Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Venezuela make history, beat Argentina for the first time

Venezuela made history in the second match for the South American qualifiers for Brazil's World Cup 2014 after defeating Argentina 1-0 at Puerto La Cruz city.

The euphoria of Argentina's opening World Cup qualifying win over Chile vanished at a stroke as the two-time world champions couldn't face up with a highly focused and intensive opponent and some sticky weather copnditions.

Fernando Amorebieta bagged the only goal to stun Alejandro Sabella's side and send them back to square one, just when it seemed Friday's 4-1 thrashing of Chile had exorcised demons of a summer Copa America failure on home soil.

After the Chile game, Sabella, who replaced Sergio Batista in the wake of a Copa quarter-final loss to eventual champions Uruguay, had ventured that the team had laid to rest an "apparent collective psychosis" regarding how Lionel Messi fits into the national team.

Sabella said afterwards that the sticky conditions had been a factor.

"Maybe the heat was a factor, the humidity, the fact we played Friday and then had to travel," he said.

"But we have to take things game by game and look at the things we need to work on -- the qualifiers are a long road."

Sabella aded: "It was a game of two halves. The first, in general, was all Argentina -- we had a few chances. The second was different in that they had more of a midfield presence and started throwing people forward."

Counterpart César Farías was delighted.

"This team asked a lot of the right questions and when you do that, you (can) come up with some fine responses. This is important and gave us an historic victory," said Farias, whose charges next travel to Colombia.

Line-ups:

Venezuela: Renny Vega; Roberto Rosales, Oswaldo Vizcarrondo, Fernando Amorebieta and Gabriel Cichero; César González, Tomás Rincón, Juan Guerra or Franklin Lucena and Juan Arango; Nicolás Fedor and Salomón Rondón. Coach: César Farías.

Argentina: Mariano Andújar; Nicolás Burdisso, Martín Demichelis and Nicolás Otamendi; Pablo Zabaleta, Javier Mascherano and Marcos Rojo; José Sosa and Angel Dí María; Lionel Messi and Gonzalo Higuaín. Coach: Alejandro Sabella.

Referee: Roberto Silvera (Uruguay).

Stadium: José Antonio Anzoátegui, Puerto La Cruz.