Inna lillahi wa inna ilaehi rajihun. In the early ours of yesterday, I lost my immediate younger brother, Babatunde Muhammed Bello, to the cold hands of death. He fought vigorously against cancer for a year but Allah does as He wills.
sou acompanhador assíduo de marcelo bechler há anos e posso afirmar com tranquilidade
SEMPRE falou bem do cristiano, reconheceu o jogador ABSURDO DE JOGADOR que ele é, só que tem um pequeno detalhe: ele acha o Messi melhor.
e aí dá pra entender.
chegamos no calcanhar de Aquiles do gajo.
onde a insegurança sempre bateu mais forte.
nada de novo sob o sol.
🙏🙌
😂🇵🇹 Cristiano Ronaldo: “On a flight, I knew one of the flight attendants was Argentine. Just by the way he looked at me. I told him 'I know you're Argentinian”.
“You looked at me and looked away quickly, you don't like me...'. But my wife is Argentine, don’t worry. It was funny.” 😁🇦🇷
Enough is enough. We’ve reached a point where it feels like anything people say about Argentina will go viral. No one can convince me that everything I’m seeing isn’t driven, at least in part, by chasing engagement.
It’s somehow Argentina’s fault that a clear penalty wasn’t given to them tonight, but no one wants to talk about that because it doesn’t generate interactions.
It’s Argentina’s fault that Portugal didn’t finish top of their group, and that neither Uruguay nor Spain managed to beat Cape Verde.
It’s Argentina’s fault that people keep spamming Messi’s out-of-context tackle against Algeria, while much harsher challenges have gone unpunished throughout this World Cup.
It’s Argentina’s fault that a Cape Verde player dove when Paredes didn’t even touch him, but that doesn’t fit the narrative people want.
We’ve seen terrible VAR decisions and far more controversial incidents throughout this World Cup, yet they barely get any attention because they don’t involve Argentina.
Everything is Argentina’s fault. I've never seen anything like this.
This Argentina World Cup they’re tryna script up is nasty work, big respect Messi for still delivering at this age OG but… the bracket draw, the officiating, the lil dirty tricks only Argentina get away with, we’re not stupid nor are we blind. France pls save us.
The good thing about this Cape Verde performance is that they have given every remaining team a template for slowing down Messi and Argentina’s attack.
The key is to deny Messi access to Zone 14. They constantly crowded the central space in front of the box, blocked passing lanes into his feet, and forced Argentina to circulate possession into wider, less dangerous areas. Once Messi couldn’t receive between the lines facing goal, Argentina lost a lot of their creativity and became far more predictable.
Scaloni’s system is designed to maximize Messi in those central pockets, so if you can cut off that supply, you naturally reduce Argentina’s chance creation. The only thing is that, that committing so many bodies centrally leaves you vulnerable elsewhere. You need exceptional defensive discipline, compactness, and intensity for 90 minutes because one lapse is all Messi needs.
The blueprint is there now. The question is whether stronger teams can execute it while still carrying enough attacking threat to punish Argentina in transition.