Can you imagine Arg with Tevez and Messi?

[Stonigut]

I thought that Args weakness would have been on the d side but that actually was much better than I could ever have imagined, they abandoned their trademark diagonal style game and if Tevez was playing with Messi it would probably have been a different kind of cup.

Who in the world is lavezzi??? How did higuain make the team, I can't think of anything good that he did, and I like Aguero but he is way too much of a slickster to play argentina ball.

They made a big mistake not taking the little bull Tevez, argentina played like it was Italy not Argentina.

Well I guess they payed the price for leaving the heart and soul of the team at home.

[Peter R]

I thought Lavezzi was good, worked hard but in the end made little impact. Higuain blew his chance(s) when he got them, but scored a couple goals...and in a tournament any number of goals you score counts for something I guess.

Sabella looks like he wouldn't know how to deal with Tevez

[Peter R]

I just checked and Lavezzi had only one assist. Argentina had trouble scoring goals, only eight in open play (not counting the penalty shootout with Netherlands) in seven matches.

Higuain had only one goal and one assist.

You're right, these guys under-performed badly (in terms of their output).

[Assasin]

you think there is a reason they left Tevez???

Seems like it was either him or Messi.

[Gamma]

i think so too. they may not have reached as far with them both...

[Rockman]

I think the decision was Aguero over Tevez.
Agentina should've never left home without Tevez.He is a one man army,Argentina did not have a player upfront that was anything close to being a game changer.His WC stats are not much different from forwards on team Argentina.

[Muadib]

Di Maria was enough.. Zee Jarmans lucky him was out...

[Zeppo]

It made perfect sense to leave Tevez at home, and this article does a great job explaining why:

Lionel Messi's Argentina better for Carlos Tevez absence

[Stonigut]

That article was written before the cup and the results of Argentina's matches showed us they had a hard time trying to score. Leaving Tevez and bringing higuain, lavezzi made little sense. Tevez is an unusual and highly talented player and even though his argentina stats don't show so well, the cup offers a unique moment for stars to catch fire and burn brilliantly, argentina denied us a chance to see the man that would make me root for argentina instead of against them, but so it goes. They paid the price.

[Zeppo]

That article was written before the cup

Exactly. And you're using hindsight now to try and make your case.

As the article points out, Argentina started playing much better after they dropped Tevez. Not to mention his poor international scoring rate (13 goals in 64 games) didn't work in his favor. And the fact that none of his team-mates wanted to put up with the way he complains to the press when he doesn't get to play in the position he prefers -- the kind of thing that is cancerous when a coach needs to maintain team unity during a tournament.

Higuain and Lavezzi may have underperformed, but they both were coming off of very strong seasons with their respective clubs, so it made perfect sense to take them.

[Karl]

I thought that Args weakness would have been on the d side but that actually was much better than I could ever have imagined, they abandoned their trademark diagonal style game and if Tevez was playing with Messi it would probably have been a different kind of cup.

Who in the world is lavezzi??? How did higuain make the team, I can't think of anything good that he did, and I like Aguero but he is way too much of a slickster to play argentina ball.

They made a big mistake not taking the little bull Tevez, argentina played like it was Italy not Argentina.

Well I guess they payed the price for leaving the heart and soul of the team at home.

Argentina has been referred to as The Italy of S. America.

[Stonigut]

Hindsight, what the hell you talking about. I said this before the World Cup as well. Tevez should have been on that side, politricks is the only reason he was not on the side. Hugain and lavezzi are not in tevez's class and he has the long track record to prove that, literally everwhere he had played. International ball is sporadic and abbreviated, very tough to judge and competition level across friendliest and real competition is just not measuring apples to apples.

[Stonigut]

That is from a high culture standpoint, those who want to be European and there are a lot of them in Arg, typically not the football set and certainly not the lot from where Tevez is from.

[Stonigut]

Ok so here are the most recent stats of the arg forwards.
Higuain 1 goal in last six matches. 16.6%
Messi 5 goals in ten matches 50%
Lavezzi 2 goals in 12, 16.6%
Tevez 5 goals in last twelve arg games 40%
Aguero 7 of 13 roughly 54%

Those are the most recent stats only Aguero and Messi ahead of Tevez in recent arg games so international record is not an issue, plus one of the last international tournaments won by arg Tevez was the star, Olympic gold in 2004. They won again in 2008 with Messi, Aguero and mascherano.

[Willi]

So Spain not Europe too?

They say Argie is a country of Italians who are wannbee Brits who think they live in Paris and think they speak Spanish.