to be fair riquelme was by far the best player at world cup 2006, the idiot argentina manager subbed him off when he was running the game and argentina ended up losing from a winning position, i genuinely believe that argentina would of won world cup 2006 otherwise as i believe they were the best team at that tournament.
Pekerman an idiot?
I'd take him over every coach Argentina has had since then, combined.
Trying to grind it out was a terrible mistake, and Pekerman's subs choices were poor but everyone always forgets the following:
-Pato (not the Brazilian) was injured, costing Argentina a sub and leading to an inferior keeper playing.
-Riquelme was out of it of sorts when he was subbed. Replacing him with Cambiasso and trying to shut up shop that early however, was not a good call.
While the Crespo-Cruz sub was baffling, Cruz did make his penalty kick at least. And we really need to stop with the "Messi would have saved them!" propaganda, Messi wouldn't have been a bad choice for a sub but Saviola or Aimar would have made as much sense coming on. Cambiasso for Riquelme wouldn't have been nearly as bad had Pekerman kept one sub for emergency purposes, as results might have been different had there been the option to bring on Messi/Savioa/Aimar after the Klose equalizer. Of course had Pato not gotten injured everything would have been much more clear cut...
