Mascherano knows the score
Javier Mascherano, the Argentine defender who helped Barcelona reach the pinnacle of European soccer several times, chose to end his 15-year career for the Argentine national team after the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Mascherano, who now plays for Hebei China Fortune, always maintains a low profile in front of the media, but in a recent interview with Xinhua, he shared stories from the World Cup as well as his thoughts on the CSL and Chinese soccer.
“I had been a member of the Argentine national team for 20 years, including the youth training period, and I knew the 2018 World Cup would be my final chance to fight for my nation, so I tried really hard with an easy state of mind,” he said.
“We could have earned a better result in Russia, but everything is over anyway, however regretful we are.
“I thought Croatia had the ability to get into the World Cup final. Their performance later proved my opinion. In our match against Croatia, we were on a par in the first half, but after their goal in the second half, we did get somewhat upset. Yes, even Argentina can be affected by mental factors.”
In the match between Argentina and France, the performance of 19-year-old Kylian Mbappe left an impression on Mascherano.
“Mbappe was really fast. I saw him starting from midfield and I tried to catch him, but obviously I failed and France scored a goal. He is only 19 years old while I’m 34 already. He is young and fast ... we have different genes,” Mascherano said.
“Argentina lacked some luck in the past few years. We lost the World Cup as well as two America’s Cup finals. But Argentine football has its own spirit and pattern. Maybe we are going through the experience of the Brazilian team over the past few years, and Argentine football will go back to the top.”
Mascherano is pragmatic about his time at Hebei CFFC.
New coach Chris Coleman took over in the wake of Manuel Pellegrini’s exit, and the team lost its opportunity to advance in the Asian Championships League despite the arrival of Mascherano and international players like Ezequiel Lavezzi and Hernanes.
“Pellegrini was my head coach when I was at River Plate. I was lucky to work with him again after coming to China. As for Coleman, he brought a lot of new elements and styles from the Premier League to CFFC, so there are already some changes in our team,” Mascherano said.
“You definitely want to win every game, but to get good results, you have to be patient.”
When pressed on the state of Chinese soccer the Argentine takes a long term view.
“We can’t hope the Chinese League and Chinese soccer takes only 10 years to catch up with countries that have a football history of over one hundred years,” he said.