Just before seven o’clock on a pleasant Saturday evening, eleven young men dressed in the very familiar sky-blue-and-white striped jersey entered the Corporation Stadium, and the goodly crowd welcomed them warmly.
The Argentina Under-23 side, though, could not quite live up to expectations, losing 3-0 to TSV 1860 Munich in the opening match of Group B in the Mahindra & Mahindra Sait Nagjee international football tournament.
The Argentines, after being completely outplayed in the opening half, played much better after the interval, and created a series of scoring opportunities.
But for a superb display under the bar by TSV’s Kai Fritz, they could have even scored a couple of goals. However, substitute Christian Koeppel’s 78th-minute strike killed all their hopes.
And, it was a fine goal, too, by Koeppel, who had replaced Nicholas Herlmbrecht just four minutes earlier. He darted in down the left and shot from close in, and a difficult angle, to beat the Argentine ’keeper Facundo Ferrero.
It was quite an impressive performance by the young Germans — they are here with their under-21 side — though their tactic to drop back a bit into their own territory in the second half could have backfired.
But, the splendid Fritz served them faithfully, and often spectacularly, under the bar. And, he was fittingly named Man-of-the-Match.
They had gone ahead in the 18th minute, following a penalty-kick awarded for a foul on Felix Bachschmid. The spot-kick by Felix Webber was pushed away by the ’keeper, but only as far as an opportunistic Bachschmid, who made no mistake.
Seven minutes later, TSV went 2-0 up, with Simon Sefferings slamming in from 25 yards to the top right corner of the post.
It had seemed all over for the Latin Americans, coached by Julio Olarticoecha, who was part of the 1986 Argentine team that won the World Cup.
But, they regrouped in the second half, with Franco Mantovano, Sergio Acosta and Braian Sanchez all threatening to score. They were all denied by Fritz, though.
Rapid takes on VolynOn Sunday, Romania’s Rapid Bucharest takes on Volyn Luvtsk from Ukraine. It should be an interesting match, as both teams are fielding their senior teams, unlike the four sides that have played so far.
“We have come here with our full team and we see this as an opportunity to warm up for our next season,” said Rapid coach Dan Alexa, a former Romania international.
“Just by playing seniors, we would not have any advantage; we saw last night how well the youth team of Atletico Paranaense (Brazil) played.”
Volyn captain Sergey Kravchenko seconded that opinion. “Paranaense looks one of the stronger sides of the tournament,” he said.
“But, I feel our match against Rapid could be pretty close; theirs is a strong side.”
The result: TSV 1860 Munich 3 (Felix Bachschmid 18, Simon Seferings 25, Christian Koeppel 78) bt Argentina Under-23 0.
