Bye-Bye Scotland
By: Jeremy | November 21st, 2008Looking back at the game, it seems clear to me that Scotland wouldn’t qualify for 2010 from South America. Argentina dominated them for the first 20-25 minutes of the game, and then dropped back into cautious mode.
To me the standouts were Maxi Rodriguez and Javier Zanetti. Zanetti is looking like an ageless wonder of the wing and Maxi was all over the place, including scoring the only goal.
I really was impressed with Emiliano Papa on the flank in his first international appearance. Heinze played his best game in a long time, but I wonder about him being there in 2010. I like him a lot, he is from Newell’s after all, and he is a warrior, but the skills aren’t consistently what they used to be. Moving to a 3-5-2 makes him the odd man out, I think? Then again, who replaces him? Demichellis looked shaky a good bit, although I think that flub to end the second half was partially Carrizo not communicating with him.
Gago and Mascherano looked great together in the midfield. And Maxi had to be the man of the match. I just wonder what happens when Riquelme is back? I think Gago is the casualty there, even in a 3-5-2. Then again, with someone as unpredictable as Diego, JRR may find himself playing a slightly different role, like actually running the whole time, or spectating a bit more.
Lavezzi didn’t help his cause any and Tevez looked a bit flat.
I’m not too excited, because the team still smacks of Basile, but it was a friendly and Diego definitely played for the safe win. I don’t think his first real team will resemble this one in name or hopefully in tactic and formation either. Certainly some hope for a bright future here.
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As a lifelong Scotland fan, I’d have to agree that we wouldn’t qualify for 2010 from South America. On our current form, we’ll be lucky to come in second in our UEFA group and have a play-in for a spot. But Argentina was a pretty unimpressive side in this match. After the first 20 minutes, they really did sit back, which was disappointing to the Scots who came to watch the style of Argentina. Frankly, if we went by the quality of this match alone, I’m not sure either side would progress to the World Cup. Good luck in the rest of the qualifiers.
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