Messi mesmerized Venezuela’s defense last Saturday night, but will he be frustrated vs USMNT in Houston?
BARNSTABLE, MASS — As the cheers rang out around Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA for Lionel Messi before, during, and after Argentina’s 4-1 demolition of Venezuela it was a joyous moment for everybody involved. Every other shirt as far as the eye could see was emblazoned with “MESSI” on the back, front, or in one case — all over it.
It was a poignant reminder of just how popular the Argentine is in the United States of America, which could prove troublesome as the United States Men’s National Team faces him in a few hours time in Houston, TX for a place in the Copa America Final.
Argentina are heavy favorites to win the game, and recently Michael Bradley took issue with the fact that all of the talk seems to be about the best player in the world.
Bradley told media in Houston:
“I think you guys are probably worrying more about Messi than we are,” Bradley scowled. “He’s a very good player – again, that’s probably understating it, but it’s still a soccer game…In the last five minutes of me standing here, look at even just the questions that you guys all ask. So much of it is dictated from you guys,” Bradley said. “For us, again, it’s a game. It’s a semifinal, against Argentina, 11 of them against 11 of us. There’s a bunch of very good players on their team. We have a few good players as well.”
Safe to say, then, that the media attention is getting to the USMNT. But that’s where the USMNT like to be — under the radar, the underdog, the no-hoper’s that come back from the brink for an emphatic win.
Bradley has a point, too, as soon as each set of eleven players step out onto the field it’s ninety minutes of competition. If every team gave Messi too much respect, then he would tear them apart like he did Venezuela. Messi can be stopped, but the USMNT will need to be disciplined.
Jurgen Klinsmann has re-iterated this in press conferences this week citing Mexico’s 7-0 loss to Chile last Saturday evening. “What you want to tell the players is there’s no split second to relax here,” warned Klinsmann “It’s actually the opposite. You have to step it up even further.”
Argentina looked dominant on Saturday evening against Venezuela, but there were times that the Argentines looked like they maybe on the back foot. The middle of the side is decidedly soft, for example. Ramiro Funes Mori and Nicolas Otamendi have looked extremely beatable at times, while Ever Banega and Javier Mascherano have looked unimpressive in their own right when deployed in central midfield.
“It’s not that they win every game — they lose games as well,” Klinsmann reminded the press — and he’s right, too. All of the pressure of this evening is firmly on Argentina and Lionel Messi. Messi is looking to secure his legacy by propelling Argentina to a 3rd major tournament final in 3 years after losing the 2014 World Cup Final to Germany and the 2015 Copa America to Chile.
In his post game press conference Saturday Argentina coach Tata Martino echoed these concerns telling media “We came here with one goal [to win Copa]and we still have that… We were perhaps not ready in previous years.”
Martino himself warned that it is anything but a forgone conclusion that Argentina will be representing CONMEBOL in the Copa America Centenario Final at MetLife Stadium.
“I always say any team that gets to this stage in a tournament, like the US, they get there because of their own merit,” stated the Argentina boss before adding “they [USMNT] had a very difficult group, and they even lost the first game, but they recovered.”
Martino also doesn’t see it an issue that the USMNT has three suspended players for this game. USMNT fans had been hopeful that Jermaine Jones would win his appeal against a red card shown to him in the game versus Ecuador.
“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.”
The USMNT go into this Semi Final match against Lionel Messi and Argentina with no expectations. That is when they are their most dangerous. We already know that Christian Pulisic is a candidate to mix things up — the teenager has shown flashes of brilliance in games he has played for both Dortmund and USMNT this year. John Brooks has established himself as a near world-class defender too, alongside the extremely reliable Geoff Cameron.
Though it isn’t a direct comparison the build up to this game screams of 1980 and the “Miracle on Ice.” The United States hockey team were comprised of amateurs and collegiate level players, and were facing a Soviet Union team that had won 6 of the last 7 Olympic gold medals for ice hockey. The United States came from 3-2 down in the 3rd period to overcome the Soviet’s 4-3. They went on to beat Finland to secure the gold medal.
Michael Bradley summed up the US’s “can-do” attitude quite simply: “It’s still 11 of their guys against 11 of our guys. Our mentality has to be that we’re going to make the game as hard as possible and have the mentality and the commitment to do it over and over and over again for 90 minutes.”
If the United States scalp Messi and Argentina tonight, it’ll surely be their “Miracle on Grass.”
Lineups
Argentina: Sergio Romero (GK); Gabriel Mercado; Ramiro Funes Mori; Nicolas Otamendi; Marcos Rojo; Augusto Fernandez; Javier Mascherano; Ever Banega; Lionel Messi; Gonzalo Higuain; Ezequiel Lavezzi.
United States Men’s National Team (Probable): Brad Guzan (GK); DeAndre Yedlin; Geoff Cameron; John Brooks; Timothy Chandler; Graham Zusi; Kyle Beckman; Michael Bradley; Christian Pulisic; Clint Dempsey; Gyasi Zardes.
