The High Price of High Altitude: Bolivia 6 – Argentina 1

it makes a big difference and this shows it

bolivia is bottom of the table, argentina clearly have talent to destroy bolivia

and argentina is not in bad form look at there previous 3 encounters against the a team like france who although are going therew tough times..also have great players that can change a match

the game 3 nights previous Argentina clearly dominated venezuela a team of slightly better talent than Bolivia

at the same time other teams from south America played in bolivia as well and none suffered such a large defeat

so that leaves 2 culprits

A) altitude
B) tactics
C) all of the above

I think it was just a misstep and that a lot of people will overreact. Its just one game with lots of footy left to play. We’ll be just fine, vamos argentina!

I agree with Fab 100 %.

Well Fab, if altitude was the problem, how come that only Argentina lost in these qualifiers ,against Bolivia, at this score? The other 2 teams that lost at Bolivia are Paraguay (4-2) and Peru (3-0), and Chile took all 3 points, winning with 2-0 against Bolivia. All playing at the same height. None being Argentina.

The reason is that all those other teams have a real coach.
We have Maradona.
That’s why.
This match was supposed to end 0-0.
But Maradona thought he’s almighty and his team will do whatever he tells them to do.
Maradona is not a football coach. He’s just an ex great player with big, big mouth.

Ha, I remember like two years ago, Brazil submitted a claim to the World Cup Ethics Committee asking to let their players sleep in oxygen tents a week prior to these high altitude matches. The original request was denied, but they were allowed to use them two days before the match (which doesn’t really help much).

Argentina will certainly qualify and I think will do well in S. Africa.

Apparently Maradona and his players arrived only 2 hours before the game was to start. Experts differ on this — some say a team should arrive at the high altitude location well in advance of a game, days or weeks if possible; some say the opposite, they should arrive as close as possible and reasonable to the start time. Apaprently Maradona chose the latter option.

I think only teams like Argentina and Brazil, whose most players play their regular football in Europe and don’t deal well with this Altitude thing. Where as other teams adjust this altitude things very easily beacause they are mostly from South America and play Copa Libertadores and thier league football in this kind of environment. But eventually, the less known teams wilter in regular environment and don’t even qualify and even if they qualify they never make much progress beyond second rounds of the WC, where skills really matter. May be Argentina and Brazil should select South America based players when they play in altitude. I bet they will do lot better.

Guys it’s called skills. Don’t blame everything on ALTITUDE.
Bolivia was obviously well prepared & they knew Argentina is a great team so they practiced and they CRUSHED Argentina. I know it’s embarassing to say or to know. But hey that’s what happened.

Like Darth said all of the other teams weren’t affected by the altitude so why would Argentina(one of the best teams ever)…?????

You know, I’m from Thailand and I expect a lot of goals from Argentina, but they depressed me. Imagine 6 goals lost to Bolivia!

Hahaha.6:1..Hahaha

Funny how the coach of the losing team says it was a great performance by the Bolivians and that they were prepared. yet a blogger comes out and blames it on elevation. hahaahahhaha, look at “Darth”’s first post.
its called preparation.

Few things in life give me more pleasure than seeing argentina loose, but to get thrashed in a game to the tune of 6 -1…well I’m over the moon. good job Bolivia

i think that Bolivia just won fair and square, it only proves that no team has respect for the big teams anymore
instead of finding excuses to Argentina’s defeat they should consider that maybe, just maybe the small team are getting better.

dear darth

i also stated tactics

you need to have tactics that revolve around every factor including things like altitude and weather

i know its neat to think that Bolivia was just a better team but everyone on earth knows this to be untrue

every sort of competitive sport should be fair grounds in every way

it should be one team at its best vs another team at there best, to determine who has the talent to make it to the big stage..would this be unfair to say?

i saw the game and i can tell you Argentina looked slow and each player was sweating like pigs.. while a lot of Bolivian players live and play in Bolivia

they say it takes up to 30 days to fully get used to such a high change of altitude

and as an althlete myself i cant ell you nothing is worse than having to perform phisical activity after a flight and with such thin air to ad on top of that

maradona should have seen that as a huge factor

dont get me wrong bolivia played well…but there claim to fame stays inside the walls of there mountain fortress as always

in 4 months people will forget this (excpet maradona) and it will only bring bolivia a huge defeat in buenos aires as all the players are eager for revenge on fair grounds

fab and others don’t mention nothing about bolivian players, 90% of bolivian players live and play at no more than 1000 meters, altitude is like hot and cold or high humidity enviroments, argentina and brazil are the only asociations that have problems with altitude it’s time that like the other nations of south america these great teams put the ball in motion and left the bla bla bla…

I’m glad to see comments by fab, who presents logical reasons for the 6-1. For the last two qualifiers, DT Sanchez gambled on a tie in Colombia and a win at home against Argentina. Bolivia went to Bogota leaving seven players in La Paz to continue their preparation; including Botero, Martins, and Da Rosa who together scored five goals against Argentina. Although Bolivia executed the “Engenhao” strategy in Bogota, which earlier earned it one point against Brazil, they lost 2-0 in Colombia. Back in La Paz, the team embraced the urgency of the win against Argentina with a fully rested attack and a highly motivated attitude. It executed a suffocating strategy and came up with an unbelievably favorable result.
It does not appear that Argentina prepared physically or mentally for the altitude. Was the team that played against Venezuela the same that played in La Paz? It has been said that Argentina, unlike Bolivia, can easily field two or three world-class teams. Why not do that against #8 Venezuela and #9 Bolivia and bet on 6 points? Maradona may have decided not to dwell on the effects of the altitude, apparently avoiding this topic with his players. Maybe he struggled to address this issue given his previous highly outspoken political support for Bolivia’s campaign against FIFA’s altitude ban. Only a few in his squad had ever played in the altitude. The tactic, which in retrospect seems stubborngly ineffective, was to attempt to play as in Buenos Aires. A negative result could have been anticipated, but evolved into a nightmare for Argentina and a barrage of goals for Bolivia.
I saw Poland’s National team play Bolivia in La Paz in 1977. Bolivia was preparing for a qualifier against Uruguay and had an impressive group of skilled and powerful players from the southeastern “chaco” lowlands, not one player was from the western altiplano. The Siles stadium was under repair and the game was played in Bolivar’s Tembladerani, just shy of 4,000 meters. The phenomenally fit and strategically focused polish players persistenly outran the bolivians and opened up the field comfortably winning 3-1. A couple of weeks later, applying lessons from the Poland defeat, Bolivia beat Uruguay 1-0 in a qualifier in the same stadium, the historic goal involved two “chaqueño” players.
Altitude is a factor that should be addressed, as any other field condition, with detailed planning and systematic preparation.
Beyond that, there are always random events which will factor into the result, but that is what can make every game exciting and many results surprising.

Paceño, by your nickname I gather that you are from La Paz, Bolivia.
I first want to congratulate your NT for a stunning performance against my Albicelestes.
And second, I want to congratulate you for a great posting.
Everybody who has an opinion about this and never took a walk at “El Alto” de la Paz should read it.
Saludos y felicitaciones !!!!

Albo, I am from LP. Thanks for the congrats, you are a good sport. I can’t say I’m truly happy about the win. It’s surely a gratifying change from being heart-broken about the more routine loss. It’s still hard to fully enjoy this win given its intriguing sub-plots. Maybe the SA qualifiers have become overly arduous. Is anyone happy? Maybe Chile? I feel proud of the win because it could only have been possible with preparation and hard work. It was amusing and I smiled when I heard the aymara pride exhibited in the stands chanting-counting “maya, paya, quimsa; pusi, peskha, sojta”. However, once the qualifiers are over, and assuming Argentina and not Bolivia would be travelling to Johannesburg, I and other paceños will be content with chanting, “Vamos vamos, Argentina, vamos vamos a ganar”.

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