Football News

sandy (India)

Posted on 10/1/2012 at 10:14 AM 0 We can either play beautiful game without much emphasis on tactics, or tactical game ignoring beauty. Often these two go together. Under Sabella, just like under Mardona, we can't find either of these. No stylish play, no tactical excellence. Argentina now plays ugly football (I am sorry to be so harsh). But that doesn't mean that we are playing excellent tactical game. We need quality players to play tactical game or beautiful game. Without quality players, there will be no beauty and no tactical perfection. This is what is happening under Sabella! His poor team selection is killing both.

Jack! (United States)

Posted on 10/1/2012 at 1:48 AM 0 Jesus, Trini, paragraphs my friend! Paragraphs, lol.

Trini Pupi (Trinidad And Tobago)

Posted on 10/1/2012 at 1:46 AM 4 sigh i miss those days. I have to admit our ability from top to bottom was excellent. Our possesion game was way more entertaining to watch than spain is now. After Basile left....it was all downhill from there. Alot of people dislike him for whatever reason. But with the exception of the Copa America Loss...argentina played extremely well. In fact if Brazil didnt play thuggish voiolent counter football(like we play now). We would have had another trophy. I think people judged him way to harsh. The development programme as i stated before died..when pekerman and eventually tocalli etc left. The damage Maradona did was way beyond the results but the spanner he threw into what was a beautiful development system. I am amazed how the AFA were quick to discard such a system and not even hire someone of equal in terms of philosphy of pekerman. WHen players reach the national team Sabella has to help mould them...before (Pekerman era) this wasn;t necessary the transition was so smooth. People forget how young aimar,saviola,d allesandro and everyone around that era just slipped into the nationally team smoothly. When i say pekerman era i dont mean just when he coached but when he took over development yeaaaaars before his appointment as head coach. That man was responsible for Argentina's youth dominance and our system being respected. Despite just winning olypmpics the national team peformed amazing. Reaching 3 finals i believe Olympics (won), Copa America, Confed cup. Dominated the youth levels. After 2006 the remnants of that system carried us on up until 2008 and then eventually burned itself out when maradona came. Sigh i am rambling i am just remebering a time when things looked so progressive for argentina. Alot of people (not all) don't know about this aspect of argentina's game and that Argentina struggling has alot to do with this. Diego i love you as a player..but the damage he did to argentina was large than what people thought. Only now we have a *Coach* but its a far cry from how things were years ago. The sad thing is...argentina is in the state it is in not because of the lack of skillfull players/technical ability but a structured system. I am a big critic of Sabella but i also sympathize with him, Alot of people sit here and just call out squads etc and thing its just that. He inherited a team and a system(AFA) that was in utter chaos. Batista despite the very obvious immaturity as a coach still mananged to do ok. Anyone who thought he was the answer had to be crazy. He meant well just was not competent/experienced enough to get it done. I read his proposal and it was a very exciting one, but football is cruel and immediate results are what matter. Losing the copa america the way we did at home was just never going to be in his favour. Lol sorry for the long post guys ....lol

Rasikaya (Sri Lanka)

Posted on 10/1/2012 at 1:34 AM 0 Some questions for you guys. We all have seen our style of football with Sabella.Is there a playstyle/tactical setup which can undone us?If so what should we do to overcome such situations(tactical setup+player qualities required)? According to the current selected squad do we have a chance to play a different type of game than what we were playing?Is there a room for surprises? What would be the best style of play for us considering tactics of coach,players we hav got,opponents strategy etc?

Leandro (United States)

Posted on 9/30/2012 at 11:57 AM 0 @Vik, thats what I am thinking. We have plenty of talent up front, good talented defensive midfielders and not a lot of mature midfield talent (this can be argued ofcourse), so I am all for playing 'catenaccio' with this team. If we park the bus, defend tight, all of our players, including the most caveman amongst the group (Zabaleta, Rojo, Sosa) are all still decently skilled enough to surprise us. In a dead locked game I trust that our forward line will out score any other team.. so long as the back line holds.. so lets put up the walls and play surgical counter attaking futbol. All I ask sabella is 1 more semi offensive player in his squads (ie, Sosa for Min~o)

vik (United Kingdom)

Posted on 9/30/2012 at 5:07 AM 0 i miss the tiki-tiki but as we have been away from the podium for such a long time i dont care how we do it anymore! @jack! love the analogy about the beautiful women! my take is though if she is beautiful she is usually dead rubber in the sack! however its always the ugly bird that produces the goods when it matters! as the stakes are usually against them getting laid in the first place! a bit like the NT team at the mo! if the stakes are against us due to our but ugliness in defending? - who knows we might pull a few tricks out-of-the-bag when it matters!!!!

GAB (Australia)

Posted on 9/30/2012 at 2:28 AM 0 Surely the 25 passes in the Arg v Serbia game of the 06 world cup personifies tiki tiki football at its best, so I why isn't there a clip of that? Martin Tyler said it perfectly - "That is one of the all-time great World Cup goals" Still get goose-bumps watching that one

Mik (United Arab Emirates)

Posted on 9/29/2012 at 10:49 PM 0 Thats an excellent Point @kenneth we seems to nowadays comeback even from a goal down recent matches shows it against Peru,Columbia,Brazil. That also can be credited to Sabella. No matter howmany great players have no team cant expect them to be always be on lead sometimes teams will concede what matters is need to have that will power to comeback, If we get desperate to comeback then it becomes more and more tuff, Barca does it somany times by just simply playing their own style even in the dyeing minutes even if a goal down. They r so confident in their system there is no panic. Glad to see we have improved after somany years. We may have to face situations like that at WCs.

Kenneth (United States)

Posted on 9/29/2012 at 6:10 PM 0 Something i've noticed under Sabella which we did not have in recent years, is that Argentina seem to be able to come back and win, we never had a good record from being down a goal and coming back to win it. Example in the world cup Argentina has never won a game when trailing in the 1st half. To be honest it feels as if Argentina is one of the few counties that stay true to their style, i mean this Tiki Tiki that we apply has come a lot ( 2006 world cup 35 touch goal vs serbia y montenegro) even now, like against Germany (where we won 3-1 a couple of months ago) We were able to hold the ball without giving it to them for the last 5 minutes (when we were winning 3-1 so it didn't matter) It seems as if Argentina only plays this style when we are winning.

GAB (Australia)

Posted on 9/29/2012 at 5:38 PM 0 I agree with you Jack - I'll take an ugly win over a beautiful loss any day. For too many decades we have played beautifully only to get knocked out at the Qtr final stage. So I'm interested to see where playing ugly gets us in the next world cup At least when we play, it's not totally ugly. There are some moments of beauty mixed in. And Jack, send those beautiful Cali women my way bud if you don't want them :)

Mik (United Arab Emirates)

Posted on 9/29/2012 at 4:34 PM 0 Owww its TIKI TIKI I didnt read it properly, I havent heard that frankly I have heard CREOL STYLE some where. And I guess i dont agree with "when you win ugly, you end up beautiful" the biggest example is Chelsea last year even though they won by Ugly they didnt end up Beautiful. Its just like say - Ugly is Ugly. Ugly Cant be Beautiful :P Hehe. Confusing logic. But never mind We have to Win This time someway because its been very long time we all been waiting for the Glory.A Nation is been Waiting peoples around the world is waiting, And i m sure with players we have we will never Play UGLY like Chelsea. I think Sabella is That type of coach not to slashy but may be effective.

Jack! (United States)

Posted on 9/29/2012 at 3:37 PM 1 Yes, Tika Taka is a term for the Spanish style of play, but we call it Tiki-Tiki. And yes, I would rather play ugly and win then play beautiful and lose. Hell, look at 82 Brasil side, played some of the best futbol you ever seen, and what an amazing team they had and yet they did not win the WC, Rossi hitting them for 3 goals. You want to be considered a beautiful loser? Or an ugly winner? (No jokes on a ugly loser). And trust me, when you win ugly, you end up beautiful. It's like having a beautiful woman, who you spend all your money on and show her the world. But then she breaks your heart leaves you with nothing. Or you meet an average looking woman, who doesn't want anything but to show you love and happiness. I'll take the beautiful woman who leaves with ME NOTHING but memories! haha, just kidding! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder! When you win, it doesn't matter, it's a beautiful thing.

Mik (United Arab Emirates)

Posted on 9/29/2012 at 3:21 PM 0 Well we were the First to usually play the Most beautiful Football thats why Argentina have the most Fans all around the world. Spain only recently started it but they seems to be borring at times.For Argentine players these skills come Naturally talented its in their genes.But were as some other nations they r teached to do it there is a difference btwn both. And I think ours was not called TIKI TAKA. TIKI TAKA is a term came recently only. Any way its the most beautiful football style ever.Its unfortunate to see that during that Golden Generation of players we didnt win anything. Now we r nowere ner these obviouslly different coach different tactic lets see if we can Win something by not playing Beautifully.

Jack! (United States)

Posted on 9/29/2012 at 2:55 PM 0 Coco came from the school of Menotti. In Argentina you are either from the school of Menotti or Bilardo.

Johnny (Thailand)

Posted on 9/29/2012 at 2:30 PM 0 I believe that 2007 clip was the NT under Coco. Too bad what happened with Coco. I guess he got too old for the game, but my favorite Argentine football personality.