Sabella knew his task when he took over was to find a solution to the team’s defensive problems.
Keeping clean sheets was more important to start with than anything else.
And from those times comes his famous or infamous phrase “I would take a ½-0 win” that so many (including myself) criticised so much.
He tried, and is still trying to find a defensive balance, and while sometimes has worked, others has not. The players have not shown enough consistency to generate confidence in the Manager.
So Sabella has now taken a different attitude towards the problem.
He is still determined to tighten things up at the back, but he has realised that the team’s power going forward is incredible, and making good use of those resources, may see Argentina through at the moment.
So he uses Messi, Higuain, Aguero and Di Maria rotating positions, making it difficult for the opposition to guess where are they going to come from, and who to mark.
The “no matter how many you score, we know we can score one more than you” plan of the past 2 games have brought as a result 2 wins, 8 goals for and 3 against. One of those victories was for a qualifying game for the next World Cup, and the other against their old rivals Brazil.
And to score 4 goals on each game is a proof of that power and efficiency that the above mentioned players bring to the occasion.
Against Brazil yesterday it was a superb game to watch. The 5 times world champions started brightly and went 1-0 up. Neymar was very lively and if it wasn’t for Romero in goal Argentina could have been 3 down after 10 minutes.
But football has those things, and when the best in the world gets chances, he makes them count.
What Neymar could not do on the other side in many opportunities, Messi did with his first real touch of the ball.
Higuain played a nicely timed pass to Lio, who beat the whole defence to the ball and finished with class.
Three minutes later, he had his second chance of the game and his team were 2-1 up. Once again he made the run and Di Maria found him this time for the Barcelona man to score again.
The second half began very much like the first one. Brazil dominating and creating chances with the Goalkeeper keeping the team ahead.
However things were about to change, and the verde amarelho scored twice through bad defending to go ahead 3-2.
It was all high tempo, creative football going forward from both sides. Electrifying end to end stuff which had the 81000 crowd on their feet for most parts of it.
From a corner, Federico Fernandez got the equalising goal with a header well placed.
When the game was dying, there was still time for one more gem from Messi.
A spectacular solo effort that ended up on the net to sentence the 4-3 final score, and yet another hat trick for “La Pulga”.