Reuters Soccer Blog
World Soccer views and news
The unbearable lightness of being – or how a thin piece of synthetic cloth can become a lead weight
Argentines often talk about how heavy a particular football shirt can be, River Plate’s, Boca Juniors’ or Argentina’s.
“La camiseta pesa” (the vest weighs (a lot).
This is what is happening to the players of River Plate, one of Argentina’s “Big Two”, who could be relegated for the first time this month.
The responsibility of being in charge of a squad that could go down to the Nacional B division is affecting coach JJ Lopez, who was a part of a great River team of the 1970s and early 1980s.
River were playing badly at home to Colon last Sunday so Lopez decided to bring off two midfielders and sent on two central strikers to add to the one he already had in the team.
It made matters worse because there was a gaping hole in midfield. River fell behind and only managed to equalise because they played “a los ponchazos”, like Indians waving their ponchos in air and charging forward without any organisation.
from Left field:
Messi, Maradona and Batista
With Sergio Batista at the Argentina helm, Lionel Messi has the chance to develop into the truly great footballer his talent has promised since last year’s exploits with Barcelona.
It could be that when the Argentine Football Association make their choice of coach for the 2014 Brazil World Cup cycle, they opt for a different candidate from Batista – Alex Sabella of Estudiantes for instance.
But what matters for Messi is that with Batista he really feels he is playing as well as he does with Barcelona – a bone of contention among Argentines throughout last year’s World Cup qualifiers and into the finals in South Africa where with each passing match the tactics of Diego Maradona isolated him more and more.
By the time Argentina crumbled against Germany in their quarter-final, Messi was back in his team’s own half looking for the ball, Javier Mascherano was floundering on his own in a midfield packed with Germans and Juan Sebastian Veron was wasted warming the bench.
Batista has only presided over two friendlies, with a third in Japan coming up on Friday, but he has fielded a midfield that protects and also feeds Messi for the brilliant kind of opening goal in the 4-1 win over Spain in Buenos Aires last month.
Messi has regularly said he feels comfortable with Batista, a combination that helped Argentina win the Olympic gold medal in 2008. He has not criticised Maradona, he even went as far as to say a few days ago he would be happy with either coach.
Batista, though, seeks and gives Argentina a balance lacking under Maradona, who in the eye of many Argentines is now seen as a destabilising influence on the team.
Messi couldnt do anything during the world cup …. he’s only good with Barcelona FC where the players are used to team work, unlike the Argentine squad where every player thinks he’s a Maradona of his own.
did u even hear what Maradona said when the team got eliminated? here’s a briefing about it. i saw it here on http://www.sawfer.com
Batista breeze replaces Maradona whirlwind
Argentina have not suddenly become world champions after beating Spain 4-1 nor have the Spanish lost the sheen of their World Cup victory.
For Argentine fans, though, the performance more than the result gives them hope for a fresh start, possibly with Sergio Batista at the helm right through to Brazil 2014.
So forgotten was Diego Maradona on that sunny late Tuesday afternoon in Buenos Aires that there were no chants of “Maradoooooo, Maradoooooo”.
Whenever things went wrong with the national team, that was the chant that rang out at the Monumental. Until they went wrong with Maradona himself in charge.
A poor match could have brought back the ghost of the 4-0 thrashing of Maradona’s World Cup team by Germany.
A good match revived the belief in Argentines that they are not, and never were, that far from this Spain team in playing style.
Spain suffer Argentine embarrassment but write them off at your peril
Trying to read anything into Spain’s 4-1 defeat in Argentina is tough considering it was a friendly. Did the world champions take it too lightly? Was Del Bosque right to field Pepe Reina in goal with fringe players Nacho Monreal, Alvaro Arbeloa and Carlos Marchena in the back four for a match that was never going to be that ‘friendly’?
Or was it that Argentina really got it together under new coach Sergio Batista?
Spain started poorly conceding two goals in the first 13 minutes and the third came after an embarrassing slip from Reina in the 34th, but they responded well in the second half and hit the woodwork three times overall.
Surely the only conclusions that can be drawn will be after the next couple of matches for both sides.
If Spain stumble at home to Lithuania or away to Scotland in their next Euro 2012 qualifiers it could be argued the defeat had dented their aura of invincibility or that their confidence had been knocked.
Spain’s style of football, similar to that of Barcelona’s, is high-risk if you do not display the mental and physical sharpness required to maintain possession in the face of a harrying, motivated opponent, who has the ability to break quickly.
Let’s face it, this game meant much more to Argentina. After their disappointing showing at the World Cup finals in South Africa they were seeking redemption in front of their own fans.
