Cape Verde will have to 'suffer' to beat Argentina
Jay Croucher analyzes how Cape Verde will need to play against an "overrated" Argentina in their Round of 32 matchup.
Video Transcript
Well, Jay, I hope you have been enjoying the World Cup knockout rounds as much as I have.
We have been blessed with just unbelievably outstanding football match-ups this entire week.
It has been awesome.
We continue on with one of the all-time greatest players, in Lionel Messi, leading Argentina as a -600 favorite against Cape Verde in the round of 32.
This, match-up kicks off Friday at 3:00 PM Eastern.
how are You know, right now Argentina, -2500 to advance, so this is effectively a foregone conclusion in the eyes of the market.
is there a way to bet this game, and, do you think, there's an angle in the Futures Awards pool where Messi could take home some hardware?
Yeah, the Futures Awards pool is interesting there with, Messi and Mbappe.
I suspect that if one of those teams does win the World Cup, that the winning team will, have the winning player for the Golden Ball.
I think this game is gonna be interesting.
I think the key is, is that if you're going up against Argentina, as a team that is a huge underdog, you need to be able to suffer.
And Cape Verde have shown that they can suffer.
against Spain, they were able to hold out pretty well.
Now, they probably should've lost that game on balance of just probabilities and chances created, but they do have experience in suffering, and that's what they're gonna need to do here, and be able to hit Argentina on the counter.
Ultimately, you suspect that you give, Messi and co 90 minutes to, break down a low block, and they will find an answer.
But this could get a little hairier, I think, than people expect, particularly, if Cape Verde can get to the first hydration break, without conceding.
ultimately looking forward, I do think this Argentina team has become a little overrated.
Now, that's balanced out by the fact that they have just this comically easy path to the quarterfinal.
But then I think it's gonna get difficult, and then I think some of the flaws- Mm-hmm of this team are gonna be revealed, and the reasons why- they weren't, you know, one of the top two favorites coming into the tournament.
and this team is Look, it's pretty old.
It's a pretty old team.
and they have strange profiles as well around Messi.
They don't actually have people who are very fast on this team.
They don't have players who run in behind like ngel Di, Di Mara did, at the previous World Cup.
They have Rodrigo De Paul playing out wide on the right, where he's more of a defensive midfielder.
Just the profiles are a little bit strange.
And so I think Argentina might get exposed later in the tournament by- potentially a Colombia in the quarterfinals or a Brazil or England in the semis, but they should roll against Cape Verde.
