Finally, after 24 years of long wait, the national football team of a country that loves the game to the point of obsession enters the semi-finals of the World Cup. It was in 1990 World Cup in Italy that Argentina’s favourite son, Diego Maradona carried his team all the way to the final at Rome, till the whole thing ended in nationwide tears against old enemy West Germany. Maradona’s career and life went downhill from there, and Argentina’s football fortunes too have suffered a similar fate. While the country continues to produce some of the best footballers in the world, their performances on football’s biggest stage, the World Cup, for the past 24 years have left the entire nation often on the brink of depression.
But with the world’s current greatest footballer and Argentina’s new favorite son, Lionel Messi leading the way, it seems good times are here again. That the quarter final match against Belgium finished only 1 – 0, does a huge disfavor to the way Argentina completely dominated Belgium, making the match seem much closer than it really was. For some inexplicable reason, the Belgium’s national football team froze on the biggest stage against their powerful opponents.
Belgium, to be honest were never really in the match. It was obvious to one and all how much the Argentinean players wanted to win, how desperate they were to win. Did the Belgian players also want it the same way? Compared to the intensity shown by the Argentine players, the Belgians looked pedestrian at best. Belgium has a bunch of very talented and skillful young footballers who play for some of the best clubs in Europe, but they are not much of a team.
At no stage did the Belgian players play as though they were part of a cohesive unit, or a team. It was as though the Belgians were less than the sum of their parts. There was hardly a strategy in place, no period of prolonged possession of the ball, just individual displays of skill with each player doing his own thing, following his own strategy.
For instance, let’s look at the way the Belgians handled Messi. Lionel Messi has been routinely man-marked by all the opposition teams in this World Cup, with one or even two defensive players working extra hard with the sole objective of denying Messi the space to create his magic. It’s another thing that this strategy hasn’t been particularly successful as Messi has single-handedly won the last 4 matches for Argentina. But that’s beside the point.
Against Belgium, Messi would have thought that Christmas had come early, such was the amount of space the Belgians were giving away freely to Messi to play his natural attacking game. Maraoune Fellaini, who was supposed to man mark Messi, was far too busy playing center forward to care. There was only Alex Witsel to act as the sole defensive midfielder, with both Fellaini and Kevin De Bruyne showing little interest in defending. For the first time in this tournament, Messi had the freedom to roam as he pleased.
But the most influential player of the match was not Lionel Messi for a change. Gonzalo Higuain, the tall Argentine center forward, was by fair distance the best player on the pitch. Higuain is often criticized by the Argentine press for not being effective enough and a lot of fans consider him to be overrated. But the Argentine manager, Alejandro Sabella has always been quick to defend him and stood by him like a rock. Last night, Higuain justified his manager’s faith in him.
Higuain scored the only goal of the match in the 8th minute. The move was started by Messi who dispossessed Belgium captain Vincent Kompany, went on a little run before passing the ball to Angel Di Maria. Di Maria’s shot was deflected by a Belgian defender into Higuain’s path, and the Argentine striker scored a classical center forward’s goal, instinctively shooting at the ball and placing it perfectly beyond the reach of Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, who didn’t even try to stop it. It was a great goal, one of the best goals by a center forward that one is likely to see.
But Higuain had more in store, making numerous attempts at goal, one of which was quite special, as he ran towards the goal from the halfway line, beating Vincent Kompany and taking his shot, only to see it miss the goal narrowly by hitting the top bar of the goal post. Higuain’s performance was the best that this World Cup has seen so far from a center forward.
Next, Argentina play Holland in the semi-final in a match that every football fan in the world is looking forward to. It is a match between two equally strong formidable rivals with contrasting styles. Argentina will be without the services of their most influential winger Angel Di Maria though, because of a hamstring injury sustained by him early in the match against Belgium. However, there is a good possibility that ace striker Sergio Aguero may stage a comeback as he has been training recently for the first time after his injury in the group matches and there is a slight chance that he may be fit for the semi-final against Holland.
