Argentina stepped up their 2014 World Cup preparation with comfortable friendly home wins against Trinidad and Tobago and Slovenia.
La Albiceleste have not suffered defeat at home since losing on penalties to Uruguay in the 2011 Copa America quarter-finals and this record was never under any threat in the two warm up matches.
Trinidad and Tobago were first swept aside 3-0 at River Plate’s Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires on Wednesday.
A combination of poor decision making and inaccurate shooting prevented the score from being greater with only five of the South American side’s 17 shots finding the target in a match that they dominated.
Rodrigo Palacio headed the opening goal just half-time before Javier Mascherano doubled Argentina’s lead rebounding in a Lionel Messi free-kick that hit the post.
La Albiceleste broke out of defence at pace for the third goal in the 64th minute as Mascherano’s long pass put Palacio behind the Trinidad and Tobago back four.
The Inter forward put the ball beyond goalkeeper Jan-Michael Williams then showed great acceleration to keep the ball in play before cutting back to substitute Maxi Rodriguez who found the net from 10 yards.
Captain Messi was unable to score, but his energy dropping deep to drive his side forward and commitment against opposition whose only hope of halting him was through persistent fouls was superlative.
For the 2-0 win against Slovenia at the Estadio Ciudad de La Plata on Saturday, coach Alejandro Sabella made several personnel and tactical changes with a variation on the 5-3-2 formation that was used for some of the high altitude South American World Cup away qualifiers deployed.
Ricky Alvarez was one of six changes and the Inter midfielder scored his first Argentina goal with a low left-foot drive from 20 yards that accurately found the bottom right-hand corner on 12 minutes.
The second goal came in the second-half with substitutes Messi, Angel Di Maria and Sergio Aguero combining to seal another comfortable victory.
A scooped pass by Di Maria from the edge of the box was put across goal from Aguero to allow Messi to stab the ball into the goal from close range.
Argentina showed in both matches that they are arguably at their most dangerous when the opposition is stretched and space is opened up for rapid counter-attacks.
This was highlighted against Trinidad and Tobago with Di Maria acting as a carillero, or shuttler, on the left side of the midfield trio providing speed on transitions, while Mascherano’s impressive vision and range of passing to set up several goal scoring opportunities was on display in the two friendlies.
The only disappointment coming out of the warm ups were additional injury concerns over Rodrigo Palacio and Lucas Biglia ahead of Argentina’s opening game against Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Maracana on June 15.
