Argentina a complete and utter mess...
IT IS a World Cup which Argentina hoped would be all about Messi – and it is almost turning out that way. They are in a mess.
Two games, one point, one goal, one penalty miss and now they must beat Nigeria tonight to have any chance of survival.
Who could have predicted that before Russia launched the tournament 12 days ago?
Very many of us if we had gone deep behind the blue-and-white stripes of a team that have been world champions twice in the past 40 years.
Never mind that they have a striker in Sergio Aguero who led the line for Manchester City’s record-breaking Premier League title success; never mind they have a player in Lionel Messi who normally delivers genius with every touch.
Two matches provide a telling backdrop and they are not those from Moscow when they drew 1-1 with Iceland or last week in Nizhny Novgorod when they were thumped 3-0 by Croatia.
First, let us go back to the evening of October 10 last year in the Ecuadorian capital of Quito.
It is the final day of South American qualifying and, despite 17 previous matches, Argentina still have to win one more to book their place in Russia.
Thirty-eight seconds in, Miguel Ibarra puts Ecuador 1-0 up and the strong possibility of Argentina needing to enter the Oceania play-offs to avoid missing their first World Cup finals since 1970 looks on. Up steps Messi to score a hat-trick to ensure qualification. They win 3-1. Next stop Wembley, Saturday May 19 and last month’s FA Cup final between Arsenal and Chelsea.
Willy Caballero has played in goal for all of Chelsea’s previous six FA Cup ties this season. A week earlier, he is at fault in the 1-1 draw at Huddersfield and when the Wembley team is named, the man who has won the League Cup with Manchester City is on the bench.
Manager Antonio Conte decides to go for his No1 Thibaut Courtois. Chelsea win 1-0 and in northern Russia on Thursday, Caballero’s calamitous error allows Croatia to score, setting up the platform for their famous win. Could Caballero be relied upon enough for the biggest occasion? Conte thought not. Coach Jorge Sampaoli thought differently
If Cristiano Ronaldo does not work, Portugal do, as they showed by winning the European Championship final when their driving force was taken off injured. It is the reverse with Argentina.
Never mind their experience, never mind their collective, if Messi does not work, then Argentina do not work and never more have we known it than during these World Cup finals and World Cup campaign.
In those 18 matches in the CONMEBOL qualifying, Argentina won just seven. They drew seven and lost four, starting with a 2-0 home defeat by Ecuador. It was not until matchday four that they won, with a 1-0 triumph in Colombia, and of those seven victories, Messi scored in the last five of them.
Out of their final five qualifying games, they only won the last one, after losing 2-0 in Bolivia, drawing 0-0 in Uruguay, drawing 1-1 at home to Venezuela and drawing 0-0 at home to Peru.
And even then when they went to Ecuador, they were trailing within a minute before Messi’s rescue act.
It is such a surprise then that Argentina are bottom of Group D with just one point? Despite the aura, runners-up in 1990 and again as recently as 2014 and despite having one of the greatest players of all time, maybe as a team the fact is: they are just not good enough any more.
As they were falling apart against Croatia last Thursday, Evita, one of the world’s legendary musicals, was celebrating the 40th anniversary of its opening night on the London stage.
Don’t Cry For Me, Argentina? Those back home just might tonight.
ARGENTINA coach Jorge Sampaoli says he has been made to feel like a criminal by social media trolls after reports of dressingroom unrest amid their World Cup crisis.
Sampaoli’s side must beat Nigeria here tonight to have any chance of reaching the last 16, having drawn 1-1 with Iceland and lost 3-0 to Croatia in their first two games.
After last Thursday’s defeat in Nizhny Novgorod, Sampaoli was widely criticised in the media and by his own players, who held crisis talks with Argentinian FA boss Claudio Tapia in a bid to bring about a change in tactics.
“Sometimes people in the virtual world make you feel like a criminal simply because you have lost a game,” said Sampaoli.
“They say somebody has to be fired because of that defeat. If I were to think that I’ve got to immerse myself in the virtual world, I would have to throw in the towel and leave my position.
“But I’m a coach with a clear idea what I want to achieve. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose.”
Sampaoli took aim at the faceless trolls who