Argentina and the Netherlands are playing live on the World Cup semifinals schedule on Wednesday and the game comes after Brazil's harsh defeat against Germany and this game is on ESPN, WatchESPN and ESPN Radio from Arena Corinthians in Sao Paulo and Lionel Messi leads his nation against Robin Van Persie and Arjen Robben for the Dutch side at 4 pm ET.
Argentina now holds the entire South American fan base on its shoulders against the Netherlands, as they are representing the host nation's continent after Brazil was defeated by Germany on Tuesday. Neymar and Thiago Silva were out for the game and that clearly affected Brazil and now they are done after an embarrassing 7-1 loss and now they matchup with the Dutch. Lionel Messi has been the best player in the tournament and he now is the leader for Argentina as they try and advance to the finals for the first time in over two decades.
Germany demolished Brazil and now Argentina comes in to see if will be an all-Euro final or a battle between South America and Europe, with the Europeans currently holding the title after Spain won in South Africa in 2010. The Netherlands has the chance to make it a final between powers from Europe, while Argentina is looking to make it a culture clash of soccer styles and after the way Germany player against Brazil, they will be the favored team no matter what.
Argentina has not yet played their best game and that was what many people said about Germany as well and now that turned out pretty good and this gives Messi and company the chance to be very aggressive in the matchup. Robin Van Persie is expected to play despite an illness and he has been the leading scorer for the team. Argentina has had long scoring droughts, including against the Swiss and that came all the way in the 118th minute and the team did not get much going against Belgium either and now Messi will try and keep himself in contention for the golden boot at the tournament in Brazil.
Arjen Robben is a solid scorer and a smart player and he is one of the main reasons the team is even here. Sure, he took a dive or two, but that is what players are supposed to do for winning teams and he got his team through against Mexico with one of those dives. The game was decided on that penalty kick to eliminate Mexico and now the Netherlands has the chance to win and get through to the finals. Messi comes in as the top player with Neymar and James Rodriguez gone and he can be the superstar and hero of this tournament if he can get a goal in this game to get his team into the final.