Mexico proved a lot...

Well, here I am writing about the Argentine team again. What happened? When up against the Ivory Coast and Serbia and Montenegro, Argentina shone. When they tied with no goals against Holland, we knew that there was no need to win because they were going to be first in their group. Both teams played at about 60-70 percent of their total potential. When playing against Mexico, in the knock-out round (if you loose, you are out of the tournament), I expected Argentina to play at 100 percent and beat Mexico 3-1. My estimates aren’t usually too far off (I can usually tell who is going to win at least), but I started doubting my skills when Argentina and Mexico were neck to neck for most of the game. Even though Argentina played better, Mexico did make them pay dearly (more on this later). Everybody says, “Oh, the referee was against my team.” Maybe, but what about the fouls that were called for Mexico while the Argentine players were being kicked? What about on the 89^th minute when the linesman called a non-existent off sides on Carlitos Tevez (who by the way, in my opinion, could have made the goal)? *sigh* If only the refs were perfect. This Friday, when Argentina plays against local team Germany, they had better play like they did against Serbia and Montenegro…fast, short passes. I can’t stand watching teams kick it and “try” to have a player get it. I think that using the whole team makes for a good foundation, causing players to have to run less. Ah yes, about Argentina having to pay dearly for their game against Mexico… Because they were tied at the final 90 minutes, a 30 minute over time was needed to decide the victor (if at the end of the two 15 min. halves no team has scored, penalty kicks are executed). Soccer players are used to running 90 minutes (very few games are played where penalty kicks are needed), so when Argentina had to play 30 minutes more, it was grueling on their bodies. The Mexican players have the rest of the tournament to rest, but the Argentines have to be recuperated by Friday to face Germany, the host team. Thankfully, Pekerman (Argentines head coach) put in Tevez, Messi, and Aimar in to rest the starters. Let the best team win next Friday…and let the best team be Argentina!