Oh I see..... your getting deep on this ethernal argentinian discussion Menotti-Bilardo thing.
I´m on Menotti´s side clearly and I strongly support coaches like Cappa or Borghi. You can win a game or two even if you play badly... but rarely the tournament.
This is our chance to play our best football and kick germans out of the tournament. Massi will have his desired game next saturday so Hiddy you can place your bets.

I dont disagree with you if you take the historical angle... years from now, nobody will remember who played well, its only the result that counts in retrospect.

On a disturbing side note... there was an interesting news piece on one of the morning radio talkshows today. It was an interview with a freelance journalist (from Argentina) that said that in informal and off the record talks with his various Argentine colleagues that are covering the WC, a vast mayority of them had confessed that they have very little hope that Argentina will be able to deal with Germany.... :(

Needless to say, the same guys that are in private confessing to this huge pessimism are very confident and upbeat when they give their new reports.... its clear that pessimism does not help the ratings, and any sports journalist that dares come out and predict a loss by Argentina would probably come under some intense heat when he came back to Buenos Aires....

These boards have witnessed all my anti-Maradona comments and sentiment from the first day he took office, and I still think that my reservations about Diego as a head coach are all still very much valid and justified... alas, in my heart I of course cant sweep away my being a fan of Argentina and really do want La Seleccion to win.... especially for guys like Tevez who I feel that is a great guy that has worked his arse off to get what he had and deserves a little piece of glory.... I hope that Carlitos, Lio Messi and the rest of the gang can perhaps rub off on some of the luck that Maradona seems to always have and somehow squeeze through on Saturday.

If given the chance, I would sign a tie after extra time and a win by penalities right this instant.... and I will throw in a few cases of Malbec as commision... :o :p :D

Que Dios te escuche.... ^

So this is it for me on this thread...... will not be back here until the result is official..... ^ :)

Yes I know you don't rate the guy but sometimes you don't have to be a great tactician or coach to get the best out of your team.
Argentina have actually done a lot better than I originally thought they would. Although I have to say that's probably more down to the other teams being pretty mediocre to be honest. Lets not forget Germany were bloody awful in their games in between their first win and the defeat of England so they're by no means consistent.
Having now seen the Germany - England game maybe I had previously given them too high a build up....that game could have turned out differently if the Germans hadn't had some very good fortune.
I'm actually quite confident that Argentina can get a result now even more so if the wrong Germany turn up. I think a game against England would have been tougher.

Brazil are just going through the motions without looking exceptional...God help anyone when they start to turn it on.....different class from the rest.

Keep in mind Germany had to play a man down on an awful send off to Klose against Serbia. In the England game, it might have been different had the goal been allowed but the Germans were running through the English midfield like it was the second coming or the Ardanne (sp?) so I think it would have just been a matter of time anyways.

I must not have hit 'post' yesterday but your thoughts on Argentina are basically what I was going to say. The way they struggled in qualifying made me not expect much from them but I think they've been a lot better than expected. There has been a lot of mediocrity too but I think the teams playing the best have started to appear here at the end.

Since we give any coach too much credit for a team melting down (except maybe France where it was well deserved) I think we need to give Maradonna at least a little credit for getting the team into form for the tournament. They might still be a mess for all I know sitting up near Canada, but their play on the field indicates they have at least put that stuff behind them up til now.

Yes they did struggle big time. I just wonder if it's because the majority of the team had to travel from Europe.....then again most players in the S America international teams have to do that.

Their big problem is the defence....however, as long as they score more than they let in who cares. Should they progress further I still think Brazil are their achilles heel.

And they are talented enough to score more than their weak defense could allow..I just still think if the defense is suspect the Germans will bounce them from the tournament.

Well,well,well, Brazil....my tip for the World Cup went out tamely today...what a bunch of over rated wussies. :td:

We think Argentinas defence is poor the Brazilian one was a shambles today and totally lost the plot in the second half.
Uruguay to be honest is a poor semi finalist and don't really deserve to be there....roll on tomorrow. Should be a interesting game.

I respectfully disagree. They were behind 1-0 even though they were clearly playing better during first half hour. They then and managed to come back and handled the pressure of the penalties better than Ghana did. It was a hard fought game and the Uruguay side were a bit luckier.

oh well...
 

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Fin
...

No point in trying to explain what went wrong.

Well and truly stuffed.

A very disappointing performance (by Argentina).

Condolences to Argentina. It proves my theory that any team without Ballack is better than a team with Ballack.

At least my Oranje polished off Brazil ^ X10