June 29, the first semi-final of the America's Cup, between Chile and Peru. In the end, the host Chile defeated Peru 2-1 with home advantage and advanced to the final.
On June 30, it will be another semi-final.
Gerardo Martino attaches great importance to this game. It not only involves the issue of quota in the final, but also the strength and identity of the opponent.
Argentina and Paraguay met in the group stage. At that time, Argentina only narrowly won 2-1 and had no obvious advantage.
Moreover, Paraguay also eliminated the Brazilian team in the quarter-finals, causing a big upset. Their strength and state were shocking.
Argentina and Brazil are generally regarded as mortal enemies at the same level. Since Paraguay can eliminate Brazil, it is also possible to eliminate Argentina.
Therefore, Argentina continued to play with all its main players in this game, and carefully deployed a 4231 formation, hoping to stabilize its defense first, attract Paraguay to attack, and then wait for an opportunity to counterattack.
However, when the game actually started and after a few minutes of testing, Argentina's players and coaches suddenly discovered that perhaps reaching the semifinals had exhausted all their energy and physical fitness.
Especially the 90-minute battle with Brazil in the quarter-finals, which lasted until the penalty shootout, was very taxing both physically and mentally.
Although defeating Brazil will have a morale-boosting effect, it obviously failed to offset Paraguay's physical exhaustion.
A few minutes into the game, everyone saw that Paraguayans generally couldn't run, their technical movements were easily deformed, they couldn't control the ball, and they often made mistakes in passing, etc.
It may be excusable if there are only two people, but the whole team is like this. It is obviously exhausted by the previous games. Being able to defeat Brazil and advance to the semi-finals has already reached the overall player configuration of Paraguay's current team. limit.
Facing Argentina, they really wanted to win, but their physical fitness and energy were exhausted, and they couldn't play any decent cooperation to break through the midfield defense line composed of Velarde and Mascherano, let alone against Argentina. The penalty area and goal pose a threat.
Under such circumstances, Argentina will certainly not be polite anymore.
In the 12th minute, after Argentina got the ball, they made a tentative attack. Paraguay's defense was really vulnerable. Messi took the ball out of four people's double-teams and then passed it to the penalty area. Di Maria in the left rib space.
Unfortunately, Di Maria's volley failed to hit the target and missed the baseline.
But this experimental attack has proved that Paraguay's players are indeed low on energy and in poor condition. Not only are they difficult to break through Argentina's defense offensively, they are also unable to do well defensively. Even if the whole team retreats and plays intensive defense, it will be difficult Block Messi's breakthrough and attack.
Under such circumstances, Argentina no longer clings to its defensive counterattack. Head coach Gerardo Martino made a big move and changed the formation to 433. Mascherano and Pastore played as two wing-backs, Velard played as a central midfielder, and Messi, Aguero, and Dima Leah played all forwards, and the entire formation pressed forward sharply and began to attack fiercely.
Some Paraguayan fans hoped that their team's weakness just now was to show weakness to the enemy, lure the snake out of the hole, draw out Argentina's defense, and then score the opponent's goal.
But in fact, they thought too much. Paraguay was really exhausted by the previous games, especially the defeat of Brazil. It is usually very far away, unable to attack or defend, and can only be ravaged by Argentina.
In the 16th minute, Velarde suddenly started to accelerate after receiving a pass from Pastore in the midfield. He first used a personal ball to pass through the unprepared Paraguayan midfielder Richard Ortiz, and then faced When center back Pablo Aguilar intercepted the ball, he decisively passed the ball to Messi outside the right side of the penalty area, and then rushed into the penalty area from Pablo Aguilar.
After receiving the pass from Velarde, Messi did not hesitate and stopped the ball. He directly rubbed his left foot and lifted the ball towards the center of the penalty area.
Messi's reception, Aguero and Di Maria's movements, as well as Verard's previous breakthroughs, movements, etc., have caused Paraguay's defense in the penalty area to collapse, and no one can make up for Vera in time. Germany's defense allowed Velarde to rush into the penalty area, easily take off near the penalty spot, and hit the goal with a powerful header. He pushed the ball to the ground in the lower left corner of the goal and hit a ground rebound ball.
Velarde's heading skills as high as 90 allow him to hit the ball from a tricky angle and rebound from the ground with ease even in the air.
Faced with such a header, Paraguay goalkeeper Villar had no choice but to do anything. Although he fell to the ground and threw himself, the ball bounced on the ground before his palm could reach the goal and flew into the goal.
"Goooooooooooooooooooooooooal..."
"Willard!!!"
"Alan!!! Willard!!!"
"Argentina opened the scoring and led Paraguay 1-0!"
"The goal was scored by Alan Willard, and the assist was by Leo Messi!"
"In the last game, Messi was attacked by Colombia. It was Velarde who stepped forward and retaliated against Mejía who violated Messi many times. He also suppressed Colombia's tactics of attacking Messi."
"Now, Messi gave Velard a wonderful assist to help Velard score and give Argentina the lead."
"The presence of Velarde has taken a lot of pressure off Messi. And the presence of Messi will definitely help Velarde score more goals, which further reflects the value of his versatile midfielder."
Indeed, Gerardo Martino now changes to 433 and lets Velard serve as a central midfielder, just to test his all-round midfielder strength.
And Willard did not disappoint the head coach. With his breakthrough, passing, aerial challenge and attack during the goal, he perfectly demonstrated his offensive ability.
As for defense, there is no need to go into details.
Willard's defensive ability has long been recognized by many media, fans, and industry insiders.
In the stadium, after all, this was the first goal of the game, so Velarde and his teammates were quite excited. They celebrated for more than half a minute before returning to their own half and allowing their opponents to kick the ball in. .
After the game restarted, what Argentina did not expect was that Paraguay did not launch a decent resistance.
On the surface, they were attacking because they were behind in the score, but the quality of their offense was extremely poor. Before the ball could pass into Argentina's 30-meter area, they made a passing error under Velarde's pressure and lost the ball.
Then, the game returned to the rhythm of Argentina taking the ball and attacking Paraguay. Paraguay, on the other hand, could only retreat and tremble.
Paraguay's intensive defense had no effect.
In this game, Paraguay was in very poor form, while Argentina was in excellent form. Coupled with Velarde's organizing role in the midfield, Paraguay's defense was in trouble.
In the 27th minute, it was Velarde who took the ball in the midfield and attracted two opponents' players to grab it, and then passed the ball to Messi in the gap on the wing. Messi broke through with the ball, passed two people on the right, then cut inside and passed the ball into the penalty area.
The Paraguayans went to guard Velard, Aguero, and Di Maria, allowing Javier Pastore who rushed into the penalty area to take advantage. He met the ball with no one to defend and shot angrily, successfully. Volleyed the ball into the goal.
2-0, Argentina easily took a two-goal lead.
