Argentina was playing for survival, everyone knew it, and their coach was guided by it.
very cowardly
very lousy.
And oh, Lionel Messi came along and then they got another chance to be a soccer team again.
The other day, two Argentinian organizations focused on cardiology launched a campaign. It coincided nicely with Argentina’s dreadful World Cup start against Saudi Arabia, but was never intended as a joke.
World Cup cancellationthey thundered. toilet group.
The background was research reports showing that the rate of heart attacks skyrocket during important soccer matches, especially when Argentina loses. Will you lose to Saudi Arabia in the World Cup premiere? Beware of the heart.
But here came the chance to salvage both the honor and the chance of a playoff and the possibility of being the epic Messi that could fully carry the World Cup. Beat Mexico, or at least not lose, and anyone who wants to draw three lines across a few square kilometers of the Paraná River. The region has nurtured some of the greatest thinkers in football history. Jorge Valdano is from there, Marcelo Bielsa too, Mauricio Pochettino too. Argentina’s captain Lionel Scaloni was born there, as was Mexico’s national team captain Tata Martino (Martino was Scaloni’s idol when they both played for Newell’s Old Boys).
Many brains come from there.
But Lionel Messi is only one.
goal chances? are you kidding?
Here they are now, three champions from Argentina’s Santa Fe province, and when the teams were paraded inside Lusail Stadium, it wasn’t just the eleven Argentines who were booed by the large Mexican crowd of fans in Doha. She was thirteen. Argentine-born Mexican substitute Rogelio Funes Mori was sent off. Tata Martino too. Before the World Cup, he received harsh criticism for his trips to Argentina, where he watched league matches and chatted with Scaloni (it was rumored that Martino was going to sign with Boca Juniors). Was he really focused on Mexico, or did he just want to go home to Argentina?
Mexico pressed?
Depends on what you compare it to.
So Argentina came here after losing to Saudi Arabia (Messi’s employer). The loss killed Messi’s last dream. They are playing for a country that thinks Sweden’s “economic crisis” looks like a rented vacation. Argentina’s inflation rate is currently around 88 percent. In a country where football swallows up the entire public debate, it was not irrelevant when, during a G20 meeting, President Alberto Fernandez said Argentines should now focus on how to win the World Cup for Messi. This is better than how to get money for rent, for example.
Well, Lionel Scaloni made a team out of it. A team that may have caused more cerebral hemorrhages than heart attacks. Out striker, midfielder, all the possibilities for creativity are buried in Leo Messi’s left foot. The first half may be the worst so far in the World Cup. Speed? of course not. quality fit? nothing. goal chances? are you kidding?
For Mexico, there were no problems at all. They settled home with their five-point line, played five around Messi in midfield, and let Argentina try. they did not. Remember the 2014 World Cup, when Messi was half injured and running around while ten others were running and trying? This was a mirror image. Messi dribbled deep to clinch at least the first pass for a sky blue shirt, and the other 10 stumbled as if they had put the wrong shoe on the wrong foot. When Atleti’s forward, Rodrigo De Paul, made a three-meter pass to Daniele Orsato, it was the epitome of Argentina’s lack of play. So Orsato refereed the match.
Lautaro Martinez nodded all the way, and Alexis Vega delivered a dangerous little free-kick for Mexico, the only thing that even looked like the opening of a terrifying soccer match.
He has a country on his shoulders
There was absolutely nothing that spoke of anything other than a new requiem for an Argentinean dream.
Nothing at all but a dream that holds itself up with its left foot.
An hour later, Lionel Messi got the ball in the right place for the first time with his right foot from 25 metres. He received, added right, a left shot down the side of the chair.
He has a dream, a president and a country on his shoulders, but he’s used to it.
In the final minutes, Enzo Fernandez cut in the ball after a left corner kick and won 2-0 at the far end. He grew up in the River family, which is why his name is Enzo (after Francescoli), and he was born in the same month that Messi’s family packed their bags to move to Barcelona. Maybe there is a future for Argentina, after all?
The key is for them to start believing in it themselves first. Shocking was Scaloni’s panic after losing the premiership, his change of starting line-up, consistent defensive choices – it seemed as though decisions were made at gunpoint, as if life itself depended on not conceding a goal. And after two days of dancing and driving in Brazil, how did you feel?
Now maybe Scaloni can breathe again, now they still have the chance.
If they were to take it, they wouldn’t be able to play football that way. Today there was Messi and nothing else, and they’ve tried that before.
World Cup matches Sunday 27 November
11.00 Japan and Costa Rica 14.00 Belgium-Morocco 17.00 Croatia Canda 20.00 Spain and Germany