

Otamendi and Emi Martinez, finally being humbled for the a**holes that they are.

I am pleased.

Salam

El Gunner wrote:

futbol_bill wrote:‘There won’t be any more surprises than normal’

let's remind ourselves your Spain also lost their opening match in 2010

Spain lost to a solid European team that make it through to the knockout stages pretty much every tournament they play in

Saudi Arabia have barely won any WC games in their entire history

I've seen many people comparing this to Spain's result in 2010 but it's a pretty BS comparison

That Spain squad was super stacked who certainly didn't rely on near retirement players to bail them out

This is why stats are overrated. Mancini's Italy with a 37 game unbeaten run can't even make it to the world cup whilst Argentina with their 36 game unbeaten streak get embarrassed by Saudi.

i would say, fair enough, but then you contradict yourself with these two statements...

Spain lost to a solid European team that make it through to the knockout stages pretty much every tournament they play in

That Spain squad was super stacked who certainly didn't rely on near retirement players to bail them out

the comparison is in essence and nature - meaning - first game lost, okay cool, whatever, still two matches to make it through to the next round.

Obviously not conclusively saying, they will go on to win it like Spain... but they are just two dominant performances away in their next two matches and people will change their tune again. That's football, everything can fall apart one game, next game, you're up again.

How?

Why?

BIG MATCH LEWA

Mexico are better than Poland but they're pretty toothless upfront.

Sweden would be getting out of this group if they didn't flop in the last 3 qualifying games. I am convinced

This was not on my WC bingo card

Lewa missing 2 penalties in a row, with one of them being at the biggest stage. He's finished

Ochoa MotM. Still Farfan right Mex simply lack goal and I feel itll be the end of Mex in the usual stage of round of 16

Mah man Giroud.

Mario Kart