By RYAN TOLMICH
After making it through the group stage unscathed despite three one-goal victories, Argentina faces its toughest test thus far in Tuesday’s penultimate Round of 16 matchup.
La Albiceleste are now tasked with taking on fellow seeded side Switzerland with a spot in the tournament’s quarterfinal stage on the line.
Argentina enters the knockout stages largely due to the contributions of Lionel Messi, who finished tied for the lead in group stage goals with four. However, La Albiceleste will need to put together a more complete performance than those displayed in the group stage if they hope to make their third straight appearance in the quarterfinal round.
Their opposition, Switzerland, is making its second knockout stage appearance in the past three tournaments and the sixth in team history. After suffering through a 5-2 drubbing at the hands of eventual group winners France, the Swiss rebounded by way of a Xherdan Shaqiri hat trick in a 3-0 victory over Honduras that secured the team’s advancement.
If you will be watching today’s matches, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action.
Omar starting?
Oh noes…
I dont get why Cameorn is in mid? ..
Swap him for F.Johnson and we are good.
Via ESPN Twitter: Howard, Gonz, Bradley, Besler, Beasley, Dempsey, Bedoya, Jones, Zusi, Cameron, Johnson
Beckerman dropped for Cameron. Weird. Seems like we are playing for PK´s…
Yes, because without the creator that is KB, the USMNT cannot score….*eyeroll*
I wonder if Cameron will be DM or we’ll be playing a 3 or 5 back.
ESPNFC saying 4-3-3 with Cameron in midfield along with MB90 and JJ. Zusi, Deuce and Bedoya up top.
That was a crazy bike attempt by the Swiss Keeper!
That woulda been nice! Oh well…
Ok the real game starts now!
how you miss that header
Missed opportunities… the Argentines took shot after shot, most of them low-percentage, with lots of attempts at in-the-box passes, which the Swiss cleared well. The Swiss had at least 3 excellent looks at goal, and blew them all. And the Swiss never got their counter on, usually losing the ball before passing midfield. If they converted on the few (but good) chances, we would’ve had a different game.
Agggh! I hate Di Maria (as a player). I don’t even remember why, I’m so blinded in my bias.
I think when he first started playing, he used to be a massive diver. I think?
He hasn’t been for a while though. At least, I can’t remember any recently.
That’s what I remember remembering. But my memory of my memory may be wrong.
I blame Di Maria.
Jozy not in the starting line up (per ESPN). Not a huge surprise.
There must be some mistake. Keeping hitting refresh until they fix it.
Actually, Univision shows him in the starting lineup. http://deportesenvivo.univision.com/game/usa-at-blgica-on-20140701?mc=1
More like their defense was like Swiss Cheese…. game over.
If Argentina loses, Ives headline will feature the words “Swizz Beatz”
Guaranteed
If Argentina win on a dodgy PK, headline will be “Swiss Cheesed”
And he’ll find a way to talk about how much he loves Keylor Navas…lol.
Google says it will be about 76 degrees in Salvador at kick off. Not quite the help we were expecting.
Well if form holds, our game will not go to extra time.
And the winning team will score 2 goals.
Anyone else expecting a goal explosion for the USA v Belgium game? Every other game has been the same, the force is telling me our game will be different.
I agree, expect both teams to score. I think our game will be pretty open.
Like I said before the Portugal game… it would be a mistake not to push the game. Belgium missing defenders, I also think they will be the more nervous team.
This is why I think we should give Jozy the start. The couple of seconds his hold up play provides the mid-fielders to get forward help us immensely. Against Germany Clint only had 29 touches, lowest number ever.
Even if we have to take him off after 15 min, one burnt sub is worth the risk, imho.
Going to be, at least, one tired team on the field in Brasilia on Saturday.
Di Maria has been surprisingly awful today
I was thinking Refs, should really dislike floppy teams-players because it makes the game far more difficult to officiate, and in the end it makes the ref look bad when foolish calls are made.
OK, time to buckle up now.
Come on lets go Garrinchas, U.S.A.!
Whats up with that dudes hair?
I was really digging the slow mo zoom in on it.
sad part is he probably has a hot wife
It’s the offset rat-tail! (It’s gonna be the next big thing, whenever people get tired of tattoos…)
Maybe that’s when we’ll also move on from the heart-fingers sign.
we need this to go to penalties
come on swizzzzzzzzzz
Argentina are on it now.
Awful quite around here. It’s as if people are holding their breath, waiting for something big to happen…
quiet*
Waiting to hear about Jozy’s new SpiderGoat silk hamstring tendons.
Calm before the storm….personally, I’m anxious as sh*t.
Same here… it all goes down today. Excited and nervous at the same time. Three hours to go!
Yup!
Is it then yet?
We’re all just too nervous about the game on Saturday 🙂
Things have really shut down for the knockouts.
Knockout games are almost always tight. It’s like people have never watched the World Cup before.
never before. why is it that world class strikers such as Cavani or Higuain/Aguero
seem ineffective when playing aside a fellow world class striker for their NT like Suarez/Messi?
So far the best combo of World Class Attackers has been RVP and Robben.
Both these teams look beatable, let’s hope we can get past Belgium this afternoon!
They certainly aren’t amazing. The Swiss are having to have a high work rate to keep out the Argentine strikers but they keep doing gentle lobs into the keepers hands.
I..
I BELIEVE
enough of this please.
NEVER!!
C-c-c-combo breaker!
It’s Mexican jealousy. He is trying to convince us that his name is “beta male.” But, it could just as easily be read as “be tamale.” Mexican jealousy.
Is Higuain gonna show up today?