U-20 World Cup starts today

Originally Posted by S/Side.Red

Anyone in particular - other than Aguero - to look out for in the Argentina side, Grimson?

I've allowed myself to become badly out of touch with Argentine football in the last year or two.

No one player other than Aguero comes to mind, but I've been impressed with their cohesion in the back. They've conceded just one goal and allowed very few chances the entire tournament.

I'm not Grimson, as you know, but the main players to watch out for as far as I'm concerned are Boca's Ever Banega at number 5 and playmaker Maxi Moralez of Racing.

Arsenal are very interested in Rosario Central's Ángel Di María, he hasn't been stunningly good or anything, but has been quite impressive.

Oh yeah, I saw Banega against Gremio.

I'll look out for Morales. Number 17 according to the squad lists.

Lovely through ball by Di María there to set up the goal.

Be interesting to see how Mexico respond now.

Not much of a response so far. They've stayed calm and played some decent football, but it's to the point you'd expect more numbers getting forward, more risks. 80th minute, still 1-0.

Expected a bit better from this match. Some nice moments from Argentina, but they never really got into their passing rhythm.

Thought Mexico were surprisingly poor going forward, although a lot of credit has to go to the Argentina defence for that. The lines were nice and compact and they closed down the Mexicans very quickly, particularly when they tried to play the ball forward quickly. The Argentines also forced and pressed the Mexicans higher up the pitch quite effectively to stop the Mexicans from building the play more patiently from the back, meaning that a lot of balls were played forward from deep areas, not the sort of supply that Dos Santos is suited to.

Towards the end it was just a question of Argentina sitting back and trying to hit the Mexicans on the break. They did this well too, not dropping too deep and staying compact to compress the midfield.

Argentina-Chile tonight at 00:45 on Eurosport 2.

This Thursday 19 July, the National Soccer Stadium in Toronto is set to host an all-South American affair, with CONMEBOL's two remaining representatives Chile and Argentina going head-to-head for a place in the FIFA U-20 World Cup Final.

The match
Chile v Argentina, Toronto, 19 July, 19.45 (local time)

The stakes
Both teams have recorded four wins and one draw at the tournament thus far, with the redoubtable Chilean defence having yet to concede a single goal. At the quarter-final stage, La Rojita powered past Nigeria 4-0, while Argentina were made to sweat for their 1-0 win over Mexico.

The players
Argentina have no players suspended, although a muscular injury keeps Damian Escudero out of contention. There is better news for Mauro Zarate, though, who has overcome a knee problem and is fit to play. Talismanic defender Arturo Vidal returns for Chile after a one-game suspension, but Christian Sepulveda misses out after picking up two yellow cards.

The past
Argentina and Chile have never played each other at a FIFA U-20 World Cup. They have, however, faced off three times in South American qualifying, with one win for the Albicelestes and two draws. The last of these, a 0-0 stalemate, took place on 23 January this year in the Paraguayan capital of Asuncion.

The Argentinian front-line, led by the tournament's joint top scorer Sergio El Kun Aguero, are determined to become the first to beat La Rojita keeper Cristopher Toselli at Canada 2007. Toselli has now gone 480 minutes without conceding a goal, and five more would see him break the record set by Brazil legend Claudio Taffarel back in 1985.

The words
"We're not going to underestimate Chile, who have performed very well at this tournament. But I don't think they're going to be as attack-minded against us as they were against Nigeria. They'll be a bit more cautious. Even so, I'm not concerned because I've got faith in our ability and attacking prowess." Sergio Aguero, Argentina forward.

"We've achieved something special in reaching the semi-finals, but we'll only go down in history if we can get our hands on the trophy. We're only thinking about winning the title, third or fourth place is not an option. We know Argentina well, they are our last obstacle before the final." Mauricio Isla, Chile midfielder.

1-0 Argentina. Stunning left footed half-volley by Di María from a great assist by Banega.

Unfortunately Chile are down to ten men after Medel kicked out at Moralez, but since then have played some excellent football and have probably been the better team overall. Having said that, Argentina have looked very dangerous and could easily have had another goal or two. There was one chance in particular when Moralez played a great through ball to Di María who managed to scoop it over Toselli from maybe 5 yards out, but he didn't get enough power on the shot and the Chilean defender managed to clear it.

Another incident of note was when a Chilean player, I forget who, very nearly managed to score from around the halfway line after he spotted Romero off his line. Shot just went wide.

Fantastic first half.

3-0 Argentina in the end. Excellent play by Moralez to set up Yacob for the second goal, but other than that the second half was pretty poor really. Lots and lots of niggly fouls and that's about it. Chile ended up with 9 men and could easily have been down to 7 or 8.

Frustrating to see a potentially great match ruined like that.

Not seen the match yet but heard the ref completely fell for the usual argie antics and in fact ruined the game.

Some people marvel at argentina but i hate them, it's always the same shit with those £#%&!ers. dirtiest football nation in the world, nasty cheating @#%&!s.

1-0 Di María
[DM]4vHlkGZN2fJUBibPG[/DM]

2-0 Yacob
[DM]3RiCsrsGITr7yibVo[/DM]

3-0 Moralez
[DM]1C5Iof2Z1vdrTibZV[/DM]

All over. 2-1 Argentina. A good game to finish off an excellent tournament. That makes it 5 out of the last 7 for the albicelestes.

Kun Aguero won both the golden ball and the golden boot. I probably would have given the former to either Maxi Moralez or Ever Banega, both of whom excelled in their roles, although Aguero had a very good tournament too.