ATWC : GROUP J

 The group, the schedule, the stadiums, the squads, the games (please click on the pictures for a better view).

THE GAMES

DAY 1 :

ARGENTINA - MOROCCO at International Stadium Yokohama, Japan (capacity 72.000)

ARGENTINA - MOROCCO : 2 - 1

A good game with some quality football from both sides. Morocco lacked a goalscorer. Argentina perhaps lost one.

GOALS (Passarella o.g., Maradona pk, Messi)

26' : Hakimi goes forward, crosses the ball... and it's a goal ! By Passarella, against his camp. He's the second player to score an own goal in the tournament, after Zitouni in Belgium vs Algeria.

61' : Kempes is scraped back by Naybet... penalty. Maradona unlocks the scoreboard for Argentina. Zaki touched it...

86' : Messi takes on Mezraoui, cuts in, and scores ! This should mean the win for Argentina.

Yellow cards : Naybet (59').

Man of the Match : Maradona was the ball magnetizer in this match and perhaps that he made his team to look better than it actually is, so far.

RATINGS :

Argentina :

Fillol 6,5 - Zanetti 4 - Ayala 5 - Passarella 4,5 - Marzolini 4,5 - Ardiles 6 - Redondo 5,5 (Mascherano 79') - Messi 6,5 - Maradona 7 - Sivori 2,5 (Di Maria 46', 5,5) - Di Stéfano (Kempes 12', 5). Tot. : 58,25.

Morocco :

Zaki 6,5 - Hakimi 6,5 - Benatia 6,5 - Naybet 4,5 - Mezraoui 5 - Dolmy 5 - Mahjoub 5 (Kharja 72') - Ziyech 5,5 - Ben Barek 5 - Timoumi 5 (Bouderbala 79') - Faras 3,5 (Hadji 65'). Tot. : 58.

Fillol - He shown his talents in a couple of occasions : by blocking a great shoot by Dolmy (when Morocco could have make it 2-0 in the first half) an by saving a Hadji header (to prevent Morocco to make it 2-2).

Zanetti - offensively, he barely crossed the half-way line. Defensively, we saw him struggling in several occasions. 

Ayala - He took the best out of Faras. Not the most difficult task, today.

Passarella - Passarella scored an own goal. Not the best way of starting a tournament for a defender.

Marzolini - At the image of the whole Argentine defense, we saw nothing exceptional in him. The Moroccan goal also comes from his side of the pitch.

Ardiles - The little Argentine midfielder shown much activity and precision in his passes. He also shown some great dribbling skills.

Redondo - He combined much with Maradona (always forgetting Sivori). We saw a good plamaker in him but he was caught off-guard a couple of times. A diamatrically opposed player replaced him : Mascherano. Argentina scored their second goal when he was on the field, recovering the ball several times and distributing it cleanly enough to the artists.

Maradona - He mostly played in the zone of his starting position, i.e. central attacking midfielder. From there, we saw him perforing the Moroccan double-pivot a couple of times and targeting Kempes several times. The first Argentinian goal came from the penaltt spot. Zaki was not far to save it but the shoot of Diego was... perfect. since it's in ! A decisive goal and much presence that gave consistance to his team.

Sivori 2 - in the starting plan, he was supposed to combine with Di Stefano. He seemed a bit lost on the field and was subbed out as soon as at half-time when it was 1-0 for Morocco. It is true that his colleagues did not pass him the ball. It is also true that when he had the ball at his feet, he always went solo, for a few effect...

His replacement was Di Maria who brang balance to the team.

Di Stéfano - Di Stefano, who did not look in form, received several knocks as soon as the game had started and was subbed out at the 12th minute, which permitted to see a bit of Kempes upfront, with Maradona behind him, most of the time. Was he fit enough to start in this match? That's the question. Hopefully, the tournament is long enough for we should see him back, soon or later.

His replacement Kempes played very upfront as a classical number 9... which was certainly an insruction from the coaching staff. He did not score but he was convincing in this specific role.

Messi - Mezraoui seemed to have taken the best of him, but "La Pulga Atomica" had the last word. During the match, he broke the Moroccan midfield line a couple of times in brilliant fashion but combined too few with Maradona, which was not only because of him. In spite of this, both of them had a good game, being the main menaces to the Moroccan defense. And both scored... for the win.

Zaki - The result of the game does not erase the three great saves he had, noticeably against Maradona, one time, in open-play, and against Messi and Kempes, one time each as well.

The Moroccan back-four : Hakimi, who brang the first goal of the match, stood out. Benatia was solid and also had good distribution. Naybet only made one mistake, but a decisive one. Same thing for Mezraoui, who had overall a good game though.

Dolmy and Majhoub : both shown to be excellent footballers, especially in the first half. It became more and more complicate in the second half, as they had to deal with... Maradona... and Messi.

The Parisian-born Kharja replaced the former Racing player Mahjoub. Against an Albiceleste which was pushing, he could not do much and could not prevent Ardiles to pass the ball to Messi at the 86th minute.

Ben Barek : he most of all gave a glimpse of the centre-half he used to be at the very start of his playing career, in Morocco. Indeed, he helped much at midfield, and the energy spent there was a bit gone when it came to go on the attack.

Timoumi : he who likes to play more centrally and from a deeper position was asked to play as the left midfielder of his team, there. He had a balanced game, between dropping back and a more creative role, mostly by the pass, here. He was replaced by Bouderbala in view of getting the equalizer. The latter played with more freedom and noticeably ridiculized Zanetti by dribbling past him. He did not have a shot on target though and his last passes were not converted into assists.

Ziyech : we expected more from this player who was presented to us as a special talent. He has had very intelligent positionning though (allowing Hakimi to go forward). He looked like he was forced to defend but he did quite well at it.

Faras : did not quite exist in this game. At the start of the game, we even doubted if he could control the ball. We've been reassured on that a bit later, at least.

He was subbed out a tad after the hour of play. Hadji was then lined-up as the front-man, which could have been successful, if not for Fillol.

Morocco played with a different jersey for each half as it tore too easily.

MEXICO - SCOTLAND at Suwon World Cup Stadium, South Korea (capacity 44.000)

MEXICO - SCOTLAND : 1 - 0 

It could have remained a match for the keepers who were brilliant but Mexico eventually found its way to victory with a goal by former Mexico NT top-scorer ever, Jared Borgetti.

It has not escaped anyone's notice that Hansen was faulty, serving Herrera on a plate, who was not asked twice to cross the ball in the box.

The Law-Dalglish pairing looked dull, with Dalglish still being able to create chances for himself. The central defense pairing Miller-Hansen looked questionable as well and McGrain did not help much. Without Goram, Mexico would have probably putted the ball in the back of the nets earlier.

Both teams had great moments starting their actions from the centre of the field, with midfielders who were in turns either highlighted or not in their best light.

GOALS (Borgetti)

81' : Scotland are beaten on a "fadeawayheader" by Borgetti. Exactly 4 minutes and 15 seconds after he entered the scene. Assist : Hector Herrera.

Yellow Cards : Suarez 38', Salcido 56', Souness and Herrera 69', Bremner 86'.

Man of the Match : Ochoa and Goram made great saves each their turn. In the end, Ochoa's team win the game and he's awarded with the MotM little statuette.

RATINGS :

Mexico :

Ochoa 6,5 - Osorio 6 - Suarez 6 - Marquez 6 - Salcido 5 - Herrera 5 - Pardo 5 - De La Fuente 5 - Negrete 5 (Lozano 66') - Sanchez 4,5 (Torrado 82') - Hernandez 5 (Borgetti 77'). Tot. : 59.

Scotland :

Goram 6,5 - McGrain 4,5 - Hansen 3,5 -  Miller 4,5 - Robertson 5,5 - Johnstone 5,5 - Bremner 5 - Souness 5 - Baxter 5 (Gemmill 70') - Dalglish 5 - Law 4. Tot. : 54.

Scottish influence in Mexican football : https://www.scottishfootballmuseum.org.uk/news/scottish-influence-in-mexican-football/