A Cristian Pavón did not feel the weight of making his World Cup debut.
He felt like he was in La Bombonera, as if the atmosphere that was experienced at the Spartak Stadium was natural for him. At 22 years old, he confirmed the reasons why Jorge Sampaoli had called him up. In just 20 minutes, he revolutionized his team. It was different from everything Argentina had on the field and the options for a draw depended on him.
Until Pavón entered, Argentina's attack was extremely predictable.
There were no runs, it was all too positional and not even the '10' managed to open spaces against a defense as well organized as Iceland's. The '22' was invisible, the opposing defenders couldn't detect him and he shook things up so that Argentina kept pushing for an equalizer. Boca's footballer brought spark to the attack of Jorge Sampaoli's team.
The Boca player had three opportunities in which he threatened to break the tie in the score:
He caused a penalty that the referee did not signal, he sent a cross that no teammate read, and he tested Halldórsson with a shot that the goalkeeper saved for a corner. His hunger on the field was one of the best things that could be seen for Argentina in a match in which many things need to be corrected.
Not long ago, Leo Messi surrendered to him. "The truth is that I found a new partner in Pavón. He is a very good player. He is always going into space, running behind the center-backs. He is very fast and different from what we have in the squad." In November 2017, Messi also acknowledged his importance after the victory against Russia. "In the system that the coach decides to play, Pavón can be a very important player for the national team because of his characteristics. He is not only very fast, but he makes good decisions," said the '10'.
His season at Boca Juniors has been magnificent. He has provided 21 assists in all competitions. In addition, he has been directly involved in 28 of the last 58 goals scored by the Boca team. With the Argentina jersey, he has provided three assists in 169 minutes. After his impressive 20 minutes, it would be surprising if Jorge Sampaoli decided not to give him the starting position in the decisive match against Croatia...
