Scaloni's gamble was to bet completely on the veteran core, rather than renewing the squad with Paz, Barco etc
From the perspective of unity and grit, it got them to the final. But from a football perspective, they became a shadow of the brilliant team of the last 6 years.
Always Messi.
I promise you this isn't normal. He’s not supposed to be doing this at 39 years old.
They’re not just goals, which, by the way, is his 8th of the tournament, it’s also the weight of those goals.
Where would ARG be without him? #Argentina
Here’s my negatively charged USMNT post-mortem:
I’ve seen the USMNT crash out of many tournaments but this was the most painful and it will take longer to get over.
The 1st and 3rd goals simply cannot happen at this level. Those mistakes transcend any technical or tactical analysis. For that to happen in the biggest game of these players’ lives…
Of course I can say this in hindsight, but all the noise around the game was UNHELPFUL. I think Balo’s red card was the wrong decision but the momentum behind the team was still at an all time high.
The administration getting involved over something with little material impact on the pitch has turned out to be a disaster, a common occurrence when non-soccer people get involved in soccer. That created the momentum behind a Belgium that were completely out of sync up until that point.
The sheer amount of technical errors in that game on the ball was bizarre, it’s impossible to know the cause but I assume something psychological. Basic actions you’d expect players to execute 9/10 times.
My cynical view is that performance undid a lot of the good about the tournament thus far. It was diabolically bad.
I will be ruminating about this for a while.
Estas son las facetas antipáticas de Cristiano. Primero, parece atribuirse solo a él la Euro 2016 cuando miró la final desde el banco, sin ser nada decisivo. Después, dice que vale lo mismo que un Mundial, cosa que todo el planeta sabe que no es así, por lo que intenta salvar su sueño frustrado con una mentira. Y, finalmente, algo que no dice pero que también lo sopapea: la mejor actuación de Portugal en Mundiales fue en 1966, mucho antes de que él naciera. Es decir, no logró superar a Eusebio y compañía, a pesar de contar con 6 oportunidades. Grandeza evidente adentro de la cancha, mediocridad y autoengaños afuera. Triste
This generation of USMNT has a fatal flaw:
Mentality.
They are soft, entitled, naive. It’s been clear for years. They showed it again tonight on the biggest stage. It was embarrassing. It should be embarrassing. They should get no excuses.