Match Review & Highlights: Argentina 1 – Nigeria 0.

June 12th, 2010 | by: chris | View Comments

Heading into Argentina’s World Cup we had one fact, on very strong theory: Lionel Messi is a brilliant football player and Diego Maradona is a very poor football coach. After the opening round, we have a new theory: both are facts.

Diego ran out a video game lineup and it played as such, in that it was entirely ineffective against team made of proper, living, breathing human beings. They’ll certainly take the win, and it could’ve been more but for the phenomenal Vincent Enyeama, but they’ll have to be a lot better if they’re to have any hopes of slipping beyond the second round.

The game had all the potential with Messi, Tevez, Higuain, Di Maria and Jonas all in the starting lineup, but they were forced into something resembling a 4-3-3, with Angel Di Maria in midfield and Jonas at rightback. The former was invisible throughout, the latter was Nigeria’s best weapon and the type of move over which people lose jobs.

But it started out as though the video game lineup would turn into a video game, with Lionel, glittering throughout if unable to find his goal, walking through the Nigerian defense as though it wasn’t even there. Gonzalo Higuain seemingly vindicated Diego’s decision to ignore him for so long by missing an easy sitter on and playing well below his standards throughout. The goal finally arrived from the holding bay of all international goals: Gabriel Heinze’s head, which was entirely, unforgivably unmarked.

From there Argentina pressed but slowly descended into a tactical mishmash as Nigeria strengthened, holding strong at the back and sitting two defensive midfielders deep. In other words: they pulled a Uruguay. The few chances Nigeria had in the first half came when Chinedu Obasi was given the ball on the left, where he would ultimately meet and defeat Jonas. Chances are the same would not have happened with Javier Zanetti. (Or Esteban Cambiasso for Di Maria, for example.)

The remainder of the story for Argentina was Vincent Enyeama, the second African keeper in as many days to pull his team back and save them from sure goals. The Nigerian team, even though they were defeated without a great deal of chances on Argentinean keeper Sergio Romero, did have some positives, as they showed a better resilience under Lars Lagerback and may have a replacement for John Obi Mikel in young phenomenon Lukman Haruna. Whether it’ll be enough to get them out of Group B remains to be seen.

Argentina have similar worries despite the result. They’re so wonderfully talented – at least up front – but talent means very little at this stage, and Diego’s idea of throwing square pegs into circular holes simply because they’re carved of a higher quality wood will not work against good sides. These things can be overlooked in the first game, but the honeymoon will end very, very shortly.

[101gg]

Man of the Match: Vincent Enyeama A few magical saves, but he bailed his defense out a number of times and kept his team in the game right until the final whistle. Or when they stopped playing in the 90th. Another day, another brilliant African keeper.