I'm too lazy to look up the exact dates, but we just started an international break!
I watched a good portion of Argentina-Chile last night, and boy did the match deliver the goods. Argentina won 2-1 away at Calama, a small desert town at 7,400 feet above sea level. Chile was trying to gain an advantage by 1) having Argentina travel much farther and less conveniently than to Santiago, 2) play at altitude, and 3) preparing for their next match @Bolivia. Emi Martinez also posted that the team was held up at the airport, and that the team hotel was cut off from water, with fire alarms going off throughout the night. Classic CONMEBOL shithousery, but I have to think the old method of just sending an army of prostitutes would've worked better. It didn't matter though. Angel Di Maria got the scoring started with a pearl of a curler low and to the far post. Chile then equalized with a beautiful diagonal ball to Ben Brereton who had a lot of work to do, but managed to generate a ton of power on a header and loop one over Emi Martinez. He's clearly taken the mantle as the best Chilean player. Not long after, Papu Gomez did well to shake off a couple of stiff challenges in the middle, get a pass off to De Paul, who did very well to take some space and launch a goddamn cannon shot that Bravo could only deflect, that Lautaro was able to pounce on the rebound and reach the final scoreline. Bravo came off injured after that, and I really think the force of the shot caused it. Messi wasn't called for these WCQ, and many players and coaches (including coach Scaloni) were ruled out due to COVID. Gutsy win for the albiceleste. Argentina will be without Otamendi, Paredes, and perhaps others due to yellow card accumulation for their next match against Colombia.
In other CONMEBOL results, Ecuador drew 1-1 against Brazil with a red card for each team. The Brazil red card for Emerson was charmin soft, but such is life in int'l football. And Uruguay beat Paraguay away to surge into 4th (with an extra match played over most other sides). The table is still very congested, with only Venezuela and Paraguay the only ones without a real shot to reach 5th. Teams 5-8 are all within 2 points of each other. Tonight, Colombia hosts Peru, 5th and 6th in the table currently and even on points (Colombia ahead on GD), and Venezuela hosts Bolivia.
I watched a good portion of Argentina-Chile last night, and boy did the match deliver the goods. Argentina won 2-1 away at Calama, a small desert town at 7,400 feet above sea level. Chile was trying to gain an advantage by 1) having Argentina travel much farther and less conveniently than to Santiago, 2) play at altitude, and 3) preparing for their next match @Bolivia. Emi Martinez also posted that the team was held up at the airport, and that the team hotel was cut off from water, with fire alarms going off throughout the night. Classic CONMEBOL shithousery, but I have to think the old method of just sending an army of prostitutes would've worked better. It didn't matter though. Angel Di Maria got the scoring started with a pearl of a curler low and to the far post. Chile then equalized with a beautiful diagonal ball to Ben Brereton who had a lot of work to do, but managed to generate a ton of power on a header and loop one over Emi Martinez. He's clearly taken the mantle as the best Chilean player. Not long after, Papu Gomez did well to shake off a couple of stiff challenges in the middle, get a pass off to De Paul, who did very well to take some space and launch a goddamn cannon shot that Bravo could only deflect, that Lautaro was able to pounce on the rebound and reach the final scoreline. Bravo came off injured after that, and I really think the force of the shot caused it. Messi wasn't called for these WCQ, and many players and coaches (including coach Scaloni) were ruled out due to COVID. Gutsy win for the albiceleste. Argentina will be without Otamendi, Paredes, and perhaps others due to yellow card accumulation for their next match against Colombia.
In other CONMEBOL results, Ecuador drew 1-1 against Brazil with a red card for each team. The Brazil red card for Emerson was charmin soft, but such is life in int'l football. And Uruguay beat Paraguay away to surge into 4th (with an extra match played over most other sides). The table is still very congested, with only Venezuela and Paraguay the only ones without a real shot to reach 5th. Teams 5-8 are all within 2 points of each other. Tonight, Colombia hosts Peru, 5th and 6th in the table currently and even on points (Colombia ahead on GD), and Venezuela hosts Bolivia.
