tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3594722532540683646.post8671704059671795553..comments2024-01-06T23:25:09.200-03:00Comments on Hunting White Elephants / Caçando Elefantes Brancos: Germany 4 x Argentina 0Christopher Gaffneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04857921977919114588noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3594722532540683646.post-57929244228233880382010-07-05T04:41:30.255-03:002010-07-05T04:41:30.255-03:00Your blog is really excellent. It inspires the rea...Your blog is really excellent. It inspires the readers who has that great desire to lead a better and happier life. Thanks for sharing this information and hope to read more from you.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.ghostpapers.com/" rel="nofollow">College Term Papers</a>Term Papershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02145417264678061367noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3594722532540683646.post-63138039756158504732010-07-04T02:04:57.913-03:002010-07-04T02:04:57.913-03:00Then individually, what can I say? I feel bad for ...Then individually, what can I say? I feel bad for Otamendi. He is an average young player, playing out of position. He had a tough game, but he isn't to blame for losing this game. I disagree with you Chris regarding Higuaín. He was very poorly assisted throughout the game, and he still had some chances, a couple which were created by himself. I think he is a good player and a dangerous forward, and I don't think he had a bad world cup. Milito had a couple of very good months in the last year, but I've seen him play a lot, and he is an average player who works hard. That's it. DAM could have used him more, as he was clearly in great shape, but I think Higuaín is 10 times a better player than Milito.<br />Tévez had a bad game. Even playing well, he reminds me of what we call "autitos chocadores" (bumper cars?). He is a bull, only this time he was crashing against a german wall, and bouncing each time. In a sense, I think he is the root of many tactical problems for Argentina. He is a great player, too good to be sitting on the bench. But he is not a striker, and he is not a winger, and we already have Messi, so playing Tevez means that Argentina ends up having 3 players without any defensive duties/skills (Messi, Tevez, and the striker, in this case, Higuain), plus one external midfielder who in this case can't play defense, like Di María. This means that Mascherano ends up playing by himself in the middle (or with Maxi or Verón, the equivalent to playing by himself), which is heroic in every game and can make you win games against bad teams (Greece, S. Korea), or even mediocre teams (Mexico). But playing in this way you will ALWAYS lose against elite teams such as Germany. Basically, playing in this way, Argentina cannot be an elite team.<br />Messi is great, and he didn't have a bad game or a bad world cup. He wasn't spectacular and he didn't play to his potential, but he was good and had many chances in every game. Germany defended him perfectly: no fouls, no man on man. Just surround him with 2-3 players and hope he has a "human" game, which he did. <br />Who else? Di María played his best game in the WC2010. Obviously that wasn't enough. Again, If against Germany you are going to play Messi, Tevez, and Higuaín, you can't also play Di María... Anyway, I expected more out of him. <br />And Maxi Rodríguez is a mediocre player who played a game according to his skills. <br />Romero was ok in general... The goals weren't' his fault. De Michelis, Burdisso, and Heinze (yes, el boludo de Heinze) did what they could. None of them is particularly fast, and you can't have a defense made up of 4 slow players against an elite team. Samuel would have been better, and yes, Zanetti coulda shoulda woulda. But even Clemente Rodríguez or Jonás (despite having a couple of bad games, this was a game for him) would have been better.<br />Oh well. Looking forward, at least it's nice to know that Di María, Messi, Higuaín, Romero, Kun Aguero, and Pastore (who should have seen more action and who's a GREAT player) are younger than 23. It's also nice that Tévez and Mascherano are 25-26 and have one WC left in them. And it's even nicer to know that Heinze, De Michelis, Burdisso, Maxi, Verón, Palermo, and--yes--Milito, are DONE. <br />Before the WC I had VERY low expectations for Argentina. Game after game I started getting excited with the team, although knowing that we had played bad/mediocre teams. Still, unfortunately, I was hopeful for a while, and I thought we could have made it to Semifinals. I still think the game against Germany (the 70 minutes I'm considering "a game") wasn't as bad and could have yielded a different result. Oh well. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. And against Germany, we generally lose.Manunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3594722532540683646.post-42247143282191407532010-07-04T02:04:26.893-03:002010-07-04T02:04:26.893-03:00Well.. I agree with part of what you say. For me, ...Well.. I agree with part of what you say. For me, the game was over after the 2-0. There were 20 min left, and the dynamics of the game were completely altered after that. Those 20 min were a mess, and Germany played smart soccer, scoring twice and not leaving any room for hope.<br />In the 70 min before, Germany was also better than Argentina, clearly. But it wasn't a complete dominance, as Argentina could have tied the game either in the last 15 of the first half, or in the first 20 of the second half. Messi, Higuaín, and Di María had good chances, and if any of those had gone in, who knows what could have happened. Of course, Klose could have also klosed the game in first half if he hadn't miss that unbelievable chance. Anyway, in those 70 min, Argentina did not play that poorly. Germany dominated the first 20 min, and then it was Arg doing most of the damage until the 0-2. <br />All this to say that as bad a coach as Maradona can be, he was at his best (which isn't very good) at this world cup. In this game, he was outcoached just as much as Argentina was outplayed. And being 0-2 he decided (and I agree) to go for it and either lose 0-4 (which happened) or magically try to score twice in 20 min. against a team that was scored twice in 430 min (4 games + 70 min). DAM isn't a good coach, and never will be. I just hope this is it for him coaching la selección.Manunoreply@blogger.com