Sub 20 World Cup: the secrets of New Zealand and Guatemala, the two rivals who arrive at Mascherano’s Argentina

Guatemala AND New Zeland are the other members of group A and Argentina’s next rivals in the opening phase of the Sub 20 world. They played each other in Santiago del Estero, on the eve of Argentina’s victory over Uzbekistan: the Oceanics were one hundred percent opportunists and took advantage of the only mistake made by the orderly Guatemalan defense to win 1-0. Javier Mascherano noted the high and low points of each.

They use similar tactical schemes, but their positions are very different. Both Guatemala and New Zealand bet on five defendersEven if those in the Nerazzurri have their wings a few meters ahead of the Central Americans, who defend with closer lines.

A few meters higher or lower can mark a team’s intentions and game plan. We saw it in the first match of group A, one of those that opened this youth World Cup. While Guatemala finished with a 5-4-1, New Zealand tied with a 5-2-3.

The difference is mainly in the extremes. On the side of the men in black, they had Jay Hermann right and with Noah Karunaratne To the left. The best of this team was seen when they managed to get together and knock down some walls, which were not abundant at all. They managed to do this a couple of times.

The height of New Zealand’s central players is a key factor. Isaac Hughes is 1.83m tall; Finn Surman is 1.90 m tall; and Lukas Kelly-Heald is 1.98m tall. They are towers that close the aerial game and that try to impose themselves in the area in front of set pieces. On the other hand, they show slowness and a certain coarseness when playing on grass.

Indeed, the Guatemalan plan It was to exploit the spaces behind the attacking wings and the gaps left by their centre-backs between the lines. They found free players on a couple of occasions both with balls from above and with some filtered passes.

Of that Javier Mascherano’s technical staff will certainly have taken note of this. Guatemala prioritizes maintaining tactical order. Try not to get stopped or badly disarmed. And it takes the juice out of the clarity of Daniel Cardozza, which proves to be the most inspired of his attack. Lying mostly on the left, he can appear in the center to put in a filtered pass or test the goal.

Cut and go at full speed towards the counterattack is the premise of the cast of Central America, which is not easy to penetrate if it does not go out of its script. Once alone they caught him badly and he paid for it with the goal of the admitted Normal Garbett.

Lack of concentration cost Guatemala the game. Fin Conchie, a midfielder with good footing from New Zealand put a blimp forward Garbett. But the biggest mistake was Matius Gaitanwho missed the pass and left the way clear to the attacker.

Guatemala had proved to be the one with the clearest things on the pitch. He lacked the encouragement to hurt a New Zealand who, without having done too much, didn’t forgive him for the only mistake in his back.

Santiago de Abroad. Special delivery.