Good day of international football

Usually int'l matches bore my face off, and I'm still a bit angry that the Spanish federation couldn't schedule a league properly and these matches interrupted the title run-in, but today's football has been quite good. There were some good matches (France played well against Ukraine, Denmark-Sweden had loads of drama), and lots of interesting players to watch and good goals scored.

Let's hope for more of the same in the future.

FT Switzerland 1 - 1 Argentina
50' 0 - 1 Tevez
64' 1 - 1 Streller


Anyone watch this game?

I had it on but only watched it every few mins. I definitely noticed Mascherano when he came on. If this guy continues to play as he has done so far in his career, we may well be looking at the greatest DM of all time (considering that the DM position and its importance is something new in the modern game).

Switzerland also looked quite handy, and it reinforced my opinion of them as dark horses for Euro2008 next year.

kas wrote:Switzerland also looked quite handy

Like a Swiss knife?

Not quite, they lacked a bit of cutting edge

The good thing about Javier is the fact that he's a wonderful passer of the ball, and he is technically refined. That's what will set him apart from other DM's. And he is a true DM.

The likes of De Rossi, Essien etc, aren't. They are box-to-box.

Incidentally, who was playing up front for Argie, and what was thier formation?

Calidad wrote:The good thing about Javier is the fact that he's a wonderful passer of the ball, and he is technically refined. That's what will set him apart from other DM's. And he is a true DM.

The likes of De Rossi, Essien etc, aren't. They are box-to-box.

What impresses me is that he's so perfect in reading the game, predicting where the ball will go, then putting himself there.

Calidad wrote:Incidentally, who was playing up front for Argie, and what was thier formation?

Abbondanzieri; Javier Zanetti, Ayala, Gabriel Milito, Heinze; Gonzalez (67. Mascherano), Gago, Cambiasso; Messi (89. Saviola); Crespo (67. Diego Milito), Tevez (79. Aimar).

Looks like a 4-3-3 to start off with. Interesting to note that they had 3 deep midfielders on the pitch (Gago, Mascherano, Cambiasso) from the 67th minute on!