Wednesday, August 22, 2007

2-1 lost to Norway

Starting Lineup

Norway played a 4-3-3 focusing on rapid compression and expansion. When on defense, the formation quickly shrinked into 4-1-4-1 with just Carew staying high; on offense and counter attacks, they hold onto the ball for couple of seconds, allowing their attackers to push into positions, then move the ball through wing routes with 2 or 3 players flanking into our box from the other side.

Basile started with a strange 4-2-2-1-1 with Mascherano and Maxi both playing low to provide defensive screening and creative playmaking in lower midfield while Messi playing SS.


As expected, all the offensive supporters were too far from Diego Milito and weren't able to commute the ball to him properly. There were plenty crosses, but Norway pretty much owned the air. Our ground routes in first half all ended before getting into Norwegian box, there were some long shots but none of them could be considered threatening.

Lavezzi practically disappeared on the wings. One of the only moment for TV audiences to see him was when he pulled a bad and unnecessary tackle on the right wing before half time...

Carew is a large fella. For his statue, he's pretty technical and created disturbance in our back field all day. The other Norwegian offensive players generally stayed low and weren't supporting Carew effectively on several occasions. If they were, the score could of been even worse.

In fact, the only reason score remained 1-0 by half time was because the terrific performances of some the defenders. Zanetti and Burdisso made some life saving tackles. I liked what I saw from Burdisso, and am worrying about our future without Zanetti.

Another notable Norwegian today was Liverpool's Arne Riise. Riise is a gifted thrower, his deep throw-ins are almost like corners. Besides that, he can also hit a hard knuckleball from long range, making him quite deadly an surprise attacking element. Riise also created some dangerous moments today, and he drew Mascherano's foul which gave Norway the penalty opportunity. Carew converted that penalty, but Ustari, despite being a little shaky early on, was very close to saving it.


After the goal, Argentine attacks were chaotic and unproductive. For quite a while, Maxi was the conducting person but the ball going through him just seemed to be a step too much. On our possessions, after all the time spent in the back field, Norwegian defense became well organized and all the options were shut down. This happened again and again till eventually Mascher started looking for Messi directly, but the quality of Messi's processing were questionable at times.

Milito had several header opportunities right infront of Norwegian goal. He headed the ball high every single time. Is this the guy who we supposed to depend on after Crespo's retirement? I think this friendly could serve as a serious warning.

Lucho did nothing great either. He hit the ball couple of times from outside the box, it went nowhere near the goal every time. Lucho sucks. Can we not see his fucking face anymore, PLEASE?!

Second half, Basile made 2 initial adjustments. Saviola came on for Lavezzi who was basically doing nothing, and Insua replaced Lucho. The formation was unchanged for the majority of second half, and the team remained unproductive. The only real chance came early on, when our right wing and full back pushed the ball up front and created a mess inside Norwegian box. Insua was wide open in the center of the box, and he didn't take the shot lightly, but Norwegian goalie Jarstern pulled out a literally finger tip save and score remained 1-0.

However, Saviola looked much better than Lavezzi, and a clever move inside the box almost gave us the equalizer. He was too deep and only had a very small window to shoot, the shot missed the far post by inches, and the disappointment continued.

One other notable instance was when Messi's cross found Maxi 2 feet infront of Norwegian goal. Maxi jumped too early and didn't hit that one right...

Then the Norwegian dominance in the air paid off. Carew raised above Garay (marking him, inches infront of our goal) and headed a Norway freekick home...


Losing 2-0 and Basile was still hesitating to make any changes. Then Diego Milito had a cramp and finally Gago was switched on for him. What seemed to be a forced defensive change actually morphed the formation into exactly what I've been proposing. And guess what, the whole thing started to look different.

Backline 4 with 1 fullback actively pushing for width (in this case Zanetti);
Gago+Mascher DM, one focuses on tackles, the other on distributions;
Maxi and Insua out wide;
Messi CAM/SS;
Saviola forward.

At 80th minute, it was like a second wind had kicked into our players, and for the first time, we started to see composure on the pitch. Mascherano was freed to position himself wider and pulled some beautiful tackles, while Gago was able to distribute the ball directly to our front line. Within minutes after Gago came on, Saviola made a connection inside the box with Insua, and we almost got 1 back.

We did get 1 back, but it would take another few crucial minutes. Maxi received a short freekick and shot it at the far post from outside the box, this time Jarstern was too far to keep his cleansheet.

The defeat could be summed up into 3 points:
1. Lacked creative midfielders. Only in the last 10 minutes had this changed a little with Gago on the field.
2. Unproductive in the air, and Diego Milito was clearly NOT the answer. Even Burdisso's header was closer to the net.
3. Basile sucks.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am new to this blog. Actually I came here upon the recommendation of Asil. Rio, since you are from Argentina, what is the chance that Basile will be replaced since he is doing extremely poor given all that pool of talent? Why was Aimar not playing? thanks for a response.
Ken

Anonymous said...

hey rio,
thanks for good review of the match. I think AFA should do some thing with Basile asap!

-rao

Rio said...

He'll get more chances with next friendly and some qualifiers. If he manage to qualify us then it's possible he'll stay for the World Cup also. Olympic result shouldn't of mattered, but it will certain do some damage to his reputation if he loses that too.

If Basile continue with this kind of failure in WC qualifiers, then....

Anonymous said...

Boy Am I glad that I was@ work n missed this game. Man I am getting tired of seeing this. Granted no Riquelme,Crespo,Tevez,etc etc. What is going to happen after Crespo? Freakin Milito? That guy is a one year wonder sorta like Italia's Luca Toni. What is going to happen after Riquelme? Aimar? Who I love but who gets hurt a lot. I just do not know who the#10 is going to be. Who was the#10 for this game anyways? When Argentina is on no they are on and no team can beat them. No way should a Norway team beat Argentina. Oh well.... Next game vs the Aussies. We need a player maker, who can just play the game, I love Roman but what is his future, do we need a 31year oldish player in 2010? And where was Aguero, Banega? I think we need to keep our eye on Ángel Di María, he is going to be a talent n a half. No more losing please!


,JACK!

Rio said...

actually I hope we lose more. Lose the unimportant ones so we don't have to cry again when WC comes around.

Coco is just too inflexible. If you want to read more bitching on this, check out my previous posts about him and Bielsa.

Early first half Maxi was the creative player in the midfield. When Mascher started going directly to Messi then obviously Messi was, and Maxi started disappearing...

Second half Messi was playmaker but was largely unsuccessful till Gago came on and started making long ground passes directly to the front. The early chance we got after the restart was from wingplays, which went through Zanetti, Maxi and Messi then went into the box and created a whole bunch of mess. It was fucking criminal for Insua to not score right there. He was literally 10 feet before the center of Norwegian goal, and no one was within a yard of him.

Asil said...

Rio,

Believe me, Arg will have no problem qualifying for WC. It's the WC that matters. We need a new and young blood here. WC is at different scale. Beating Arg is set in stone. Every team knows how to beat us. It's already in written manual. Yes, this lost is an encouraging sign. Keep losing, Basile will be gone for good!

Rio, thanks for the analysis.

Ken,

Welcome! I love this blog. Rio's analysis is fantastic! I don't comment much here, but I learn a lot. Hopefully, your great enthusiasm will blend nicely with Rio and this blog. I've lost my desire to participate in WC Team blog.

Cheers.

Anonymous said...

i didint get to watch this game because they didint show it :((
but thx for the insight and what went on in the game!

but seriously, if basile gets fired...who are you going to hire?? i dont think maradonna is worth the risk with all the talent you guys have.

Asil said...

Not sure who the coach would be, but I like a coach to have these general traits:

A coach who has flexible system:

- utilizing our talented players. It's not just talent, but the right combinations to create a great and flexible team
- to face different opponents, like a chess game
- that is unpredictable
- and understands the reality of modern games
- and a mind like Bilardo. Who studied and prepared a team. Without him, there's no Maradona, no WC 86 (can't forget how close we were in 1990)
- and has a goal to win WC 2010

Rio said...

Diego isn't the only choice, although I do think we need his charisma at times...

Asil gave a good suggestion. Bilardo is certainly willing to shoulder the responsibilities (asked for the job after pekerman's resignation), and he's in a position that could cope both with the technical think tanks in Argentina as well as upper officials in AFA and FIFA.

Anonymous said...

i can certainly relate to you guys in a lot of ways lol.

we needed a new coach after we(USA) stunk up the WC. we were in suppose talks with klinsman (who i really wanted) and another runner up was peckerman.

i really wanted a coach who can bring that euro/south american type of game and what do we get !!?!? another MLS coach !! i was soo pissed.

yesterday performance vs sweden was freaking horrible. his substitutions and line up was freaking horrible! it was essentially a 4-6-0!!!! GAHH IM PISSED!! SOWWYY FOR BRINGIN IT HERE I JUST NEEDED TO VENT!

maybe you guys can throw basile this way and we can all be happy! :D

Rio said...

I thought Bruce Arena was ok then he just fell apart in the WC.

Nepotism is like USMNT's hemroid. Perhaps what they really needed is indeed an outsider. Bora Milutinović successfully turned the team around, although he's not one that could go far in the tournament.

Or maybe I'm just talking out my my ass. I really don't know alot about the USMNT.

Anonymous said...

Rio,
Is preferential treatment by argentinean coach a problem for Argentina?

I am asking because I cannot believe that AIMAR is not part of Basile's squad.
Ken

Rio said...

By preferential treatment you meant ethnicity? I don't think that matters. By nepotism I meant players they're familiar with at club level.

There are black people and asians in Argentina, but there aren't a whole lot of them. Very few of them would make into professional football also due to their cultural background and career preferences.

Here's what I thought about Aimar. He's a different type of CAM, the more rapid kind. Since the players of this team don't know each other that well, it's hard for them to build up pace, and Aimar would of brought some composure, but probably wouldn't of done a whole lot better.

Again, the central issue is developing/searching for other playmaker options.

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