I felt sorry for ARgentina cause they played as a unit.

Italy sat on a 1-0 lead and collapsed. Spain suffered unfortunate injuries specially to RAUL GONZALEZ!

Portugal didn' t seem to get it from FIGO.

The French looked awful without Zidane... cannot imagine how they won the Cup in 98 and managed to capture Euro2000!

Argentina has no un commin' back outsid' a CRESPO ..the resta them fellas are goina be OLD in GErmany2006!

What a dissapointment! They just could not score..I am so bewildered by their inability to score with so many unselfish players who all functioned together..so many chances went just wide especially against SWEDEN!! I am so dissapointed.

I definitely will cry for you Argentina!

I totally blame Bielsa for the failure.
If he had had any sense of tactics and knowledge on his opponents he would have used another tactic against Sweden and England. Playing high crosses into the box for one lone striker was doomed even before the games had even started. If Argentina had used the same tactic as in WC'98 where they played quick and kept the ball on the ground they would be in the semis now.

I agree with FIFA Webmaster.

I'm brazilian but I really wished that Argentina went as far as the semifinals(they would play against Brazil now if they were first in their group). Argentina and Brazil play offensive football and have the best players in the world. And don't forget about the rivality. What an incredible match that would be....

I just wanted the Argies to knock England out in the Group Phase.

Originally posted by Digitarius
I just wanted the Argies to knock England out in the Group Phase.
I was hoping all the time that England would loose to Nigeria and in some way both Sweden and Argentina would have gone through... But that did not happen.
However Argentina lost their place in the 2:nd round in the match against England, where they played like I said earlier. I hope they learn in the future to use their own style of play instead of trying to implement some kind of European style with crosses since that is what European defenders mostly are good at. Especially English and Swedish defenders.

Thing is though that if they do manage do qualify for the next WCup, they goina struggle! The future was the World Cup in the far east,,,i.e. the future is now for Argentina! If they do qualify, Batistuta is goina be 36, surely cannot think of playin at that age. The rest of the guys are goina be quite old and incapable of keepin up with the pace of the young guns who will have settled their feet into World Cup action...guys like Michael Owen, Raul Gonzalez, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo will be 29 and certainly capable of playing with the big GUNS! Crespo may be the only guy capable of TO SOME EXTENT doing any kinda damage! MAN OH MAN WHAT A MISSED OPPORTUNITY!

You guys DO NOT follow Argentine Soccer, ALL of the stars are currently playing there. Just to prove to all of you i'll give you a possible midfield for Argentina in the 2006 World Cup.

Juan Sebastian Veron(Man U) 26 years old
Juan Roman Riquelme(Boca Jrs.) 21 years old
Andres D'Alessandro(River Plate) 18 years old
Pablo Aimar(Valencia) 23 years old
Colloccini(Alaves) 20 years old


Those 4 players are all relatively young.

As for the striker problem, Batistuta already said he played his last game and he wouldn't make it to 2006 in Germany. What does this mean? Well we have young talent ready to step in. The likely striker duo to pair up in the next World Cup Qualifiers(which will start next year) is Javier Saviola and Hernan Crespo. Another young player, from River Plate Fernando Cavenaghi should become an elite striker in a few years time and may win a spot. Another possible striker is a young player on his way to Germany from San Lorenzo, named Leandro Romagnoli.

Believe it or not, I feel the team in 2006 will be stronger and i'm certain new players will step in and fill the holes.

The young kids who COULD spring up have to do just that....SPRING UP! Batistuta was tipped as the next superstar in 1994 but only emerged after the 94 tourney....those guys got some EMERGING to do! DOn' t get me wrong, I know that Aimar, Crespo and Veron will surely be back in pretty good condition...BUT... they won 't be surrounded with as much OTHER talent at the same level as them so it MAY be a bit difficult for them in Germany in 2006!

Originally posted by chatterbox
The young kids who COULD spring up have to do just that....SPRING UP! Batistuta was tipped as the next superstar in 1994 but only emerged after the 94 tourney....those guys got some EMERGING to do! DOn' t get me wrong, I know that Aimar, Crespo and Veron will surely be back in pretty good condition...BUT... they won 't be surrounded with as much OTHER talent at the same level as them so it MAY be a bit difficult for them in Germany in 2006!

Have you every seen Riquelme or D'Alessandro play?
Your likely answer is NO!

Riquelme is already an established player and the way things look he's on his way to Atletico Madrid. As for D'Alessandro, he simply controls a game with his play, he likes to hold the ball himself and control the pace. He's also deadly on free kicks.

I can GUARANTEE in 4 years time the midfield will be stronger.

One more thing, Argentina didn't become Sub 21 World Champions last year by mistake. Our young talent is simply phenomenal and in 4 years a lot of them will be making their mark on the world stage.

Argentina is like Brazil, they always have new talents appearing every year....D'Alessandro is great, Riquelme and Saviola should be in this WC, Romagnoli is very good too(I saw him playing against Corinthians in Mercosul semifinals, fantastic players)....Crespo and Veron will be mature....as a fan of argentinean football I really wish too see they do better in the next WC.

There's a lot of talent in Argentine football, even without the so-called established stars like Gabriel Batistuta.

Personally, I couldn't quite understand why Batigol was chosen in front of Crespo in the line-up in the WC.

The young players will all probably get good moves to Europe and further their game there. They need to mature quickly and learn a lot about the European game because they will surely have to face European opposition.

Players such as Saviola, Aimar, etc. would have far more European experience in 2006 than they have now, and Argentina can only benefit from that.

Veron could not possibly be as poor as he has been this season again.

D'Alessandro is a bright prospect, but it's one thing being a superstar in the Argentine league, it's another running up against Italian/Spanish defenders and beating them as if they weren't there. We shall see.

I agree, Argentina will bounce back. They always do. They have more interesting young players than maybe any other country. However it is a great pity that this great generation they had missed this golden opportunity to win the cup. Now they never even won ANYTHING... What a pity...