Zatman Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 "And what about the magnificent rumour, recounted in The Observer this weekend, that Maradona selected Ariel Garcé - a journeyman defender with four caps (three back in 2003) to his name - because he had a dream that Argentina had won the World Cup, and Garcé's face was the only one he could remember. " From Football 365. If this is true how can you not love his character Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSufferingVilla Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 Maradonna is batshit crazy but in a knockout tournament batshit crazy can be a terrifying prospect for the opposition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted June 7, 2010 Moderator Share Posted June 7, 2010 Maradonna is batshit crazy but in a knockout tournament batshit crazy can be a terrifying prospect for the opposition. I think that's only true up to a point. As soon as he comes up against a similar level of opponent like a Spain or Brazil, their organisation will pick Argentina apart. This is the highest level. Any weakness will be exposed and unfortunately Argentina have a pretty big weakness in charge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattster Posted June 10, 2010 Share Posted June 10, 2010 He's not weird... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ml1dch Posted June 10, 2010 Share Posted June 10, 2010 Argentina's starting lineup for anyone thinking about fantasy football teams: Romero Heinze Samuel Demichelis Guttierez Di Maria Mascherano Veron Messi Tevez Higuain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voinjama Posted June 10, 2010 Share Posted June 10, 2010 Argentina's starting lineup for anyone thinking about fantasy football teams: Romero Heinze Samuel Demichelis Guttierez Di Maria Mascherano Veron Messi Tevez Higuain Thats an impressive line up right? Surely Spain are the only country with a better line up then that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted June 10, 2010 Share Posted June 10, 2010 defence is a bit old and demichelis was awful against utd but their positional sense and tackling are good, would guttierez start against a top team or would diego go more defensive? and i know nothing of romero still convinced they will **** it up, but im glad we realistically wont be playing them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davies4England Posted June 10, 2010 Share Posted June 10, 2010 Poor team imo, Nigeria will certainly attack their left had side. Too many attacking players, and an aging and slow defence. Regardless of that I still think they'll win, but after watching them a fair bit in the qualifiers there will be a lack of fluidity despite the names on paper. At least Palermo isn't starting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voinjama Posted June 10, 2010 Share Posted June 10, 2010 So you think they are a poor team but you still think they will win the world cup, that doesn't make sense. A poor team can't win the world cup. Maybe a poor team can fluke their way to a quarter final like Ireland in 1990. And apart from the front 3 and Di Maria the rest are not attacking players. Maybe Gutierrez. So that is 4 0r 5 attacking players, pretty standard. Do you agree or disagree with my statements? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davies4England Posted June 10, 2010 Share Posted June 10, 2010 So you think they are a poor team but you still think they will win the world cup, that doesn't make sense. A poor team can't win the world cup. Maybe a poor team can fluke their way to a quarter final like Ireland in 1990. And apart from the front 3 and Di Maria the rest are not attacking players. Maybe Gutierrez. So that is 4 0r 5 attacking players, pretty standard. Do you agree or disagree with my statements? Win the game, not world cup. Veron is more of a creative midfielder then defensive and doesn't have the legs to perform a box to box role. Jonas will more defensive then he is used to but he is not a good defender and will eb beaten by a good attacker. That only leaves Mascherano who can actually defend in the midfielder, which puts a lot of expectation on his shoulders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voinjama Posted June 11, 2010 Share Posted June 11, 2010 Argentina are dividing opinion like marmite when it comes to their chances at this world cup. At all the bookies they are 3rd favourites (behind spain and brazil) and lots of pundits have tipped them to win it like mark lawrenson and johan cruyff. I don't know much about the players that play in the argentine league, so my knowledge is not great. But I am tipping them to win the whole thing because of their attacking threat and a few decent midfielders too. They also have Heinze at the back who is decent, and helped Marseille win the league. I honestly believe their first 11 is the 2nd strongest in the competition if as expected they play a front three of messi, higuain, and tevez. But I guess anything can happen with maradona in charge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davies4England Posted June 11, 2010 Share Posted June 11, 2010 Argentina are dividing opinion like marmite when it comes to their chances at this world cup. At all the bookies they are 3rd favourites (behind spain and brazil) and lots of pundits have tipped them to win it like mark lawrenson and johan cruyff. I don't know much about the players that play in the argentine league, so my knowledge is not great. But I am tipping them to win the whole thing because of their attacking threat and a few decent midfielders too. They also have Heinze at the back who is decent, and helped Marseille win the league. I honestly believe their first 11 is the 2nd strongest in the competition if as expected they play a front three of messi, higuain, and tevez. But I guess anything can happen with maradona in charge. I agree that they have the 2nd strongest team, but after watching them 4 or 5 times in the past year they don't impress me. In qualification it seemed to be pass to Messi and let him do the work and this dramatically failed, Messi looked clueless and proved that even when you're the best player in the world you need a decent manager to succeed. I think Maradona has the right idea of playing 3 centre backs, as throughout qualifying they played 4-4-2 with Otamendi and Heinze at fullback. The two offered very little support to their wide men, meaning in some games it took them a while to get a goal and often in fortunate circumstances. However to use this formation you need the right balance, for instance many have questioned his decision not to include Zanetti and Cambiasso, both players would work far better in this system for me, rather then having Veron and Di Maria. Uruguay for example have recently settled on a similar system with an attacking midfielder rather then an extra striker, but unlike Argentina have the right balance between defensive and attacking midfielders and still score plenty of goals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andykeenan Posted June 11, 2010 Share Posted June 11, 2010 Argentina and Nigeria i think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted June 12, 2010 Author Moderator Share Posted June 12, 2010 Table and results grid updated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voinjama Posted June 12, 2010 Share Posted June 12, 2010 Greece were poor today, and I think they will lose against argentina also. Looks like my prediction of then coming 2nd in this group is wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted June 17, 2010 Author Moderator Share Posted June 17, 2010 Updated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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