BELGIUM'S GOLDEN BOYS VS MESSI AND THE RELENTLESS COWBOYS

The quarter finals are upon us and we are again blessed wit an intriguing encounter between a team ranked 12th(Belgium) and another ranked 7th(Argentina) but if there anything this world cup has taught us is that never underestimate any team.32 teams have now turned into 8 as we have reached the quarterfinals of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. We have seen our fair share of upsets but the Round of 16 separated the contenders from the pretenders. One match features heavy favorites Argentina, up against dark horse Belgium. Both teams needed high luck to beat their respective opponents as Switzerland put up an amazing fight against an Argentina team who are purely Messi dependent and offered nothing else.

Belgium on the other hand, defeated the US in a 2-1 extra time victory as Kevin De Bryune and Romelu Lukaku found the back of the net, as they were stonewalled for most of the game by Tim Howard. Argentina will no have to take on a Belgium team without starting left back Marcos Rojo as he is suspended after receiving his second yellow card.

If Argentina have any shot of winning this World Cup, and if Lionel Messi ever wants to trump the records of Argentina’s greatest player Diego Maradona, he needs much more out of his team. Hate to sound like the football coach coaching under 10′s but their is no “I” in team. Argentina’s performance was dismal at best as they pulled out a very lucky victory. The Argentine midfield was absolutely dominated by Switzerland’s midfield. In fact, it was so bad at one point that the crowd started saying “OLE” after every pass the Swiss completed.

What was even more shocking was the tactic that Alejandro Sabella started to use of crossing the ball into the box. I may not be a football coach, but it’s obvious, when you have a player of Lionel Messi on your team. there should be very little reason to start crossing against a Swiss defense who all tower 6 feet and above. Argentina crossed the ball 53 times in the match versus Switzerland as Sabella had no game plan on how to break down the Swiss defense who kept the world’s best player silent before, making one good pass to Angel Di Maria.

If Argentina want to have any chance against Belgium they will need much more out of Gonzalo Higuain as he has been more or less useless for Argentina. Now with their biggest task ahead of them, Argentina need a stellar offensive performance. One like back in 2010, as Argentina defeated Mexico 3-1 in stunning attacking fashion. Argentina should know that wherever they will play in Brazil, they will be hated by the crowd and heavily booed. With Switzerland nearly taking the South American force to penalty kicks, Argentina will need to be flawless if they want to beat a Belgium team that has more depth throughout their team.

With Marcos Rojo set to miss the clash against Belgium, Argentina will struggle to find solid defensive options. Rojo was subbed out against Switzerland, making room for Jose Maria Basanta. The current Monterrey left back only has 10 appearances for Argentina, and lacks big game experience. Since Messi prefers the 4-3-3 formation, it looks like Sabella will be sticking with the formation to accommodate to his most priced asset.

With the midfield struggling as a whole, Sabella may regret not taking Ever Banega as he offers great central midfield play. The midfielder seems like he hasn’t met the grade at Valencia, as he’s been sent out on two loan spells. Despite starting off slow, Argentina still dominate as they lead all countries in possession, as they possessed the ball of 65% of all of their matches.

In addition, they are one of the most accurate teams as far as their passing goes as they boast a 87.3% completion ratio. While all of these are positives, it will be interesting to see if Argentina can start off the match at a great pace and won’t need to battle back like their other four games.

Belgium also needed heroics to defeat America after both teams failed to score in regular time. It was at the start of overtime, when Kevin De Bruyne finally beat Tim Howard to give Belgium the lead before Romelu Lukaku scored a second one to make it 2-0. America did pull one back as 19 year old Bayern Munich prodigy Julian Green scored his first International goal. Vincent Kompany was a doubt for the match, but fought through the pain and delivered another performance that is worthy of him wearing the captains armband.

The Belgian defense looked dominant and needed Courtois only few times to make a save. Belgium got a great game out of Jan Vertonghen as he seemed to be everywhere throughout the pitch. 41% of Belgium’s attack came from the left hand side, as Vertonghen was heavily involved with the attack. In fact, Vertonghen made 59 sprints, second to only Kevin De Bruyne who made 67, but Vertonghen was the fastest among his teammates as he hit a top speed 31.21 km/h. The back four of Belgium played the whole entirety of the match against America and could be fatiguing come Saturday.

Belgium went for the choice to start Divock Origi instead of going with Romelu Lukaku up front. Origi did play well but could not score for Belgium. Lukaku subbed in at the start of extra time and ended up scoring 15 minutes after being subbed in. It should be interesting to see whether or not Coach Marc Wilmots starts with Lukaku up front, or opts for Origi instead.

Marc Wilmots will need much more out of left attacking midfielder Eden Hazard as he has been quiet given the fantastic season he had at Chelsea. Hazard has only given two assists and has not done much otherwise since the start of the world cup. Wilmots has been getting great play out of former Chelsea player Kevin De Bruyne as the current VfL Wolfsburg midfielder has scored 1 goal while giving 2 assists.  De Bruyne, Hazard and Mertens have been leading the pack for Belgium as they offer the same type of fast attacking play, leaving defenders wary on what they could do next.

De Bruyne’s averages 49.7 passes per game during this World Cup, 7.3 higher than his average was at Wolfsburg in the second half of the season. De Bruyne’s pass succession rate also sky rocketed as he has completed 83.2% instead of the 74.1% he averaged with Wolfsburg. Lastly, De Bruyne has also been passing much more effectively as averages 5 key passes per game instead of the 3.2 at Wolfsburg.