I have to agree that for all of the media hype surrounding Di Maria, he was garbage today, I don't think he got a single cross in.
From what I remember through the year, he's looked impressive, or maybe theres another Di Maria or someone with a similar name because I don't really recognise the face, which is pretty recognisable. He's been useless at the world cup, no idea how Maxi is in the team, couldn't get a game at his old club because he's been poo for years, Benitez thought he was a bargain and he wasn't playing due to maybe manager/player problems, turns out he was just crap, been useless at Pool aswell. He's now been useless for Argentina and can't see how he started.
Was Veron banned, 2 yellows or injured? I think he was dropped for the 3rd game just to give him a break as they were all but through, but he WAS the creativity in the side, the guy that Messi needed to thread the throughball to him, and that player was just completely lacking for them.
I said before the game that Argentina vs Germany would tell us who would win the cup most likely, based on how both teams performed against a significantly better side than either had yet faced, and Germany held their form, maybe improved, Argentina simply couldn't produce that football against a better team, not helped by lack of Veron or a Veron type player in his role.
Frankly Maradonna got just about everything wrong, took some of the wrong people to the cup, started the wrong players in important games, 4-3-3 wasn't the problem, wrong players was, any system can work if the players are playing well, no system will work if players are playing badly or you've put on the wrong players. Veron was the best player in the Argentina squad in the cup, but didn't play, Di Maria and Maxi had their chances and showed nothing at all, they had massive quality on the bench but stuck with non working players, that was never going to work.
