World Cup Corner

Congratulations to the young guns of Argentina as they picked up their sixth World Cup U20 title.

The Albicelestes (the white and sky blues) found themselves a goal down after 60 minutes and fearing the worse. But the South Americans refused to lie down and quickly found an equalizer from Golden Ball winner Sergio Aguero. They proceeded to strike the winning goal in the 86th minute from Mauro Zarate.

Sergio Aguero, who finished as the competition’s top scorer with six goals, also won the Golden Ball, following in the footsteps of Diego Maradona (1979) and Lionel Messi (2005) as past winners. Aguero who plys his trade as a forward in La Liga with Atlético Madrid has this to say…
“This was a very special tournament for me… to finish as the top scorer and be named the best player and also to win the championship. It will never happen again in my life. I’m excited to win the Golden Ball like (Diego Maradona) did.”

Sunday’s finale was an interesting study in playing styles that pitted South American flair versus European strength. The Czechs played a defensive and physical game, continually soaking pressure while waiting for opportunities to launch a counterattack. By contrast, the Argentines relied on a short passing game to move up the field, forcing the Czechs to chase shadows.

After an uneventful first half, the game came alive with end-to-end action in the second half. As the Czechs grew in confidence with increased possession and attacking play, their efforts eventually paid off in the 60th minute. Kalouda skinned past two defenders and fed Martin Fenin, who then turned his marker to send the old onion bag bulging.

However, the Czech’s joy was short-lived. Within a minute, playmaker Ever Banega split the Czech defense and Aguero rushed into the box to finish at the near post.

From then on, Argentina took complete control of the game, sending wave after wave of attacks into the Czech’s defensive territory.

“I was shocked when the Czechs scored, but we looked at each other in the face and said we’ve got to get the game back, so we really worked towards doing it and we were able to gain control back.” Aguero said.

Argentina was finally rewarded for its attacking persistence when Zarate scored late in the game with a shot from just inside the box.

Argentina’s coach Tocalli said, “It was a difficult game, but we didn’t back down when we were down 1-0. We were confident we could come back, we knew we could do it and Zarate’s goal was great.”