This is very true, as a fan who of course wants to see Messi and Ronaldo do well in their last world cup the last thing I wanted to see was Argentina get kicked in the group stages. Thankfully Messi did legendary things, that strike was world class and as you said gave Argentina the momentum to win the game.I will talk about Argentina's game and a bit about its situation after beating Mexico.
Argentina: after the game I was scrolling in twitter then I saw that a spanish commentarist said 'It wasn't a win for Argentina, it was an exorcism' and I think it's accurate. Argentina was playing against ghosts of the past, against the fear of being out of the World Cup so soon, and that clearly affected the game as we played poorly the first half. In the second half the coachs decided the game, Martino by retreating his team (mistake) and Scaloni by making some substitutions, all of which had a positive impact. Argentina still needed one more change: the mentality; then Messi appeared. The team needed the impact of a goal, and specifically a Messi goal, to start to believe again. After that Argentina improved a lot, and for that a player was key: Enzo Fernández. Enzo's level is ridiculous, his goal shows all his talent, he played like he's one of the best players of the world and maybe he is going to be up there. He should be starting the game against Poland.
As Scaloni always said, nothing has been won, the team still needs improvement and the game against Poland is still to be played, but like in the last Copa América, Argentina found answers in the crisis. Scaloni and Aimar almost crying after Messi's goal is enough to see how important, and needed, was this exorcism.
I think Iran might make it out to be quite honest, I still see a lot of opportunity for an Asian country to make it out.Korea is the 4th representative of Asia to lose in the 2nd round of the World Cup group stage
After round 1, I thought there was a lot of chance for Asian countries to make it through the group stage, but not anymore
U-S-A U-S-A U-S-A U-S-A U-S-A U-S-A U-S-A U-S-A U-S-A U-S-A U-S-A U-S-A U-S-A U-S-A U-S-A U-S-AIt’s been 8 years since the United States have lost a World Cup match
Shoutout to Tunisia they played fantastic, sucks that they're going out but that's football.heartbreaker for tunisia. after a solid performance this cup, doing their part and knocking off the (admittedly not full capacity) french, they're blocked out because the vaunted danes couldnt slip one goal against the ozzies when their lives depended on it.
oh yeah, the sexy finals pick danes flat out lost the group. that happened
props to australia though!
I didn't forget about you Drifting you might be onto something!#AustraliaSweep
if you mean this world cup, yes. Australia plays in AFC which stands for Asian Football Confederation... so yeah they're "asian" as far as the world cup is concerned, I guess.omggg congratulations Tunisia and Australia
Sorry for my stupidity: is Australia considered as the first Asian country that make it out of the group stage?
could consider banning 'noteworthy banned user' destinyunknown from that server, if true.
I agree, I think Álvarez as well was just getting cleared and had a lot of opportunities in front of goal, shockingly the better choice over Martinez. Definitely sad for Mexico, but they knew what the stakes were before the match today so they knew it might come down to this situation. I don't think this team has been Messi dependent maybe since 2014 but even then they relied on Di Maria A LOT. I do think the matchup is in their favor against Australia, France definitely wanted Argentina to win vs Poland lol, no one wants to play Argentina right now (too much firepower).ENZO IS WORLD CLASS. Poland were absolute trash, didn't deserve to go through, sad for Mexico that tried it so hard and scored two incredible goals (and they had one disallowed goal that should have been given)
Really solid performance from Argentina, proving the team isn't Messi-dependant, showing confidence again and dominating the 100% of the game. Argentina even tested some players and they did well. Julián was excellent, Alexis was excellent, Messi was great despite his finishing, Otamendi is being one of the best CBs in the tournament, Molina had a great performance too, etc.. Argentina was almost perfect. The only thing to consider is that it was against a really, really bad team, that proves (with Wales) that 13 teams from Europe is excessive. France will be happy ig.
Really sad for Tunisia :(
Well damn, I've been saying keep an eye on Morocco they are nothing to joke about. I knew they were going to get out of the group stages, I'm hoping they don't end up facing Germany but will see.I think Morocco are probably the dark horses of the competition