After the aborted coup to axe boss it falls on Messi to rescue Argentina
Sampaoli’s side stand on brink of elimination after chaos and confusion reigns in camp
JORGE SAMPAOLI has left it a little late to discover his ‘Plan A’. Uncertainty has bred chaos and as a result, Argentina stand on the brink of World Cup elimination here tonight.
They are not even masters of their own fate. Argentina must beat Nigeria by a greater margin than any Iceland victory over Croatia.
Anything less than a win and they will fail to reach the last 16 for the first time since 2002. Goals are the order of the day, something you would expect this team could be relied upon to produce given the glittering array of attacking talent in their ranks.
Their inability to f i n d a ny re a l cohesion going forward is at the centre of divisions within the camp that led to speculation late last week that Sampaoli would be sacked after a player revolt.
The Argentine Football Association stood by Sampaoli and those with an intimate knowledge of the squad believe one of the chief protagonists in the aborted coup, Sergio Aguero, will be among those dropped for tonight’s Group D decider despite being their only player to have scored at these finals.
Rumours of an explosive team meeting were denied in a AFA statement but the uncertainty remains.
If boasting Aguero, Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuain, Paulo Dybala supported by Angel Di Maria, Cristian Pavon and Giovani Lo Celso is an embarrassment of riches, the real embarrassment for Sampaoli is just how much Argentina have looked less than the sum of their parts. The 58-year-old reacted to their 1-1 draw with Iceland by abandoning a 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 system to play 3-4-3 against Croatia, only to end up overrun in midfield and on the end of a damaging 3-0 loss.
It is thought Sampaoli is considering — or has been pushed into considering, depending on who you believe — reverting to a back four in the hope Argentina can unite in the pursuit of success with their tournament life on the line.
“It has been a very difficult week after that Croatia defeat which was painful for us,” he said.
“We now find ourselves in the last match with everything at stake and our qualification for the round of 16. More and more expectations have been growing and as to certain situations, I can’t really clarify things that are true and things that don’t exist.
“After the last match I took responsibility for that defeat and the next day as the coach all I thought about was winning against Nigeria. I am totally convinced the team is going to go out on the pitch with great energy in order to secure a victory. At this time, all I can focus on is to prepare the team in great detail and focus solely on our match with Nigeria.”
As ever, that preparation will focus on getting the best out of Messi. Argentina’s reliance on the Barcelona star’s brilliance is alarming. Four years ago,
⬤ Alejandro Sabella opted to prioritise defence and hope Messi could work his magic in the final third.
It almost worked — they reached the final, where they lost to Germany — yet three different coaches in the four years since that tournament in Brazil has only complicated the process of developing a more fluid style.
Therefore, asking this group to suddenly turn on the style this evening is a tall order and so t h e c re a t ive burden will fall on Messi’s shoulders once again.
He has cut a frustrated figure to date, undermined by the imbalance in the te a m, b e re f t a s it is of a resilient defence. After two rounds of matches, nobody at the tournament had more shots than Messi.
His 12 efforts — Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo, Toni Kroos, Philippe Coutinho, Aleksandar Mitrovic and Luis Suarez were all tied second on 10 — yielded just three on target, one of which was the missed penalty against Iceland that meant Argentina did not escape from an underwhelming opening performance in the same way that, for example, France managed.
In that moment, the tone of Argentina’s tournament was set and they have one more chance to change that narrative against a Nigeria side buoyed by beating Iceland, their first success in a World Cup game by a margin of more than one goal since 1994.
The slogan on the side of the Argentine team bus reads “Unidos por una ilusion”, translated as “Together for a dream”. The time to show that is now.
The real embarrassment for Sampaoli is just how much Argentina haved looked less than the sum of their parts