The Clasico of Clasicos

It is almost here. Tomorrow night, Argentina vs. Brazil. This is probably my favorite match up ever. I have a lot of memories of the South American clasico. Some good, some bad, but it is always a great experience. Unfortunately I am going to be traveling and will be relegated to streaming the game if anything.

This particular edition has a lot of interesting subplots. Maradona vs. Dunga 19 years after the famous game from Italia 90, Messi vs. Kaka, the importance it has re WCQ, the change of venue to Rosario, the peculiar mix of players Maradona has called into the squad, the return of Adriano to the Brazilian national team.

I don't think the Brazilian team sheet has been released yet but Argentina will line up in a 4-4-2:

Andjuar

Heinze, Otamendi, Seba Dominguez, Zanetti

Maxi Rodriguez, Mascherano, Veron, Datolo

Messi, Tevez


There are a few question marks with this formation but all in all I think if the players execute Argentina will be fine. In central defense are two players who have never played club football in Europe and have 2 caps between them. That is the bad. The good is that they make up the tandem at Velez Sarsfield, the defending Argentine champions, and were responsible for the league's lowest goals against last term. To be fair Maradona called Otamendi into the squad early on and raised some eyebrows but had his vision vindicated when he came to dominate the first division last year. With Demichelis injured and Coloccini in poor form (he probably shouldn't have even been called to the squad in my opinion) Maradona didn't have many other choices but going with such a green central defense still makes me a bit nervous.

The injury to Jonas Gutierrez is more of a blow than many people thing. In the game in Brazil he was key in shutting down Maicon. This Brazilian team uses the attacking right-back as a key to their offense and Jonas is the perfect player to neutralize that. The job will now fall to Maxi Rodriguez who is a good player but not as specialized in that area.

I continue to think the national team needs a number 9 up front and the Messi-Tevez combo does not strike me as the best option when there are guys like Milito and Licha Lopez to choose from. Still, those two are more than capable of changing a game in flash and over the course of 90 minutes I suspect they will have chance to do so. What I like in this set up is the more narrow look of the team going forward may allow for more coherent linkage between Veron, who will be the 10, and the strikers. In the 4-3-3 they used against Colombia the team was spread to thin for the Veron-Messi partnership to be much of a threat and the opposing defenders snuffed out any danger far from goal.

I like Argentina's options of the bench but Brazil has probably as many weapons to choose from. In addition I think Dunga is a very, very good in-game manager and despite all of Maradona's experience and knowledge he is still new to coaching. For Argentina to win it is imperative that the players on the field beat their men one on one.

My prediction is Argentina 2-0 Brazil.