Argentina being the hosts of the 2011 Copa America Cup were considered to be the hot favorites for this tournament. Before the kick-off of the tournament the Argentine media were saying that this team is not quite Argentina, this is “Argelona”..(Argentina following the Bercalona model) because they have Lionel Messi. But unfortunately those who were saying this had forgotten that football is not a one man show,it’s about a complete team. But this Argentina team doesn’t have neither such players nor their coach so that the team can stand up to the expectations of their supporters. And what’s the ultimate result? Argentina remain there where they were.
Today the match got underway with a real shocker from the Argentine defense. The laps in their deep defense were easily noticed in the group stage matches. Just within 6 minutes Uruguay got the lead from same such thing. Forlan’s free kick was not picked properly by the defenders, neither they marked Diego Perez who didn’t make any mistake to put the ball behind the nets. That although didn’t take long to be equalized. From a brilliant Messi areal ball Higuain did the rest. It was 17 minutes then. Since then we saw Agrentina to play well with the leadership of Messi and also Angel De Maria upto a good extent. But on the day Sergio Aguero was very much off color in the penetrative zone of Uruguay. So the lead didn’t increase at that time. But during then Argentina were playing possessional football. And the frustration of the Uruguay players of not getting the ball could have been easily seen as they were committing poor fouls. As a result there were a no of bookings for the Uruguay players. In the process the goal scorer of Uruguay was booked for the second time and sent of within 40 minutes. After that it was not much of play in the first half and the score remain unchanged.
At the Second half it all started happening to make the Argentine fans disappointed. Rather the Uruguay players showed their determination on the field to fill up the gap of that one man. They just were not able to capitalize on the numerical advantage that they had. Uruguay had only 40% of total ball possession in the total match. But still one got to give it to the Coach Oscar Tabarez who made a perfect strategy to stop Messi…and when Messi stops, so as the full team. The Uruguay goal keeper Muslera was outstanding in the night of quarter finals. He made some unbelievable saves and he’s my MoM. During the 2nd half Romero did not have to make much saves. But at the 86th minute the Argentine captain was booked for the second time and Argentina also were down to 10 men.
However,nets were further not disturbed any more during the rest of the time of 120 minutes. But again at this time the Uruguay keeper made some extraordinary saves to take the match to a shoot-out.
Well,Argentina had problems with the shooters. Tevez missed the 3rd one, although Pastore and Higuain scored those were not the penalties that they would like to remember. On the other hand Uruguay showed the ultimate perfection to put the ball behind the nets 5 out of 5 times and got through to the Semis as the more deserving team.
But what’s wrong with Batista?? Why did he took De Maria off? It was okey that he substituted Aguero who was on the day suffering from off form. But can one guess the reason why Diego Milito is sitting on the bench match after match?? I didn’t get his strategy…And sorry Batista,your team doesn’t have the depth of Bercalona,so you better keep your team as Argentina rather than try to create what you say Argelona…
And for all you Argentina fans : Tell me when you won a big tournament after 1993?? After 1990 your team couldn’t even qualify for the World Cup Semifinals…Don’t you think that you are overrating your team? Don’t you think that you are getting mad for a team that has no success whatsoever in the past 20 years…If you have not thought yet think now…I won’t tell anything more,ask the you within you to get the answer and be honest enough to find it…since then goodbye...!!
