What separates an immensely talented team from a possibly great team? Coming out of tough situations with genius which is impossible to counter. It was written all over the 24 pass goal. It was also written over the Maxi Rodriguez goal.

BBC Live commentary described it thus moments after it happened:

What a goal! Maxi Rodriguez chests down Juan Pablo Sorin’s cross-field pass and lashes in a left-foot shot on the volley that arrows into the top corner.

Sanchez fumed at the defenders but I don’t think much could be done - impressive pass and astonishing finishing. The goal was much more important than the 24 pass goal in the context of the world cup as had it not occured, a strong favourite for the tournament could have exited early.

The Mexican team kept on attacking whenever it could, which coupled with their defense, set up an exciting match. There were if’s and but’s of course - Heinze could have easily been red carded which would have made things much more interesting. In injury time during normal play, the Argentine goal was disallowed when it wasn’t offside.

You have to keep on winning. There can be no excuses in the end. Argentina didn’t need any. Bravo!

England vs Paraguay 1-0

A 1-0 victory was good enough for England to get 3 points. However, the match left the English asking more questions about their team than being particularly happy. Paraguay isn’t the strongest of sides. England creeped to victory rather than having a convincing performance. Any thing can happen in football but I don’t see England causing a serious threat in the competition if they don’t improve on the pitch drastically.

Sweden vs Trinidad and Tobago 0-0

The Soca Warriors are celebrating. 10 men Trinidad and Tobago have held off Sweden. Sweden dominated possession. Sweden attacked a lot. However, they hit very few shots on target and nothing materialised into goals. There was the very good defending by T and T and the excellent keeping by Shaka Hislop. It is all about scoring goals though. Maybe Sweden should not have kept that extra man marking Stern John and had attacked more. The English will be very happy with this result. It makes qualifying for them a lot easier!

Argentina vs Côte d’Ivoire 2-1

The match was expected to, and produced, the best match of the tournament so far. The pace was faster than any thing we have seen in the tournament. There was controversy as well when the ball crossed the line (looked like that to me at least) but the referee did not give a goal to Argentina early on. That did not matter as Argentina scored two more. Drogba pulled one back to make things exciting in the last 10 minutes. Ivory Coast have a lot of talent and would have easily qualified in most other groups. It can still be possible as they can give Holland a run for their money.

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For part 5 of the series, JP Thieriot joins us. JP, as he is popularly known, blogs at The Argentina Blog over at World Cup Blog. Born in Buenos Aires in 1968, JP was hooked to football every since his grandfather surprised him and took him for the finals of the 1978 World Cup between Argentina and Holland. An experience that has clearly been with him ever since. Buenos Aires, as JP recalls and every proud Argentine will tell you, was in non-stop celebration for at least 3 days. The memories will be treasured, I am sure, for a life time.

I thank JP for agreeing to the interview.

Tell us a bit about the Road to the World Cup – the qualification, and the emotions the fans went through at the time.

Qualifications can be divided into the Bielsa era and the Pekerman era. Bielsa should have quit after the disaster in 2002, but instead he hung on and wound up winning the Olympics (17 goals for, 0 against) in dominating fashion. Even the serious Bielsa doubters like myself started to come around - then he quit. Seems he lingered in order to vindicate himself and then left the team in middle of Qualifications. Bielsa’a greatest fault was a refusal to change things in the face of failure. He wasn’t quick enough in changing schemes/players to fit challenging situations.

The Pekerman era, on the otherhand, has been characterized by almost constant change. The only fixture has been Riquelme, whom Bielsa had previously ignored. Qualifications under Pekerman got off to a roaring start with a tremendous victory over Brazil, then got bogged down in rather hohum performances against weaker opponents. Argentina really has an overabundance of talent, so the question is finding the right chemistry. Newcomers like Messi, Aguero and the injury status of players like Mascherano, Heinze, Ayala and Aimar have further complicated the ultimate formation of Pekerman’s squad.

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