Group F: Argentina, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Iran, Nigeria

[social]

Reckon it's more a case of Argies only having one strategy i.e. give it to Messi

They have a couple of fine forwards apart from Messi and he might actually benefit if the opposition thought that they had to worry about someone else getting the ball

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Argentina have a decent midfield but none of them distribute the ball well. If they had someone like a Veratti or Xabi Alonso, who can hold the ball and move it with actual thought and purpose, they would be deadly. Mascherano is as subtle as a buzzsaw and Gago is rubbish.

 

[Spark]

Kinda disagree. It was the ONLY time in the match Messi was up against just one Iranian defender and not 2-3. Terrific strike though. He's been crap but produced two stunners to get Argentina through.

And Higuain is so ****ing overrated

Yeah I meant more once he got in position to strike - once the defence didn't push up and gave him a little space, they were boned

 

[Teja.]

Would it be fair to say Messi has already been the most important/influential player this WC despite a few others perhaps looking more impressive?

EDIT:- three floaty adjectives beginning with 'I', yaay.

 

[sledger]

Clint Dempsey imo.

 

[The Sean]

Marc Wilmots worth a shout.

EDIT - I now see you wrote "player" not "person" making my comment utterly irrelevant. As you were.

 

[Ikki]

Would it be fair to say Messi has already been the most important/influential player this WC despite a few others perhaps looking more impressive?

EDIT:- three floaty adjectives beginning with 'I', yaay.

No, I think he's been crap frankly. Goals of course are important but so are the other 89 minutes of a game. 5 more games though so he could still have a killer tournament.

As for Iran, interestingly enough if Iran win 1-0 and Argentina beat Nigeria 1-0; we'll be equal with Nigeria on all the tie-breakers and it will go down to Fifa drawing lots. Which I think is dumb. The least they could do is penalty shoot-outs or something.

 

[Burgey]

People still getting to their seats and it's 1-1 between Argentina and Nigeria after two minutes. Insane

 

[The Sean]

We've gone four minutes without a goal. This game's ****.

 

[Cabinet96]

Argentina have a decent midfield but none of them distribute the ball well. If they had someone like a Veratti or Xabi Alonso, who can hold the ball and move it with actual thought and purpose, they would be deadly. Mascherano is as subtle as a buzzsaw and Gago is rubbish.

Good point actually. Di Maria is pretty much just a wide man played deeper so they can fit all their forwards in. He's still good there because his dribbles cause havoc but he's a different type of midfielder. Madrid have Modric and Alonso so it doesn't effect them, but for Argentina it does.

 

[The Sean]

Messi. Rather good.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Two pretty great free kicks there.

 

[Uppercut]

Good point actually. Di Maria is pretty much just a wide man played deeper so they can fit all their forwards in. He's still good there because his dribbles cause havoc but he's a different type of midfielder. Madrid have Modric and Alonso so it doesn't effect them, but for Argentina it does.

I'm pretty sure he was originally a CM but Madrid turned him into a winger when he arrived. Feel like I read that somewhere. In any case he's better at CM.

 

[sledger]

Should have been saved. Goalkeeper totally did a Mark Butcher and lost concentration/flight of the ball there.

Yet again, more prank keeping. Don't recall having watched Enyeama before, but he's got a decent enough reputation, has looked suspect throughout and should have done better for both goals though imo.

 

[The Sean]

Should have been saved.

Yet again, more prank keeping.

I feel like we've said this, or statements like it, so often already in this World Cup that the sentiments are almost meaningless.

 

[sledger]

I feel like we've said this, or statements like it, so often already in this World Cup that the sentiments are almost meaningless.

Bad keeping when you see it en masse annoys me though, it really does stand out far more than crap defending or attacking. One off errors, even really bad ones, happen to even the best of players but what we've seen in this tournament is an epidemic of really poor performances. These are meant to be international footballers on display here, but a lot of the duffers we've seen would be substandard in the Championship.

 

[sledger]

It's interesting, but it seems to me that the majority of non-European teams are extremely suspect in terms of goalkeepers. Obviously there have been a few exemptions to this, and European teams have had some shockers as well, but is there any reason why so many of the non-European sides seem to have keepers that have been total garbage?

Just quickly off the top of my head, since it's half time at the moment, the amount of non-European keepers who have looked totally out of their depth is pretty high. Pretty much all of the African teams' keepers have been awful. The majority of South American teams' keepers have been questionable. Australia's keeper was hopeless. South Korea as well. Japan not great either...

 

[grecian]

This Tournament has been **** since England went out, it's a clear struggle for the teams to care when the founders of the game aren't in it.

Can't blame them.

 

[Tangles]

Mexican keeper was good yet Hart was poor. Casillas was lol. Howard been good for the US. A mixed bag. Definitely a lot of dodgy keepers though.

 

[The Sean]

Lovely goal from B&H - Pjanic is a bloody marvellous player IMO.

Iran done now, you'd think.