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| Powerhouse Argentina Concludes Group Play Versus Greece |
Argentina coach Maradona will be forced to shuffle his starting lineup here as a result of suspensions due to bookings and injuries. Nicolás Otamendi will start for Jonás Gutierrez after Gutierrez received his second yellow card in the game against South Korea. Mario Bolatti replaces Javier Mascherano, as team captain Mascherano is being held out to avoid receiving a second yellow card in what is essentially a meaningless game. Ángel Di María will likely be replaced with left back Clemente Rodríguez, and Nicolas Burdisso will start in place of Inter Milan’s Walter Samuel who is dealing with a nagging leg injury. One notable player who won’t be held out is Lionel Messi—Maradona specifically dismissed suggestions that the 2009 World player of the year would sit out against Greece: "Lionel Messi always wants to play and I thought I should give him a break (in training), but if you have a player as good as Leo, who is the best player in the world, I think it would be a sin not to give Messi to the people, to the team, and leave out the player who can certainly make the difference in a match. We of course wanted to give Lionel Messi a break (in training). He will play." The bad news for Greece is that Argentina may have the most depth of any side in the tournament, and there will be little if any appreciable drop-off in play with the reserves in the lineup. Compounding the difficulty for Greece to obtain a favorable result here is the motivation of the reserves to ‘make a statement’ and take advantage of the playing time they’ve been afforded. Ultimately, Argentina just has too many weapons for Greece—or for that matter most teams—to contend with. It’s very difficult to envision a scenario in which Argentina doesn’t win, and there’s a good chance it’ll be convincing—maybe not as dominating as their win over South Korea but there’s every reason to expect a margin of more than a single goal. In light of that, Maradona’s side is an attractive proposition on both the three way and handicap line. Obviously they can produce goals as well as anyone in the field, so this should be a high scoring affair and a strong OVER opportunity.
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After an opening game that saw Argentina struggle to score against Nigerian goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama, Diego Maradona’s team exploded for four goals in a 4-1 whipping of South Korea. They’ve already clinched the group stage but will want to keep their offense humming along in preparation for the elimination games to come. Greece is still alive to advance, but they’ve got to have a couple of things break in their favor—they need Nigeria to beat South Korea, but that’s the easy part. The more difficult task will be securing a draw or victory against an Argentina side that looks like they could go deep in the knockout stage.
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