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#2 An Icelandic study in the art of thwarting a talented attack
The Iceland manager, Heimir Hallgrímsson, has managed to drill into his side the ethos of not knowing how to get beat. And that is built of the solid foundation of relentless defensive doggedness. While Argentina were concerned with keeping all of the ball, the minnows were only concerned with their shape.
As the finalists from Brazil, four years ago, kept piling on the pressure, the Icelandic rear-guard stood firm. The heavily-reinforced defence managed to keep most of the threat away from their penalty area, with Messi forced to go for goal from outside the box. Although Argentina went on to register a whole array of shots on goal, the debutants were quick to deny the opposition any space or time in and around the goal.
The debutants were not at all interested in playing the offside trap, as they probably figured that the pace in the opposition ranks greatly overpowers that of their back-line. With a less than 100% fit captain in central defensive midfield, the newcomers were far more comfortable with all men behind the ball, with all of the Argentina side in front of them.
They never gave them the space to run in behind, loaded the box with numbers in defence, and were quick to close down any threat that arose from Messi getting onto the ball. In fact, even Angel di Maria and Kun Aguero were rendered useless for the fair majority of the game.
Despite Argentina camping near the opposition penalty area, the superiority in numbers for Iceland meant that Argentina never really had a decent chance or a clear opening. Their levels never dropped and a lot of credit needs to go into the work put in by the team in the training sessions.
