Spain is my favorite international team (although I could never root for them against the U.S.) and Argentina, until they hired Maradona, were my second favorite team. So I was excited to see how my favorites would match up post Maradona-mess-up.
I never expected Argentina to dominate Spain the way they did! In the first half it looked like Argentina had recovered every bit of the genius that propelled them to the gold-medal match in the Copa América and were able to truly emulate Futbol Club Barcelona's support of superstar Lionel Messi.
The headlines from Spain and Argentina have repeatedly mentioned how Argentina's new coach, Sergio Batista is looking to allow Messi to play like he plays in Barcelona. According to Batista,
"We have to understand that Messi alone will not win a game, and that he has to play like he does in Barcelona, which is a team. It's possible that at times he might put the team on his shoulders, but he has to play football more than anything. "
"Nosotros tenemos que entender que Messi solo no va a ganar un partido, y que tiene que jugar como lo hace en el Barça, que es un equipo. Es posible que en algún momento se ponga el equipo en el hombro, pero jugando al fútbol, más que nada",
In the first half, Argentina supported Messi perfectly. They took possession from the masters of possession, kept the ball on the ground and set up some beautiful chances. Tevez barely missed the far post in the 8th minute after a beautifully timed run. When Messi took the ball at midfield, made a run on the 4 Spanish defenders, passed back to Carlos Tevez, made a perfectly timed run left of the defenders and lifted the ball easily over Pique and Reina, it looked like he was playing for Barcelona. Argentina had found the magic.
Tevez was crucial in the next two goals as well: serving Higuain a perfectly placed ball for an easy second goal and pouncing on Reina's slip-up for Argentina's 3rd goal in the 34th minute.
With Argentina closing the field down to the size of a tissue and pressing towards goal every time they had the ball the game looked to be over.
Spain regained their pretty style of play in the second half. The entrance of Xavi, Cazorla, Navas and Pedro helped them maintain possession and Llorente finally put the ball in the back of the net. In truth, Spain was close to scoring many more goals. With a little more luck the Spanish side could have easily brought the game back to 3-2, or even tied the game.
Unfortunately for the Spanish, El Kun Aguero put the icing on the cake for Argentina and scored a fourth goal after a beautifully placed cross from Heinze put the ball right on his forehead.
So how "Monumental" was this game? It wasn't huge. It's a friendly. It didn't count for any points toward World Cup, Euro Championship or Copa America qualification. What it did do was give the Argentines the pride they were lacking under Maradonna.
Batista's win over Ireland and win here have assured that he'll keep the job as Argentine coach until the end of the year. The coach that guided Argentina to gold in the 2008 Olympics deserves more. Let's hope this friendly gets him more friendly treatment from management at the AFA.
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