Being a football aficionado I stayed up late this weekend to watch two of the much anticipated matches of Copa America Uruguay vs Argentina and Paraguay vs Brazil but at the start of the week all I was left with was disappointment and discontent. Uruguay vs Argentina one of the biggest rivalry in International football having played each other numerous times and having the honor to be called the original El Clasico was a lively match with Uruguay being victorious at the end of the game. Brazil vs Paraguay once the super power in World Football Brazil had lots of question to answer and lots of critics to prove wrong but they failed to do all this while Paraguay played like a unit and with the backing of Larissa Riquelme booked their place in Semis.
So here I am writing few points that I felt were responsible for the fall of the South American Giants:
Argentina
Throughout the tournament there was only one question that was being asked why is Messi not playing well? First of all I say Messi, be it his club Barcelona or Argentina he is a winner and gives 200% for all his matches. Second of all did the media or the critics or the fans ever thought the team has ten other players that they were actually ignoring a team might surely be built around a player but that player doesn’t make the whole team. Messi was magical in this tournament also but surely he is more amazing and untouchable when he plays for Barcelona why because he has Xavi and Iniesta to support him where as throughout the tournament I felt the mindset of the coach Batista seemed like oh don’t worry we have Messi we would surely win.
Did he care to see what was in his defense an ever injured Milito no doubt at one stage he was the best they had but come on you don’t win Cups thinking about your past laurels. Uruguayan striker Sebastian Abreu joked “if you want to stop Messi slaughter him” why he only spoke about Messi not Higuain not Di Maria not Aguero why because he knew that is how Argentina was playing.
Why to blame Messi or as a matter of fact why to blame Tevez some other day its possible that Messi would miss a penalty, it wasn’t the fault of La Albiceleste faithful who were impatient they have full right to be specially when you live in the country of world’s most talented and decorated players and still for the past 18 years haven’t seen a silverware return to your country. I solely and tactically blame El Checho for this failure.
A coach is not only supposed to be tactically strong and knowledgeable about the beautiful game he has to have a strong head to make correct decisions. How can you make the team believe in something when you yourself don’t believe in it? Everyone knows that Tevez is going through a bad patch of his career and Batista himself did not feel right to start with the Manchester City striker but he under the pressure of media and public did start with him what was he actually thinking it is not a trial and error round this has to be done before the tournament. El Checho was indecisive that he was just not able to make the right changes that would help the Argentinean side turn the tide around. While the world has been screaming Pastore’s name for his amazing performance for Palermo last season and every big club have been running for his signature and making Zamparini happy you decide to keep him to bench him and give him only 5-10 minutes of playing time.
I am not saying replace Batista but come on you belong to the country of Maradona one of the best of the best footballers I say the players the fans the country deserve much much better. Common no doubt you are an Olympic winning coach but you got to remember you replaced the best player of his time Diego Maradona and when you replace a man of his caliber the benchmark is raised to another level. No doubt that team under Maradona was erratic scoring 10 goals and conceding only two in four matches and then there match against Germany they were crushed 4-0. But what different situation is Argentina football right now there is no goals no free flowing game no beauty and at the end no silverware either.
It was very beautifully quoted by Daniel Edwards in his article, he quoted the words of respected Pagina 12 journalist Ariel Greco "The word failure has been bastardised in the world of football... but for this year's Copa America participation no other adjective fits,"
Brazil
Almost every time they play its expected that they would win and all this because of the standard they have achieved they might be the only team which plays to the beats of Samba music and when they score they show the world the Samba dance. But it was disappointed to see the standard they achieved throughout the tournament in short all they displayed was a dismal performance. I remember watching Brazil’s first match against Venezuela which all pundits had declared to be a goal rout turned out to be a nil nil draw. What I felt seeing that match if given a chance Julio Cesar would forget his goalkeeping and would want to try his luck in scoring a goal. It seemed everyone had forgotten their role the calmness and stability was up in the air. Andre Santos and Dani Alves as if had forgotten what amazing in Box crosser they are and all they knew was how to shoot long range shots if they could have hit them a bit harder would surely have had reached the space.
And that’s what has been happening throughout the tournament every player on the field has a defined and designated role but it was sad how bad Brazilian players memory have been in the past week. The composure to make magic on the field seemed like a long lost past the midfield was in a disarray with Ganso being the only shining star defense was scattered with age showing in Lucio and for god sake where is the era of Claudio Taffarel gone can someone please go ask Julio Cesar to take some rest he must be tired from diving over the ball. Players like Kaka and Ronaldinho were hugely missed and that was made clear by the crowd when they were chanting Kaka’s name these are the mould of players who serve goals for the striker to finish that connectivity from midfield to strikers were just not there.
Average price tag on the available strikers in starting 11 must be around 40 million at the same time average age was 22 years come on you can’t expect them to shine just like that even if they might be an important member of their club. Give them some friendlies, let them feel the heat of the crowd, let them learn to handle pressure for god sake don’t hurry their development. And it was a howler of a mistake not to select talented Hulk in the squad he has the experience and talent that Pato and Neymar really lack. One thing that really struck to my mind was the new generation of Brazilian players lack physical presence. Players like Cafu, Ronaldo & Roberto Carlos are the players with talent muscle strength and speed which is a deadly combo to bring any opponent to your feet. If they want to do something in 2014 home World Cup they better starting building and joining the dots right away because there is still a lot of work left.
If in few words I could sum up Brazil’s performance it would be lack of experience, lack of player’s knowledge to the coach, lack of creativity (beating a defender is not creativity), lack of mental (inexperience) and physical toughness, lack of combinational play, lack of Kaka or Ronaldinho (Ganso is just half of them when it comes to talent), lack of good defensive combination (Dani and Maicon are best but who to choose) and in shorter words these players just could hear the SAMBA tune. Please don’t forget to ask Cesar to take rest I know I am being rude but really really disappointed with him.
And I almost forgot yes the pitch at La Plata was really bad but tell me something if Brazil knew this why in the world they didn’t finish the match in 90 minutes or why in the world each player coming to the spot was taking such long run-ups. Where there is a will there is a way, so stop crying and please everyone out there wants to see the Brazilian magic flow with the hint of Samba dance football style involved.
ON THE SAME NOTE I WOULD LIKE TO TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO GIVE A STANDING OVATION TO MUSLERA AND VILLAR TO SHOW THE SPIDERMAN 3 AND 4 MOVIE AND PLEASE FROM MY SIDE I REQUEST THE URUGUAYAN AND PARAGUAYAN BOARD TO ALLOW THEM TO PLAY WITH SPIDERMAN DRESS IN THE NEXT MATCHES THEY CAN FLY WITHOUT THE WEBS ALSO AND HAVE REFLEXES WHICH IS NOT FROM THIS PLANET.
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