After defeating Uruguay 3-0 and qualifying ahead of schedule with two consecutive victories, Argentina's performance in the second game won unanimous praise from media and fans from all over the world.
Because this game is the game with the largest point difference in a single game of the America's Cup so far, and it is also the game with the most goals scored by a single team.
Argentina has done its best on both offense and defense.
Uruguay's defense failed to stop Argentina's attack and conceded three goals in a row. The offense also failed to break through Argentina's defense. With the joint sweep of Velarde and Mascherano, it was even difficult to break into Argentina's penalty area.
The emergence of Velarde has indeed greatly improved the quality of Argentina's offense and defense, strengthened Argentina's defensive hardness in the backcourt, and also liberated the offensive capabilities of Messi, Di Maria, Aguero and others in the frontcourt.
A 3-0 victory made Argentina's call for the championship become even louder. Not only because Argentina has Messi and has not won the World Series for more than 20 years, Argentina's victory is expected by everyone, but also because of the emergence of Velarde, who truly conquered many media and fans on a technical and tactical level.
Such a more perfect Argentina is regarded by everyone as the favorite to win the championship, which is a matter of course.
This kind of call will of course put a certain amount of pressure on Argentina's players, but becoming the favorite to win the championship is a process that must go through in every major competition, and most of Argentina's veteran players have become accustomed to it.
Only some players are a little nervous, but I believe that as the game progresses, everyone will gradually adapt as long as they win one game after another.
Anyway, Willard has a lot of Ah Q spirit. As long as he can remember, he has never cried when he got an injection, because every time he got an injection, he would use psychological suggestions to comfort himself: "Whether you cry or not cry, time will always pass." It goes by second by second, the pain of the injection is only a moment, and it will pass after you endure it."
This is what he also hinted to himself during football matches: Whether you are nervous or not, time will not stop because you are nervous, and whatever makes you nervous will eventually pass.
Everyone will go through many ups and downs in life. When you look back on the past, you will find that there were many things that you were very concerned about and nervous about at the time, and that you thought you couldn't handle, but you got through them in the end.
Looking back, the things I was nervous and concerned about at the time were just that, and it didn't seem like a big deal.
The same is true for today's America's Cup. Velarde told his teammates that whether you are nervous or not, time will pass day by day and the games will be played one by one. Regardless of winning or losing, you can imagine your life and fantasize about it. If you look back on this year's America's Cup twenty years later, you will find that winning or losing is all in the past.
Willard's psychological suggestion method surprised his teammates and gained a lot. Teammates who were already mentally strong became more confident. And the teammates who did feel the pressure and were a little nervous also used Willard's Ah Q spiritual victory method to relieve the pressure from the media and fans to win the championship.
Compared with Argentina's early qualification, the old enemy Brazil is much more depressed.
They actually lost to Colombia 0-1 in the second round, and after the second round of Group C, a ridiculous scene appeared: all four teams won one game each.
The results of the first two rounds of Group C were Brazil 2-1 Peru, Peru 1-0 Venezuela, Venezuela 1-0 Colombia, and Colombia 1-0 Brazil.
All teams scored 3 points with one win and one loss, and the goal difference was the same. Brazil temporarily ranked first because it scored one more goal.
But this first place is meaningless. In the last game, any team still has a great chance of qualifying.
Even if Venezuela faces Brazil in the last game, as long as it can draw with Brazil and reach 4 points, it still has a good chance of qualifying.
This kind of situation where the four teams have the same points and the same goal difference after two rounds is really rare, and it makes Group C a real group of death.
In the final round, every team still has hope of qualifying and is in danger of being eliminated, including Brazil.
This funny scene naturally made Argentina, the only country that qualified early in the second round, to win the championship.
Because Argentina, which qualified early, does not have to compete with its opponents in the final round to fight for the opportunity to qualify, but can take advantage of the opportunity of the third round of the group stage to rotate the main players so that everyone can rest well and have stronger physical fitness and Energy to cope with the knockout rounds.
This is undoubtedly a very beneficial thing for Argentina.
On June 20, in order to avoid match-fixing and tacit understanding, the last two games of the third round of Group A were played at the same time.
Mexico, which was invited to participate in the America's Cup, surprisingly lost 1-2 to Ecuador and returned home with only 2 points.
Chile, playing at home, worked hard in this round of games, thrashing Bolivia 5-0, ranking first in the group with 7 points and qualifying with two wins and one draw. Bolivia ranked second in the group with 4 points and qualified directly, and Ecuador scored 3 points -2. Ranked third on goal difference, whether they can qualify depends on the results of the other two groups, but the chance is very small.
The next day, two group matches in the third round of Group B were held at the same time, Uruguay VS Paraguay and Argentina VS Jamaica.
Jamaica is a team from Central and North America. Like Mexico, it was invited to participate in the America's Cup.
In this game, Argentina, which had already qualified early and basically secured first place in the group, naturally made a large rotation. Higuain, Tevez, Demichelis and many other substitute players got the opportunity to start the game.
Mascherano, Messi, Di Maria, Aguero and others went off to rest, but Velard was left on the field to start the game because of his strong physical fitness.
A group of substitutes who are not usually on the same team and have not been trained through formal competitions will naturally not be able to exert any strong strength.
However, Willard's presence still completed the defensive task well and helped Argentina keep a clean sheet against Jamaica.
On offense, Velard assisted Higuain to open the scoring, and center back Demichelis also contributed in a header challenge, extending the score to 2-0.
In the end, Argentina easily defeated Jamaica with two goals, ranking first in Group B with nine points from three consecutive group stage wins and heading into the knockout round.
In another group match, Uruguay and Paraguay tied 1-1 as expected. Although there were two goals, it seemed that both sides did not have no desire to attack, but the 1-1 draw was enough to explain the problem.
With Ecuador third in Group A with only 3 points, Paraguay and Uruguay, both with 4 points, qualified jointly with the second and third places in Group B and advanced to the knockout rounds.
In the final round of Group C, Brazil defeated Venezuela 2-1 and advanced to the knockout rounds as the first in the group. Colombia and Peru tied 0-0 and qualified with 4 points. Ecuador, third place in Group A with only 3 points, was eliminated as expected.
Next, there is a knockout match that determines the outcome. There is no ending like a tacit understanding of the ball and a draw. It has to be a battle of life and death. The winner moves on and the loser goes home.
If you don’t want to pack your bags and go home, you have to work hard in the next knockout round.
