Demichelis, Biglia, and even Basanta to an extent really solidified Argentina's defense to proper KO tournament quality (at least seemingly). It'll be an extremely tough ask to contain the Dutch who are used to scoring several goals per game (and would've today if it weren't for Navas and extreme misfortune with the framework). I'm scared as hell about Rojo versus Robben and Masch needs to be at full force to break up attacks driving from midfield counters. They love hoofing long balls to the middle where Sneijder/RVP/Robben are so winning as many aerial duels as possible is important. Honestly, I'd be surprised if they can keep a clean sheet. The true objective is just to mitigate the damage that the Dutch can cause.
Perez will be there in place of Di Maria and while he's a good support player on both ends, he will never provide the drive that Angel does. That's why the pressure really is on Messi to take the game by the neck and dominate it as much as he can. He needs to get on the ball as much as possible which requires his own movement as well as Sabella not playing him in stupid positions (up front as a LF next to Higuain, wtf
). Higgy needs to bring his best again to help give Messi space as well as being there to score whatever chances he can be at the end of. It may be ugly, but Lavezzi needs to draw as many fouls as he can from De Vrij (a tough tackler) or Martins Indi (a brute) if he finds himself close to him during counters. That means FK's, pens, anything he can manage. Of course he should prioritize scoring and assisting when possible, but winning fouls is important for an attacker as slippery and active as he is.
The Dutch look poor for most opening spells of the game (1st half, a decent portion of the 2nd half) and have 0 control which is the time to score and try and put the game to bed. That showed today as Costa Rica matched them for most of the 1st 60 minutes, against Mexico when they were shit until they came back in the last 10 minutes, and most prominently against Spain when their entire destruction was in the 2nd half but they looked average before that. After that poor opening period, do not let them have any long spells attacking so that they can turn it up as they have shown. Interrupt it the way Brazil did to Colombia. Argentina need to dominate the ball and the space so that they find it difficult to create counterattacking situations. This is a very, very big challenge for Argentina to overcome en route to the final but it can be done. I just pray they maintain a great performance for a full 90 minutes rather than what we've seen for the entire tournament.
