Olympics, Group A Prelims: Argentina vs. Australia, FAIL FAIL FAIL~
Ustari
Zabaleta -- Fazio -- Garay -- Monzon
Masche -- Gago
Riquelme
Aguero -- Messi -- Lavezzi
Thank god the child molester came to his senses and put in Fazio for Pareja; let's see, improved positioning, more height, calmer decision making, all automatic improvements.
The passing game seemed somewhat disjointed for the first 10 or 15 minutes; Argentina were connecting and moving well, but not decisively. Early on, a hustling run down the left wing by Aguero resulted in a fairly dangerous ball into the box for Messi to control and take off his right foot, but the shot flew high. They took advantage of their clear dominance to set up camp around the Australian box, and a few minutes later, Mascherano tested goalkeeper Federici with a hard shot from outside the box, though Argentina were unable to create anything from the resulting corners.
Early signs pointed to The Messi Show continuing from the previous game, and it did. A pass-and-go move with Lavezzi saw him twist his way past a handful of defenders and inside the box, only for his acute shot to be gathered well by Federici. It was Argentina's best chance of the game thus far.
Australia created their first chance when Celeski jigged his way past Monzon into the Argentina box, and only a timely tackle by Fazio kept him from getting a clean shot off. It seemed like Australia had found Argentina's weakness -- the right flank -- so the question was, how would they try to take advantage of it?
They wouldn't, not yet at least, with the Argies in full control of the game. Argentina's strategy so far was possession, possession, trickery, possession -- to the point where the Aussies didn't quite know what to do with the ball when they had it. Without the pace of the Ivory Coast, Australia made it a little easier for Argentina to defend as a group, swarming around the ball carrier until he made a mistake and lost it. Some intricate passing around the Australia area again created another chance, this time with Aguero heeling it into Riquelme's path, but Roman's low shot was gathered by Federici.
.................. The roflarious justintv stream crapped out, and so did all the other roflarious justintv streams. IN RED CHINA, INTERNET PIRATES YOU!!!
Abort mission, I'm going to bed because I have to be at work early. Go Argies.