Unconvincing

Argentina always starts World Cups with high expectations.
Even more so now, when they have arguably the best player in the world, Lionel Messi.

But Argentina, as a cohesive team unit, did not impress against Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Despite scoring an own goal on themselves within three minutes, Bosnia probably impressed more than Argentina, overall.
That is because they were going forward, challenging their more prestigious opponent, and kept going forward even at 0-2. And they scored.

So, the Bosnians might be entitled to feel okay with their performance.
Argentina, however, won only thanks to an own goal by the opposition and a brilliant individual effort by Messi in the 65th minute. (And they conceded a goal late, too, against an accessible opponent, or so many will consider newcomers Bosnia-Herzegovina.)

Maybe the Argentinians thought their group was way too easy for them to consider playing at maximum pace. And maybe it is. Their fans will want better performances, though.

Highlights:

How to Win Without Winning

30000 Euros is how much Barcelona CF played the Barcelona public transit company to keep the system running for an extra hour, in order to provide some service, after regular closing hours, to fans going home after the Barcelona - Atletico Madrid super cup encounter, second leg.

They won't regret that decision -- and I really don't know why the hell the Spanish federation is now scheduling so many matches to start at 11 PM, Spanish time - because it's not just this one! - but they must know what they're doing, I guess -- because Barcelona (barely) edged out by Simeone's team to snatch the Spanish Super Cup.

No big thanks to Messi, though.

The Argentinian, now proven to be an infamously bad penalty taker, has missed yet another spot kick. This one, in the 89th minute.

It would have almost surely meant the win for Barcelona, who had much better chances than Atletico in the second half.

The Madrid team, on the other hand, had better chances in the first half, when Victor Valdes saved the Catalan giants more than twice from going down in the goal count. Unfortunately for Atletico, its players didn't have the same spark in the second half, when they became impatient, nervous, and even completely cracked down (such as Filipe Luis and Turan, who both got red-carded by the referee).

So, Barca wins the trophy without actually winning any of the matches.

Nobody can say that Atletico Madrid outplayed them, but I think it's safe to say that Barcelona is no longer the team to beat in Europe. Or in the world, because it's probably the same thing.
I don't know who is, or if there even is one, but a team who wins trophies without winning matches is more lucky than extremely good.

Real, Towards 100?

Real won again. They beat Granada, away, 2-1.

It was very hard for Real, though. They were down 0-1, from minute 5 to minute 81.
After Ronaldo was tackled in the penalty area, in the 79th minute, he also converted the penalty. (But, even though he has 45 goals for the season, he probably won't win the Pachichi, because Messi scored four more times in the game against Espanyol, won 4-0 by Barca, to make it 50 for the Argentinian, on the season.)
But the great ending, as far as the guests are concerned, and the main reason for this blog post, came when defender Cortes put the ball in his own net, in minute 93, following a desperate cross by the Madrid players. I guess he never expected the ball to reach his feet, or something, judging by how unprepared his footwork was when he touched the ball.

The hosts desperately needed a good result to try to ensure staying up in the Primera Division, yes.
Now, Real put them in danger of going down, if they lose to Rayo Vallecano, and Zaragoza wins, too, next week.

But, most importantly, Real also put themselves in the position of winning the title with a record number of points (100!) if they just beat Mallorca, at home, on the last matchday of the season.

See highlights here.