After the last match day was so lifeless and Sweden couldn't get it up for an elimination game, I really needed a game to prove the second half of the tournament wasn't going to be completely devoted to unmotivated underdogs and sleepwalking favorites. To me anyways, this was a great game that could have gone for either team all the way to the end of overtime.
Mexico was up for the game and dangerous right from the whistle, and had at least one nice chance less than two minutes in. In the sixth minute, Castro was taken down near the sideline in a tackle by Mascherano that I thought at the time was really stupid, but I got used to that, seeing a boneheaded play with #8 from Argentina right in the middle of it. I just doubted Castro was going to do anything too alarming out there, but the free kick by Pardo was flicked to the back post by Mendez's header, where Gabriel Heinze blew his assignment, misreading where the ball was going and moving to help out on Borgetti. Instead, the ball continued on to the now wide-open Rafael Marquez, who fired it over the keeper into the roof of the net to put Mexico up early. I think Heinze being a tool was something else I kept noting.
Supposedly the easiest time to screw up is right after you score, and like a minute later an Argentine player was taken out 20 yards from the box, but the ref played advantage until the Argentine player who had the ball got chopped down too. The resulting free kick deflected off the wall and over the end-line for a corner, which got headed over the end-line... three straight set pieces really isn't a good thing. The next corner went to Hernan Crespo, marked by Jared Borgetti, and it's 50/50 whether the ball went off Borgetti's head or Crespo's shin, but it went into the back of the net.
Heinze tried to close out the first half in an interesting way as well by taking a short kick from his keeper and watching it dribble over his foot, oblivious to anything that might be going on. Much like Ghana's first goal against the US, it got stolen, but this time the Mexican player was taken down hard. That could have been a straight red card and a penalty for taking down a guy with a clear path to goal, but the free kick Mexico got went off the wall. Mexico definitely wasn't getting a call unless it was clear-cut, though, in contrast to the tight calls that the old-timers have been complaining about.
In the second half, another theme emerged, Juan Sorin kicking people above the waist, like when he kicked Borgetti in the face in front of goal. Borgetti's sitting there spitting out teeth, but the Swiss ref ignored it. Borgetti did do a fair bit of whining about being hit in the face as the game went on, and played for penalties a bit much, but you know, he did get hit in the face a lot. When Roberto Ayala did some weird "you have a spider on your head" thing slapping Rafa Marquez's head on a corner, that may have been a little much.
Argentina didn't show a lot of creativity offensively, compared to their earlier games, and later in the game they started bringing on the kids, Tevez and Messi. It wasn't until the end of the game when they started connecting around the box, after a period of taking the whole defense on themselves, then looking for the pass and having nobody there, to finally having it all come together. They could have wrapped it up in regulation on a nice play, to Aimar who was played onside by a player on the far side of the field, and then to Messi who was even with the defenders and then behind the ball until Aimar passed it to him, but apparently the linesman's seeing eye dog was barking at a squirrel or something and he blew the call. Seriously, I don't mind 50/50 calls going the wrong way, but it annoys me when it's clear where the error came from, not watching the whole field, and it's not 50/50, it's close offside calls always going to the defense when they're supposed to go to the attackers.
Anyways, 8 minutes into extra time, Sorin crossed the ball to Maxi Rodriguez with tons of space at the far corner of the penalty box, and Rodriguez took the ball off his chest and let it come down for a left foot volley into the far corner of the goal. There was absolutely nothing to do about a shot that perfect other than not let him get it off, so once it was in the air it was too late, this rainbow flying over the whole defense and dipping down just under the bar.
Mexico and Argentina both took some nice shots after that, but the 2-1 score held up and Argentina advances to the quarterfinal against Germany. I really would like to see the Albiceleste rolling when they get there, because that could be a hell of an atmosphere. Rodriguez and Crespo both have three goals for Argentina, if anybody's keeping track of Argentine national team bragging rights. The yellow cards for Sorin and Heinze might be an issue later in the tournament, but somehow given Argentina's reported depth I doubt it.
Argentina 2-1 Mexico
'6 Marquez
'10 Crespo
'98 Rodriguez
Tomorrow: England v Ecuador and Portugal v Netherlands
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