The Argentinian goal wasn't that good !

[Termite Man]

And the last few passes could have split any defence. Instinctive stuff.

Completly agree but not with the rest of the assesment ! The Serbians could have been tighter to their men , they could have made effort to close down players . I've just watched the footage again and I could identify 6 times when a serbian player made a meaningfull attempt to close down an Argentinian player . 3 of those were in the first 3 passes , if we also include the 1 touch stuff that takes us to 10 passes that were in some way pressured out of 24 - less than 50% .
They gave the Argentinians time and space to knock the ball about and open them up , the Argentinians worked it well found the space well and exploited it , but the Serbians woefull defending helped !

 

[bertifrew]

to be fair the idiot comment was just frustration , but just because a team plays well in qualifying doesn't mean they are good all the time . At the point in the game when that goal was scored the Serbian defense was almost non-existant , partly due to good argentinian play at the end of the move and partly due to a disinclination to pressure for the ball by the Serbians . How good the defence is at any other point in time is completly irrelevant !

well thats fair comment, but they are not, in general, a bad defence. We're not talking about one game when they defended well, we're talking about a series of games over 2 years. Imo thats fairly consistent.

 

[Termite Man]

well thats fair comment, but they are not, in general, a bad defence. We're not talking about one game when they defended well, we're talking about a series of games over 2 years. Imo thats fairly consistent.

But they are allowed an off game . It's a shame it was against such good opposition !