First Spain fell victims to a giant-slaying. Then Portugal followed suit. Uzbekistan 2024 had, as the masses had foreseen, become the most shock-splattered FIFA Futsal World Cup\u2122 of all time. Argentina, despite facing a team at their first global finals in 24 years, were taking no chances in the last 16.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe took this game very seriously,\u201d insisted Nico Sarmiento. \u201cWe saw what happened to Spain, Portugal. We knew Croatia were a very strong team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Strong? Absolutely. Strong enough to unseat Argentina\u2019s crusade towards a third consecutive final? Not quite.<\/p>\n
Alan Brandi, with his seventh goal of the tournament, fired Matias Lucuix\u2019s side into an early lead, and they never looked back. Two-nil is how it finished. Argentina had secured a quarter-final against Kazakhstan, Portugal\u2019s conquerors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew that if we lost, we would go home,\u201d said Brandi. \u201cWe saw this happen to big teams. I think we played a great match and deserved to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a keeper, it\u2019s always a pleasure to keep a clean sheet,\u201d said Sarmiento. \u201cThe most important thing was to win the match. We knew it was going to be a really tough game and it was.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe result speaks for itself. We defended well, we were good with the ball. We were at our best level. Of course there are a couple of things we\u2019d do differently, but overall that\u2019s the way we want to play. We\u2019re really happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Argentina must now crack the Kazakhstan conundrum. It\u2019s one indebted to Higuita, a goalkeeper so good with his feet that he\u2019s credited with changing the way an entire sport is played.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be very difficult because they are very, very good with the flying goalkeeper,\u201d warned Brandi. \u201cWe\u2019ll study them and do our best.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sarmiento has immense admiration for the record five-time Best Men\u2019s Goalkeeper.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s unbelievable,\u201d said the 31-year-old who won the adidas Golden Glove at both Colombia 2016 and Lithuania 2021. \u201cHe\u2019s the best or one of the best goalkeepers in the world, depending on who you ask.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s amazing in the goal, he can make spectacular saves. Then he makes it a different game because of what he can do with his feet. With his feet, there are no words to describe him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis creates a problem for any team, even the very best. Playing against Higuita is different, you have to find a way to deal with it. Personally I always want to play against the best players, so it will be great to share the court with Higuita again.<\/p>\n
\u201cKazakhstan are incredibly tough opponents. They\u2019ve been playing together for a lot of years. Their players have really good connection. It\u2019s going to be a war. We will have to be at our very best.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sarmiento knows Higuita hikes Kazakhstan\u2019s hopes, but he believes Argentina have their own X factor. The Albiceleste as a whole scored 11 goals to reach the quarter-finals in 2016, when they went on to lift the trophy, while pivots Cristian Borruto, Brandi and Matias Rosa had netted 14 goals in four games between them at Uzbekistan 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love playing with them,\u201d said Sarmiento. \u201cThey give us so much confidence and security. We know that if the ball gets to them, they\u2019ll score. It\u2019s a great feeling for the whole team. They\u2019re playing well. For me we have the best pivots in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
First Spain fell victims to a giant-slaying. Then Portugal followed suit. Uzbekistan 2024 had, as the masses had foreseen, become the most shock-splattered FIFA Futsal World Cup\u2122 of all time. Argentina, despite facing a team at their first global finals in 24 years, were taking no chances in the last 16. \u201cWe took this game […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":1025734,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20966],"tags":[9648,27192],"class_list":["post-1025728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fifa-news","tag-fifa","tag-fifa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1025728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1025728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1025734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1025728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1025728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1025728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}