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Score: Argentina 1-1 Venezuela
Scorers: Mauro Icardi 54'; Jhon Murillo 49'
After the drab 0-0 in Montevideo, Argentina upped their game a notch or two against lowly Venezuela but still found it tough going against a side that was determined to play for pride. In a superbly entertaining match, Venezuela took the lead through Jhon Murillo's superb counter before Mauro Icardi got his debut goal for Los Albiceleste after some great work by Marcos Acuna on Argentina's left flank
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Argentina started brightly but dipped slightly after Angel Di Maria had to be withdrawn following the recurrence of that perma-headache for the modern Argentine coach - a twang of his fragile-as-glass hamstring but Venezuela defended gamely and did well enough to earn a point away at Buenos Aires leaving Argentina in a precarious position.
Here are the five main takeaways from the entertaining affair:
#5. Jorge Sampaoli has to find a winning formula, and he has to find it by October
Argentina have scored 16 goals in the 16 World Cup qualifying matches they've played this time around. Only Bolivia have scored less - and they have 14. Considering the attacking talent that La Albiceleste have on display, this is nothing short of embarrassing and it was in a bid to correct this abysmal record in front of goal that the Argentine Federation appointed the attack-minded Jorge Sampaoli.
His competitive record, though, reads - Played 2, Drawn 2, Scored 1, Conceded 1... and that 1 came against a Venezuela side that had conceded 34 times in their previous 15 matches!
If Sampaoli didn't understand the magnitude of the task that lay ahead of him when he took over, he sure does now. At Chile, he walked into a squad that had already been honed by years of running like mad men for Marcelo Bielsa and at Sevilla he had the luxury of interacting with, influencing, and coaching his charges day-in and day-out throughout the season. He has neither advantage here.
The current Argentine side still play a brand of lethargic, slow-moving, Messi-dependent football that is everything Sampaoli is against - and he has a mammoth task trying to put his stamp on the team before the do-or-die fixtures of October roll into town.
#4. Wuilker Farinez... remember the name
He is 19 years old, he plays for Caracas FC, and in just his fourth international match he went on to the field and stopped the combined might of Angel Di Maria, Mauro Icardi, Paulo Dybala, and... Lionel Messi.
Sure, he conceded a goal (a veritable tap-in if ever there was one) to Mauro Icardi's poaching instincts but there was absolutely nothing he could have done about it.
In fact, if it weren't for him, Venezuela would have returned home a battered, bruised lot and Argentina would be sitting safely ensconced in third position, high up in the World Cup Qualifying Table.
He made some world-class saves in the first half (when Argentina were truly in the ascendancy) off Messi, Icardi, and this of an offside Dybala:
If he continues performing in this vein, it surely is only a matter of time before the big European clubs come to pay their obeisance to Caracas FC and attempt to prise away one of the most promising goalkeeping talents on the planet right now.
It's not just his reflexes that caught the eye, but his authority inside the box, his nerve-free handling of aerial balls and the calm, mature manner in which he marshalled the beleaguered defence in front of him - this one is a pure talent; arguably the brightest to emerge out of this fortnight's World Cup Qualifying action
Oh, and he also had a man-of-the-match performance in his last outing against Colombia - a 0-0 draw, that in Caracas.
#3. What has Sergio Aguero done wrong?
Sergio "Kun" Aguero's national team record reads games played 82; goals scored 33. When Aguero comes on, it is a given that he will be involved in at least a couple of chances - such is the supreme level at which he operates... his runs, his poaching instincts, and his finishing have set him a class apart.
Yet, when Argentina needed a goal desperately against Uruguay, Jorge Sampaoli turned to Joaquin Correa and Javier Pastore. When they needed a goal even more desperately against Uruguay, Sampaoli turned to Pastore once again before handing 27-year-old Boca Juniors forward Dario Benedetto his professional Argentina debut.
All the while Aguero was sat on the bench twiddling his thumbs.
But then he did divorce Diego Maradona's daughter... and you don't get away lightly for such a major transgression, do you? This tumultuous personal life - combined with a perceived lack of passion - has seen the majority opinion in Argentina turn against him... and it appears that his coach shares the same opinion.
But, surely when fully fit he is the best striker in the nation?
It is the same case at club level too, where an uppity young Brazilian has upstaged the man who has scored 170 goals in 255 games for Manchester City and created the moment that is the signature moment in the club's long and storied history.
What the hell has Aguero done wrong to be treated like this by both his managers?
#2. Venezuela's footballing future is bright
Venezuela were abysmal this World Cup qualifying campaign - in the 14 matches before this week's action, they'd conceded 34 goals and scored just 17 (still two more than Argentina, that!) and had looked every bit the punching bags of the group.
In the last two games, though, coach Rafael Dudamel decided to rip it all up and give the youth of the nation a chance. And he decided to do this against Colombia and Argentina.
As Wuilker Farinez and Jhon Murillo, showed, that faith has been richly rewarded with some stellar performances individually but it's the collective effort that will please the coach the most. His side against Argentina had an average starting age of just 23 but those inexperienced bunch of players kept Argentina at bay - a bloodthirsty, cornered, Argentina - and nullified the effervescent Colombian attack.
Regular life may not be all that great back home in Venezuela as the nation struggles with widespread economic recession and a rather violent domestic strife, but Rafael Dudamel has ensured that his compatriots have at least a promising young football team to look forward to.
And isn't that what football is all about? Bringing hope where there is little... bringing joy where there is little... bringing life where there is little.
Viva Futbol!
#1. Can Lionel Messi and Paulo Dybala play together?
Lionel Messi and Paulo Dybala... the question was raised multiple times whether the two left-footed magicians could fit into the same team and play well together... and on the evidence of the last two matches, those doubts seem to have been well founded.
Sampaoli has worked out a 3-4-3 system (with Di Maria/Acuna left-wingback and Acosta right-wingback) to fit in his two brilliant playmakers into the side but as they showed against Uruguay and this time around against Venezuela, there seems to be very little chemistry between the two. Dybala spent a lot of time looking either lost or wandering into the space that Messi naturally occupies (because those are the same kind of areas he likes to operate in too) and although there was flashes of genius from both parties - those came via the sheer individual quality of the two players and had little to do with the way the two connect.
But then again, all of this... all the tactics, the formations, the permutations... all of it is secondary to the single most important point to emerge from this international fortnight. Indeed, this point has been raised throughout this rather disappointing campaign for Argentina, but it's never been a more realistic prospect than now - there is STILL a very real fear that Lionel Messi will not play in the 2018 World Cup.
Let that sink in.
Come October, there will be quiet a few hearts that will have their muscular strength tested.
