Football International Friendly: Japan vs. Argentina – Match Preview
As the club games are off because of international duty, all the players are ready to play for their national team. While the European countries are busy facing each other to qualify for the Euro 2014, the South American countries are busy playing international
friendlies. However, not all of them are going to face “each other,” in fact some of them are going to face African or Asian teams to test the “team chemistry” of their national side.
Today, Japan is going to face Argentina in a friendly match in their home ground in Tokyo. Argentina had a very “bad” FIFA World Cup 2010 campaign. Even though the South Americans had great players in their team, the coach totally failed to deliver. The
former Argentinean captain and legend of the South American team, Diego Armando Maradona tried to win it for his side by deploying great strikers, but he forgot to take players that were most important to the team; players like Javier Zenetti and Esteban Cambiasso.
These players meant a lot to the team and they were still not given the importance that was required and during the tournament it was seen that Mascherano was simply outnumbered in the midfield, as he was the only one midfielder supporting all the strikers.
The defensive side of the South American team was also very weak, as they didn’t have a good right back and they played the Newcastle midfielder, Gutiariz as a full back. The team kept on failing miserably on the right flank even though Lionel Messi was
playing on his favourite right flank; however, he did not play as a winger but as a play maker in the midfield.
Even though the Argentineans were not very strong in the defence, they still had a great attacking force including Lionel Messi, Carlos Tevez, Gonzalo Higuain, Angel Di Maria, Kun Aguero, Diego Milito and also Sebastian Veron included in the team.
After Argentina’s failure during the FIFA World Cup 2010, the coach had to be replaced, as Diego Maradona was taken off from his duties as the manager of the Argentinean national team. Argentineans lost the match against the Germans in a pre quarter final
match. The loss was not the problem, but the 4-0 humility that the Europeans handed the South Americans with was definitely the problem.
The Argentineans did manage to make an impressive comeback when they faced North Ireland later on. Even though the goal they scored was an offside goal by the upcoming youngster Angel Di Maria, they still won the game 1-0 to show the world that they weren’t
out of form yet.
Later, they had to face Spain in a friendly match as more than 8 Barcelona players were to feature during the match. Lionel Messi was to stand against his own club team mates as Argentina collided with the FIFA World Cup 2010 champions, Spain.
The Spanish side were not playing their “full strength” but still the players that featured were strong. On the other hand, the newly assigned Argentinean coach played the strongest side available. The match was simply one sided as the Argentineans totally
destroyed the European and World Champions as they thrashed them 4-1 with the first goal coming from the best player in the world, Lionel Messi as he chipped the ball over Pepe Reina.
On the other hand, the Japanese side was criticized throughout the World Cup for keeping a defensive stance and besides the criticism, the blue Samurais managed to reach the pre quarter final stage where they suffered a loss against Paraguay.
Both the teams feature good players and the newly assigned Japanese coach is definitely going to try to impress in his first game with his team. On the other hand, Baptista is going to try to prove a point why he is the best for the South American side.
What is going to happen in this match? We can only wait and find out.
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