Friday, October 12, 2012

Argentina 3 - Uruguay 0


The match was between hosts Argentina and visiting Uruguay, but what the fans in Mendoza actually witnessed was the pure brilliance of the undisputed best player in the world, Lionel Messi (pictured, blue #10).  Argentina had more of the ball than did Uruguay in the opening forty-five minutes, but no goals were to come of it.  The best play was when Messi took on four defenders and got through them all before attempting an audacious chip that landed on the roof of the goal twenty-eight minutes into the match.  Messi took a short free kick from the side of the box and drew a nice save out of Uruguay goalkeeper Fernando Muslera.  The halftime score read Argentina 0, Uruguay 0.

It was only a matter of time before Messi broke the deadlock, for Uruguay have been in a terrible run of form lately and offer little of offensive value.  Five minutes in, Uruguay captain and center back Diego Lugano executed a two-footed slide into the chest of Argentina goalkeeper Sergio Romero but was somehow only shown a yellow card rather than a straight red.  Messi had enough of teasing the crowd by the sixty-fifth minute, so he executed a give-and-go with Angel Di Maria.  Di Maria's return pass nutmegged his marker and found its way to a sliding Messi for the finish and a 1-0 lead.  Five minutes later, Messi was the playmaker as his perfectly weighted ball found Di Maria in stride, whose resulting perfectly weighted ball found Sergio Aguero in stride for a tap-in and a 2-0 lead.  With ten minutes left in the match, Messi had a twenty-yard free kick opportunity against a five-man wall.  Messi decided to simply curl the ball along the ground as the wall jumped completely over it, allowing his goal an unimpeded course into the bottom corner of the goal.  Argentina win 3-0 and stand alone atop the CONMEBOL standings at the midway point of the qualification cycle for Brasil 2014.

Argentina 17 pts +12
Colombia 16 pts +8
Ecuador 16 pts +3
Uruguay 12 pts +1
Chile 12 pts -3
Venezuela 11 pts -1
Peru 8 pts -4
Bolivia 5 pts -5
Paraguay 4 pts -11

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