World Cup 2010: Argentina scores early, holding on for 1-0 win

An early goal from Gabriel Heinze is all Argentina would need to clinch -- but they blew lot of chances too.

Argentina and Nigeria have World Cup history together. In fact, the last time Maradona laced up a pair of boots for Argentina was in 1994 against Nigeria. After the game, Maradona was drug tested and found with ephedrine in his system. So this game is not only important for both teams, but Maradona probably wants this one pretty bad. Lars Lagerback has only had this team since February and didn’t have much time to prepare. Regardless, Nigeria has scoring threats and some other good players that can help them keep Argentina paying attention. Things seemed simple for Argentina in this match-up, which had as much to do with their play as it did with what Nigeria didn’t do on the field.

2010 FIFA World Cup Match #4: Argentina put on a good show in 1-0 win

It was a weird feeling around Ellis Park considering their were supposed to be a lot of Nigerian fans that lived in the area. It looked like a small part of Buenos Aires took over the city instead. Before the match many waited in anticipation as to what lineup Maradona would use, he chose well to use a 4-3-3 variation with Messi sitting in behind Carlos Tevez and Gonzalo Higuian with Di Maria and Juan Sebastian Veron going forward behind them, leaving Javier Mascherano to sit and hold.

I didn’t understand Lars Lagerback’s decision to leave out Obafemi Martins and Peter Odemwengie from the starting eleven. I understand you need to have some substitutions but you can’t leave anything to chance. As the slogan for this world cup is very correct “one game changes everything.” Things didn’t start out too well for Nigeria either as in the sixth minute Gabriel Heinze came in unmarked on a corner kick and headed the ball into the net very easily.

After that, it just allowed Argentina to control the game. Lionel Messi with his maestro moves kept the Nigerian defense on the back foot all game. While Gonzalo Higuian had a few chances to score but just couldn’t convert. Nigeria had a few nice glimpses with Yakubu providing chances for himself but none came any closer than the one Taiwo had in the second half.