paletta: a cautionary tale.
Holy shit, RAWK got hacked by some Indonesian crew! Course, it was an April Fool's joke. *eyeroll*
Anyway, I've been going back and rereading the Aguero and Paletta threads, and since today was a Friday, I decided to watch some of the U-20 matches from last summer. I've worked my way through Colombia and Spain. Brazil is warming up in the D-drive, and I've already watched the final with Nigeria plenty of times. Sometimes I forget not to judge these players according to the criteria I would normally reserve for the senior players, but I think the following assessment is fair enough.
Paletta was one of the nastiest defenders of that competition. He's built like a damn mule, and sometimes he uses that force as well. I thought Coloccini had his rough moments in 2001, but Paletta really took it to another level at times. I don't know if he's improved his sportsmanship since last summer, because I try to avoid watching Banfield matches whenever possible (they wear the same colors as Werder Bremen, only their kits have uglier designs), but I've heard that he's just as uncompromising as ever.
In the Colombia game, he positively terrorized the opposing strikers. And I mean, he could have gotten himself sent off half a dozen times, but the ref was incredibly lenient (ironically, it was the other, classier center back, Cabral, who had to miss the final through accumulation). The Colombian announcers on my file were really obnoxious about it, but they had a point. Paletta wasn't playing football; he was playing some combination of hockey and wrestling. He improved a bit in the Spain match, I'm not sure yet how he did in the Brazil match, and lord, I still have nightmares about some of the stunts he pulled towards the end of the final against Nigeria.
I apologize if I'm making it sound like Paletta is all mean streak and nothing else. But the boy has really good positioning, and his tackling is pretty damn good at times. He seems to know what he can get away with in terms of bullying the opponent's strikers, although he does need to work on that. He's still young, so I can forgive him for a lot, but I hope he doesn't turn into another Samuel (meaning: bright start turned into a laughingstock).
So on one hand, we know that he has the physical presence and willingness to stick his foot up undesirable places, if needed, so he'll be able to deal with the English defending style. On the other hand, I hope Rafa's team injects some Fair Play into the kid so he doesn't get sent off too many times. AUGH.
Hey, rewatching all of these old games just reaffirms some of my pet favorites and (semi-prejudiced) dislikes. I adored Biglia (wish I still had some of the group stage matches so I could watch him more), Formica (hey Amy, any news about him from Newell's?), and Armenteros. I admired Oberman, Zabaleta, and Cardozo for their neverending work rate. I was decently satisfied with Gago and Torres (although I preferred Biglia), and liked Ustari although I felt he was never really tested. Didn't have an opinion on Aguero at the time, since his appearances were limited to 10-minute cameos, although I was pleased that he won the second penalty in the final.
My feelings toward Messi go without saying. His goal against Brazil was absolutely magnificent, although his strike against Spain impressed me more, because of the footwork that preceeded it.
Anyway, I've been going back and rereading the Aguero and Paletta threads, and since today was a Friday, I decided to watch some of the U-20 matches from last summer. I've worked my way through Colombia and Spain. Brazil is warming up in the D-drive, and I've already watched the final with Nigeria plenty of times. Sometimes I forget not to judge these players according to the criteria I would normally reserve for the senior players, but I think the following assessment is fair enough.
Paletta was one of the nastiest defenders of that competition. He's built like a damn mule, and sometimes he uses that force as well. I thought Coloccini had his rough moments in 2001, but Paletta really took it to another level at times. I don't know if he's improved his sportsmanship since last summer, because I try to avoid watching Banfield matches whenever possible (they wear the same colors as Werder Bremen, only their kits have uglier designs), but I've heard that he's just as uncompromising as ever.
In the Colombia game, he positively terrorized the opposing strikers. And I mean, he could have gotten himself sent off half a dozen times, but the ref was incredibly lenient (ironically, it was the other, classier center back, Cabral, who had to miss the final through accumulation). The Colombian announcers on my file were really obnoxious about it, but they had a point. Paletta wasn't playing football; he was playing some combination of hockey and wrestling. He improved a bit in the Spain match, I'm not sure yet how he did in the Brazil match, and lord, I still have nightmares about some of the stunts he pulled towards the end of the final against Nigeria.
I apologize if I'm making it sound like Paletta is all mean streak and nothing else. But the boy has really good positioning, and his tackling is pretty damn good at times. He seems to know what he can get away with in terms of bullying the opponent's strikers, although he does need to work on that. He's still young, so I can forgive him for a lot, but I hope he doesn't turn into another Samuel (meaning: bright start turned into a laughingstock).
So on one hand, we know that he has the physical presence and willingness to stick his foot up undesirable places, if needed, so he'll be able to deal with the English defending style. On the other hand, I hope Rafa's team injects some Fair Play into the kid so he doesn't get sent off too many times. AUGH.
Hey, rewatching all of these old games just reaffirms some of my pet favorites and (semi-prejudiced) dislikes. I adored Biglia (wish I still had some of the group stage matches so I could watch him more), Formica (hey Amy, any news about him from Newell's?), and Armenteros. I admired Oberman, Zabaleta, and Cardozo for their neverending work rate. I was decently satisfied with Gago and Torres (although I preferred Biglia), and liked Ustari although I felt he was never really tested. Didn't have an opinion on Aguero at the time, since his appearances were limited to 10-minute cameos, although I was pleased that he won the second penalty in the final.
My feelings toward Messi go without saying. His goal against Brazil was absolutely magnificent, although his strike against Spain impressed me more, because of the footwork that preceeded it.