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By ROB HUGHES
JOHANNESBURG
The more we see of Argentina, the more it becomes delightfully obvious that the only option under consideration is attack. The more the doubters question what Gonzalo Higuaín does apart from scoring goals, the more we should ask: What else does he need to do on this team?
Lionel Messi’s irrepressible skills make chances for him. Carlos Tévez provides the industry, running until he drops or the opponents all do. Substitutes of proven caliber, Sergio Agüero and Diego Milito, wait to be called off the bench. And all Higuaín does is score.
How silly that sounds. How reminiscent it is of Gerd Müller, the German who did nothing but score 68 goals in 62 international games between 1966 and 1974.
But although Müller was almost prevented from playing at the start of his career — when, in 1964, the president of Bayern Munich took one look at his short, squat physique and said, “I will never allow that horse, that bull, among our thoroughbreds” — Higuaín, 22, was in demand. He could have played at this World Cup for either Argentina or France.
His father, Jorge, was born in Argentina but happened to play for Brest, in northern France, the year Gonzalo was born. It lasted only one season, and the Higuaín family moved back to Buenos Aires. By birthright, Higuaín could have chosen to play for France; by parentage and upbringing, he is Argentine.
It was Raymond Domenech, the French coach, who first pursued the father to send his boy, known as Pipa, to France. But that was as far as it went.
“I suggested he goes and answer the French call,” Jorge Higuaín said. “But Pipa has other ideas in his head. I can’t drag him there.”
Gonzalo Higuaín was just 18. He knew that France had been down this path before, persuading David Trézéguet, the son of an Argentine, to become a Bleu. But the youth indeed had other things on his mind.
His goals for the River Plate club alerted those across the Atlantic to an emerging player who seemingly has had this talent from childhood of just scoring goals.
It’s an instinct, a knack of being in the right place, a gift that his father, a gritty defender, never had.
In 2006, Real Madrid won the auction for Higuaín, paying 13 million euros. River’s coach at the time, Daniel Passarella, a friend of Diego Maradona’s, gilded the lily by describing the prodigy as “a mix between Zinédine Zidane and Enzo Francescoli.”
Higuaín was never that. Those are two players who could be called princes of almost everything going forward from midfield. Higuaín could play deep, but Madrid knew what he was: the long-term replacement for the most consistent goal poacher in its history, Raúl González.
Nothing but a goal scorer.
It took Maradona, now the Argentina coach, a while to appreciate Higuaín’s unique skill. Despite his friendship with Passarella, and despite Higuaín’s hitting goal after goal after goal with Madrid, Maradona went almost to the wire in qualification before selecting Higuaín as his starter up front.
When it happened, with Argentina desperate at the end of the World Cup’s qualifying phase, Higuaín obliged with a winning goal against Peru. Since then, the superstitious Maradona has kept him in, despite the clamor that he go with Milito, a star for Inter Milan.
Having two hot strikers is a manager’s dream. But to start a game, Milito must wait until Maradona loses faith in Higuaín. What happened against the tenacious but outclassed South Koreans at Soccer City on Thursday was that Higuaín, waiting in the six-yard box and flirting with being offside, did his thing three times, with his head and his foot.
The critics who wanted him dropped after he missed chances against Nigeria last week are silent, at least for now. Higuaín is the first hat-trick man of this World Cup, the first at any World Cup since Portugal’s Pauleta in 2002, and the first Argentine to strike three times in a World Cup match since Gabriel Batistuta, in 1998.
The difference between the previous match, when he was criticized, and this one, for which he is lauded, is timing — and confidence. Scorers thrive on confidence, and for all that is said and written about Argentina’s coach, Maradona did resist the critics calling for him to leave out Higuaín and give the others a chance.
His answer now is that Higuaín has scored in three important matches and that he is learning where to position himself and wait for the magic of Messi to carve out the openings.
And then? Simple. Do nothing but score.
JOHANNESBURG
The more we see of Argentina, the more it becomes delightfully obvious that the only option under consideration is attack. The more the doubters question what Gonzalo Higuaín does apart from scoring goals, the more we should ask: What else does he need to do on this team?
Lionel Messi’s irrepressible skills make chances for him. Carlos Tévez provides the industry, running until he drops or the opponents all do. Substitutes of proven caliber, Sergio Agüero and Diego Milito, wait to be called off the bench. And all Higuaín does is score.
How silly that sounds. How reminiscent it is of Gerd Müller, the German who did nothing but score 68 goals in 62 international games between 1966 and 1974.
But although Müller was almost prevented from playing at the start of his career — when, in 1964, the president of Bayern Munich took one look at his short, squat physique and said, “I will never allow that horse, that bull, among our thoroughbreds” — Higuaín, 22, was in demand. He could have played at this World Cup for either Argentina or France.
His father, Jorge, was born in Argentina but happened to play for Brest, in northern France, the year Gonzalo was born. It lasted only one season, and the Higuaín family moved back to Buenos Aires. By birthright, Higuaín could have chosen to play for France; by parentage and upbringing, he is Argentine.
It was Raymond Domenech, the French coach, who first pursued the father to send his boy, known as Pipa, to France. But that was as far as it went.
“I suggested he goes and answer the French call,” Jorge Higuaín said. “But Pipa has other ideas in his head. I can’t drag him there.”
Gonzalo Higuaín was just 18. He knew that France had been down this path before, persuading David Trézéguet, the son of an Argentine, to become a Bleu. But the youth indeed had other things on his mind.
His goals for the River Plate club alerted those across the Atlantic to an emerging player who seemingly has had this talent from childhood of just scoring goals.
It’s an instinct, a knack of being in the right place, a gift that his father, a gritty defender, never had.
In 2006, Real Madrid won the auction for Higuaín, paying 13 million euros. River’s coach at the time, Daniel Passarella, a friend of Diego Maradona’s, gilded the lily by describing the prodigy as “a mix between Zinédine Zidane and Enzo Francescoli.”
Higuaín was never that. Those are two players who could be called princes of almost everything going forward from midfield. Higuaín could play deep, but Madrid knew what he was: the long-term replacement for the most consistent goal poacher in its history, Raúl González.
Nothing but a goal scorer.
It took Maradona, now the Argentina coach, a while to appreciate Higuaín’s unique skill. Despite his friendship with Passarella, and despite Higuaín’s hitting goal after goal after goal with Madrid, Maradona went almost to the wire in qualification before selecting Higuaín as his starter up front.
When it happened, with Argentina desperate at the end of the World Cup’s qualifying phase, Higuaín obliged with a winning goal against Peru. Since then, the superstitious Maradona has kept him in, despite the clamor that he go with Milito, a star for Inter Milan.
Having two hot strikers is a manager’s dream. But to start a game, Milito must wait until Maradona loses faith in Higuaín. What happened against the tenacious but outclassed South Koreans at Soccer City on Thursday was that Higuaín, waiting in the six-yard box and flirting with being offside, did his thing three times, with his head and his foot.
The critics who wanted him dropped after he missed chances against Nigeria last week are silent, at least for now. Higuaín is the first hat-trick man of this World Cup, the first at any World Cup since Portugal’s Pauleta in 2002, and the first Argentine to strike three times in a World Cup match since Gabriel Batistuta, in 1998.
The difference between the previous match, when he was criticized, and this one, for which he is lauded, is timing — and confidence. Scorers thrive on confidence, and for all that is said and written about Argentina’s coach, Maradona did resist the critics calling for him to leave out Higuaín and give the others a chance.
His answer now is that Higuaín has scored in three important matches and that he is learning where to position himself and wait for the magic of Messi to carve out the openings.
And then? Simple. Do nothing but score.