Argentina vs Greece

[MaNuMaNiAc]

at Maradona asking the press to apologize to the players for having doubted them...

dude is such a ing clown. He beats ing Nigeria, Korea and Greece and thinks he's somehow an accomplished coach. The only thing keeping me from giving my complete support to this team is the fact that this fat piece of is going to get most of the credit for its success.

Now, if Arg wins it all, I'll give Maradona his due as a coach no doubt he will have proven me wrong in that regard, but he'll still be a classless piece of crap whom I feel ashamed being represented by.

[ElNono]

at Maradona asking the press to apologies to the players for having doubted them...

dude is such a ing clown. He beats ing Nigeria, Korea and Greece and thinks he's somehow an accomplished coach. The only thing keeping me from giving my complete support to this team is the fact that this fat piece of is going to get most of the credit for its success.

Now, if Arg wins it all, I'll give Maradona his due as a coach no doubt he will have proven me wrong in that regard, but he'll still be a classless piece of crap whom I feel ashamed being represented by.

He already did better than Bielsa...

...just sayin'

[MaNuMaNiAc]

He already did better than Bielsa...

...just sayin'

No, he didn't. Bielsa faced a better Nigeria, a very good England, and a good Sweden team. You can't even compare the compe ion.

Bielsa is ten times the coach Maradona is.

[ElNono]

No, he didn't. Bielsa faced a better Nigeria, a very good England, and a good Sweden team. You can't even compare the compe ion.

We were stacked then too, and we supposedly had a 10x better coach. And Sweden was a fairly average team. They ended up getting kicked out in the round of 16 by no other than Senegal(!).

So, maybe this time the compe ion was not as good, but this team plays 10x much better soccer than that team.

Bielsa is ten times the coach Maradona is.

I actually agree with that. But I also think that the influence of the coach is highly overrated. Ultimately, it's the players that win or lose the games.

[ElNono]

I'll also add that so far Diego has done a very good job of keeping the team very motivated, and that he has been spot on with all the subs utions.

I'm sure there's plenty of people waiting in the wings to jump at him if Argentina flames out of the compe ion, but really, I can't even remember the last time an Argentina side was this exciting and dangerous. He's done a great job so far, IMO.

[MaNuMaNiAc]

We were stacked then too, and we supposedly had a 10x better coach. And Sweden was a fairly average team. They ended up getting kicked out in the round of 16 by no other than Senegal(!).

So, maybe this time the compe ion was not as good, but this team plays 10x much better soccer than that team.

I disagree, I think this team hasn't been tested yet, at all. Korea and Greece played defensive football that put little to no stress on our D. Better teams are going to abuse that weakness to death. We have a horrible defense and no apparent offensive scheme. We rely on individuality to penetrate defenses. That isn't going to fly against the teams like Brasil who have well rounded games. I see very little team game (today's bull procrastination passing against Greece doesn't count).

I actually agree with that. But I also think that the influence of the coach is highly overrated. Ultimately, it's the players that win or lose the games.

I disagree, and if there anything Maradona has that others might not is the ability to motivate. That's great and all, but a well motivated mess doesn't beat quality compe ion. I genuinely believe if we meet either Spain, Brazil, Holland or Germany we're in for a rude awakening.

[MaNuMaNiAc]

I'll also add that so far Diego has done a very good job of keeping the team very motivated, and that he has been spot on with all the subs utions.

I'm sure there's plenty of people waiting in the wings to jump at him if Argentina flames out of the compe ion, but really, I can't even remember the last time an Argentina side was this exciting and dangerous. He's done a great job so far, IMO.

Its only been 3 games against dismal compe ion! You can't seriously talk about excitement and danger when all you've beaten is a pussy ass Greek team that took absolutely no risks, a lackluster Korean team and very weak Nigeria team.

All I'm saying is the real compe ion lies ahead, and this team still has all the same problems it had when we started.

[ElNono]

We obviously are not going to agree. It's easy to say this and that rival was weak, but you still have to go out there, dominate, score the goals and win. Ask England if Algeria was a piece of cake. Ask Spain if Switzerland was a weak rival. Same with Portugal vs Ivory Coast, Germany vs Slovenia, heck, even Brazil vs North Korea...

Today's game was an aberration also because we played basically our B team. And I'm also a believer that Samuel is basically half of our defense.

I don't know what lies ahead. I'm sure we will be tested eventually by better teams, and I also already expressed that I would like to see this team's reaction when playing from behind. But up to this point, I don't know there's anything to be ing about as far as coaching goes.

[MaNuMaNiAc]

We obviously are not going to agree. It's easy to say this and that rival was weak, but you still have to go out there, dominate, score the goals and win. Ask England if Algeria was a piece of cake. Ask Spain if Switzerland was a weak rival. Same with Portugal vs Ivory Coast, Germany vs Slovenia, heck, even Brazil vs North Korea...

Today's game was an aberration also because we played basically our B team. And I'm also a believer that Samuel is basically half of our defense.

I don't know what lies ahead. I'm sure we will be tested eventually by better teams, and I also already expressed that I would like to see this team's reaction when playing from behind. But up to this point, I don't know there's anything to be ing about as far as coaching goes.

alright, how about we put this discussion on hold until after the quarter finals. I think by then we'll have a pretty good idea of what this team is or is not capable of. In the meantime we'll agree to disagree.

P.S. Don't get me wrong, as much as I dislike Maradona, I'm fully rooting for Argentina to win everything. I desperately want Maradona to prove me wrong. You won't find a happier dude out there if he does.

[ElNono]

We're on the same boat. And I was as much, if not more skeptic than you going into this thing. I'm not even a Boca fan or anything like that. I don't know how he did it, but he got Messi to be Messi, Tevez to give a , and basically everybody to buy into what he's selling.

Right now, I'll give him props for that. Basically because there was the possibility we could have been much, much worse. Bolivia-like worse.

We could flame out next game, and then we'll be back talking about what went wrong, Cambiasso, Zanetti, etc etc etc. We'll have to see.

[DAF86]

Now, thinking of the game against Mexico. I don't like Veron in a three men miedfield like ours and Clemente showed today that he deserves to start instead of Gutierrez.

My team:

Romero

Clemente Demic is Samuel Heinze

Rodriguez Mascherano Di Maria

Messi

Higuain Tevez

P/S: Pastore=crack, he should be our 12th man.

Maradona's supossed 11 against Mexico:

Romero

Otamendi Demic is Samuel Heinze

Rodriguez Mascherano Di Maria

Messi

Higuain Tevez

As you can see I would rather have Clemente instead of Otamendi but all in all I like this line-up. I kind of have the feeling that Maradona wasn't satisfied with the way the team played with Veron in there. I like the way Maradona is coaching during this WC.