FOXBORO – Much like the prior summer’s World Cup, last year’s Copa America ended in heartbreak for Argentina. Now one step away from a chance at redemption, La Albiceleste are anxious to reach yet another final, but Argentina is not looking past the one opponent that stands in their way of another tournament finale.
After knocking off Venezuela on Saturday night, Argentina will take on the U.S. Men’s National Team on Tuesday in the Copa America semifinals. The match, one that will see Argentina viewed as heavy favorites, represents another chance to push towards a major title while continuing a perfect run through this summer’s premier tournament.
For years, Lionel Messi and Argentina have been criticized for their inability to capture that elusive international title. Another chance is almost within grasp, but the star forward understands that underestimating the USMNT could prove detrimental to his team’s pursuit of its first senior trophy since the 1993 Copa America.
“The United States try to get close to you, to attack, they’re a very difficult team,” Messi said. “We have to do what we have been doing up until now. We are growing and that’s the way we have to carry on.”
“It’s a strong team and they’ve been demonstrating it,” added Gonzalo Higuain. “They deserve respect for making it to the semifinals, but I hope we can have a good match so we can advance.”
Argentina’s coach, Gerardo Martino, echoed the sentiment, even if his side enters the semifinal clash riding a ridiculous run of form.
After cruising through the group stage with three straight wins, Argentina raised the bar on Saturday night. Facing off with a surging Venezuela team, Messi and Higuain led the Argentines in a 4-1 thrashing. The former provide a goal and an assist, while the latter added two goals of his own.
Against the USMNT, Argentina sees a different challenge, one that Martino believes will be much, much tougher than that of Saturday night. Despite suspensions to Jermaine Jones, Alejandro Bedoya and Bobby Wood, the USMNT is a team that Martino believes is plenty able to provide an upset in a tournament that has been defined by them.
“Right now we have to focus on our next game,” Martino said. “We are going to play all six games that one can play but we want to play on Sunday, not Saturday, so we are focusing on the U.S.. They’re a top rival, and just like Venezuela they can complicate things for us. We have to try not to offer things up to them. We offered Venezuela a little window of opportunity. If we beat the U.S. we will deal with what this means for the players and the coaches and the worry that something like what happened in the World Cup could happen again, but right now we have to take one game at a time.
“As I always say any team that gets to this stage in a tournament, like the U.S., they get there because of their own merit,” Martino said. “They had a very difficult group, and they even lost the first game, but they recovered. It’s true that for this game they have three suspended players but nevertheless the fact they have got this far and the fact that they are the home team means that they are a rival we have to be very careful with.”
With a final now within their sight lines, Argentina inches ever closer to the ultimate goal. Pegged as Copa America favorites since long before a ball was kicked, Argentina has lived up and, in many ways, exceeded every expectation to date.
No matter what, though, it will all be for naught if they fail to capture the tournament’s ultimate prize, a fact that is not lost on Messi, a player who knows that there is much work to be done over the coming days.
“We don’t give (previous finals) the importance that we should because we didn’t win, but it’s not easy to reach to consecutive finals,” Messi added. “What this team did has a lot of merit, although we all want to win. Now I hope we can reach a third final.”
Let’s go for it. Go USA!
Pulisic——Zusi
Dempsey
Nagbe—Bradley—Zardes
FJ–Brooks–Cam–Yedlin
Pulisic for Wood, Zusi for Bedoya, Nagbe for Jones, and go for it. If we lose with that lineup, then so be it. There is no shame losing to Argentina in the semifinal of a major international tournament. The Mexico-Chile game gives us some cover anyway. Let’s see what we really have got trying to play a confident style. Zardes-Dempsey-Pulisic-Nagbe-Bradley-Yedlin-Brooks-Cameron-FJ is the immediate future anyway. That’s 9 of 10 field players — the future has arrived. Embrace it.
I agree. The suspensions could be a blessing in disguise. I would love to see an aggressive lineup like this. We’re playing with house money now. Why not give Pulisic and Nagbe a chance to shine?
Zardes
Dempsey
Pulisic Nagbe Zusi
Bradley
Johnson Brooks Cameron Yedlin
The tricky thing about this lineup though, is midfield substitutes. If we need a substitute to spark the offense, there’s not really anyone to bring in. If instead Besler starts and we move FJ to midfield then we could save Pulisic (or Zusi) for the 2nd half:
Zardes
Dempsey
Johnson Nagbe Zusi
Bradley
Besler Brooks Cameron Yedlin
What I hope we don’t see is the most conservative option:
Zardes
Dempsey
Johnson Bradley Zusi
Beckerman
Besler Brooks Cameron Yedlin
You guys are funny, remember this is klinsman coaching so forget logic it will be beckerman for Jones,zusi for Bedoya …and sadly Wondo for wood 🙁
Yeah because that is what he has been doing this whole copa with the same starting XI every match…
The US had a much, much tougher group than Argentina, who, outside of Chile, had cupcakes.
Messi did not play against Chile and only a was sub against Bolivia and Panama. Venezuela has always been a weak sister in comnebol and although they played well in the Copa to get to the quarters, were little match for Argentina.
This will be the first hard physical match for Argentina, who do not do well in tough physical matches. In fact Argentina never does well against German competition and with many German influenced players and a German coach, the US may have a small advantage.
A lot of this depends on the referee, should he blow the whistle for ticky- tak fouls, Argentina will “game” the ref all day long and most likely the US will see a red card. If it’s a “play on” ref, We might see this facet, favoring the US.
The best thing for Argentina is to get a goal or two before the half. too early and the US will come back. Leave it late and it will allow the US to force a shootout
I think maybe Argentina has one too many offensive players to match. But if they are profligate and miss too many chances, the US is strong enough to win a low scoring game
As a US fan, I was proud of the way they played in the first half against Ecuador, but embarrassed by the way they played in the second half.
For 2 games in a row the team has had a mental breakdown when under pressure and committed a bunch of stupid, reckless fouls. On top of that, they lost all ability or will to possess the ball in the last 30 minutes of the Ecuador game. It’s sad that they still revert to emergency defending when the pressure is on instead of seeing out the game in a calm professional manner.
Ecuador could have easily scored 3 more goals. Argentina won’t be so forgiving.
i get your comment about emergency defending in the second half of the Ecuador game but you have to consider we were down to 10 men and more importantly were playing the same lineup(no changes) for the 4th game in a span of 13 days. They were beyond tired and JK, in my opinion, did and has done a horrible job of situational substituting. You can’t bring your first sub on at the ’70 or ’72 mark of a game for players that have played that many games in a row. Lets hope JK gets the team sheet right for Argentina because with the confidence this team has built and the effective manner in which they have won games you get the feeling they can win it!
I get what you’re saying about man management, but I think you may be being a little harsh. Its no secret subs can take some time to settle into the game, especially on the defenseive end. While i personally would made a change ASAP; let Zusi or (preferably) Nagbe settle into the game at the same time Ecuador is settling into their down-a-man formation. But if you’re not gonna make a change immediately after the card, I can see why you wouldn’t want to disrupt a tired, but organized defensive system.
Look at the face jk made after the red. That’s not the face of a coach seeing his man get a red; that’s the face of a man whose entire gameplan jut got torn to shreds.
Jk has a pretty good track record of his subs making impacts. I just don’t see him ignoring obvious things like fatugue or card accumulation. It’s not like Bedoya or woods were playing terribly and winded, but jk still kept them in. There has to be some explanation.
Yeah but the casual way Argentina defended against VEN will be their undoing if they keep it up. They had at least 4 clear shots on goal and blew each one of them. I think this will be a closer game than people think. Also remember we have been riding the same starting XI vs. The first match and mostly the same subs . The guys are worn down and that is taking it’s toll.
The last 2 times the US played Argentina, they tied. I think both teams are much better now than 5 years ago.
I just saw the highlights of the 2011 game and Messi looked like a cherub rather than a man. I think he will be much more difficult to stop than he was then. I was at the game and I thought that Bradley pretty much shadowed him, denied him the ball most of the time and steered him into defensive help when he had to.
It will be fun!
haha, a cherub?
Argentina is saying all the right things, but I’m not convinced they actually believe we pose a threat. I’m sure they saw the score of the other game and may have half a mind on facing Chile in the final. In other words, the US does have a slight advantage in being underestimated.
I just had to shake my head at Lalas last night who demanded that we were NOT underdogs against Argentina. Argentina is the best team on paper, and they have played like the best team. Brother, we are underdogs. It will take a lot of things going right for us to hang. I think if we play like we did in the first half against Ecuador we have a shot, and may catch them off guard.
What hurts us more than anything else is not having 3 of most important players. It was so frustrating watching al the fouls in the Arg-Ven game but so few resulting in cards. Then in our match the yellow card was flying out at every challenge it seemed like. And I don’t really think our game was more physical than theirs. The yellow card accumulation rule needs fixed or tossed out completely.
The way the South American powerhouses were dismantling CONCACAF teams like Chile 7 – Mexico 0, Argentina 5 – Panama 0 and Brazil 7 – Haiti 1 were scary. The US has to be extremely discipline against Argentina, especially the first 30 min of the game. If the flood gates broke open, it will be unsalvageable just like the Mexico loss thuds evening. Go USMNT! Shock the world!
Mexico (16) suffered from too much Osorio tinkering in their meltdown. Panama(56) was only down 1-0 when they got whacked with a ‘pent-up’ Messi hat trick. And come on, were you really surprised with the Haiti(74) result? They were punching above their weight to get into this tournament.
It’s not like Uraguay (9), Paraguay(44) & Bolivia(82) did anything in this tournament.
Obviously the better team is Argentina, only missing gaitan, I’m guessing di Maria will be in the line up. If not they have plenty of fire power, we all know that. I’m worried about the Houston crowd showing up, but they need to bring it. The US has to be the more physical team if we want a chance, not saying be cheap but we have to frustrate them in any way possible, knock them off the ball any chance we get to give ourselves a shot. Can’t wait. I’m definitely not counting them out but it will be tough. It certainly won’t be 7-0, ahem.
In Houston, but the marketers have priced me out of the stadium. It appears nearly sold out, but it also seems that resellers bought many blocks of seats that are now up for sale at even higher prices. Will suffer through the awful Fox Sports camera management with friends at home instead. Is there any way to get comments through to the Fox studio guys to get them to play the third and fourth replays during the next stoppage instead of while the game goes on? Not to mention the endless close ups of players walking while the ball is in play off screen!?
Yeah I hear ya, hate that… We can only hope that the coverage is better for this one but I wouldn’t count on it.
what it on univision. No commercial banners, just have to get over the fact its in Spanish.
Watch*
The US has come this far … so try to go for it. They just beat a very very good Ecuadorian side that shares the top stop with Uruguay with 13 points in qualifying and beat Argentina 2-0 in Argentina in qualifying. The 3 suspensions stink and hurt the U.S, but I still think the US has a decent chance. Argentina really did not have a great game against Venezuela, a team with 0 wins in CONCACAF qualifying, but you really do not need a great game to beat Venezuela if you are Argentina. I remember in 2011 Argentina played a friendly in the USA and they were stacked and the USA and Argentina ended up in a 1-1 draw; and this U.S. side is way better than that 2011 side. I hope there is a great atmosphere in Houston and the best to the U.S.
Venezuela gift-wrapped some chances. One goal was basically a “here you go, score on us,” and then there is the terrible penalty miss. I’m not saying that these things changed the outcome of the game, but it could have been a much closer contest if Venezuela hadn’t worked at beating themselves.
If the USMNT gives away anything like that, they’ll lose. But if they keep from hurting themselves, an upset isn’t beyond the realm of possibility.
Argentina was clearly the better team and deserved the win, but Venezuela gave them 2 goals and then missed a PK, so the score could have been much closer. Hopefully the US will do better than Venezuela. It’s pretty scary to realize that Aguero who scored 24 goals for Man City last season isn’t good enough to start for Argentina, so our back line will be tested like never before.
3-1 Argentina beats USA :(. Hope I’m wrong. But I’m proud they’ve made this far.