World Cup column: Argentina embrace the emotion to secure Messi’s date with destiny
It is impossible not to associate Argentinian football with emotion. The ticker tape laden fields of 1978 hark back to a time before World Cups truly became the identikit commercial exercise they now are. The beauty of Diego Maradona in Mexico in 1986 is just as much a part of his story as the wide-eyed brutality of his premature exile from the competition in the USA eight years later. The tears of Lionel Messi as he received the player of the tournament award following final defeat to Germany in 2014 is a significant aspect of why so many are desperate to see him win in Qatar.
With Argentina well supported at every tournament they compete in and their fans capable of transferring vibrant atmospheres at club level to the international stage, maybe it should be no great surprise that the team itself often looks at its most natural when it gets carried away by the occasion.
Emotion in football is often seen as a loss of composure; an inability to adhere to the principles of a calculated game plan in favour of acting instinctively, better left to those in the stands than the finely tuned super athletes. Emotion on the field creates the potential for chaos.
This was undeniably the case for Argentina at the last World Cup in Russia. A draw against Iceland and a humbling 3-0 defeat to Croatia in their opening two group games led to a player revolt that effectively meant manager Jorge Sampaoli played the role of captain without a ship for a decisive win against Nigeria and a thrilling last 16 defeat to eventual winners France.
Throughout the tournament, Diego Maradona, eyes just as wide as they had been following his goal against Greece in Foxboro 24 years beforehand, had looked on from the executive boxes, stirring a hefty contingent of travelling Argentine support into even more of a frenzy when he would appear on the television screens at either end of a stadium.
Sampaoli’s own touchline histrionics only added to the turbulence surrounding the team, but by the time of their exit in Kazan he was effectively gesticulating into a vacuum anyway. The 62-year-old said he felt like a criminal during the Group Stages and Messi’s mother told Argentinian television revealed her son “suffered and cried” because of the experience.
The Argentina we now see before us, the one that will compete in the country’s fifth World Cup final on Sunday, was sold as something different before the tournament. Having won the Copa America in 2021 by creating an appropriate structure to allow what are surely the last few gallons of Messi’s greatness to flow effectively, Lionel Scaloni was hailed as the sort of cold-blooded tactician that could at the very least prevent a repeat of Sampaoli’s tempestuous calamity.
There has been plenty of evidence that the former West Ham defender has a tactical acumen suited to success in international tournaments. His decision to give Julian Alvarez the starting spot in attack after beginning the first two games with Lautaro Martinez leading the line has brought more out of Messi and made Argentina’s attack function with increasing fluidity. Switching to a back five stunted the Netherlands in the Quarter-finals until Wout Weghorst was heaved from the bench to change the complexion of the game. The loss of Angel Di Maria to injury has been made up for by the emergence of Enzo Fernandez.
But that has not meant Argentina’s route to the final has been without drama. A confident start against Saudi Arabia dissipated into a nightmarish replica of the chaos in Russia. 60 minutes of fouling, playacting and general frustration had to be endured before Messi inspired victory in the crucial second group game against Mexico. A position of comfort was almost surrendered against Australia as anxiousness took hold, and the late collapse against the Dutch was only part of the emotional journey of that particular contest.
17 bookings and a red card were a reflection not only of referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz’s performance but also how the match and its immediate aftermath lost all control. From Leandro Paredes launching a ball directly at the opposition bench to Messi interrupting a post-match interview to call Weghorst a fool, the game took on a life of its own. Rather than allowing the shock of Weghorst’s late equaliser to shatter them, Argentina embraced the volatility to take charge of extra time and then remained composed to win the penalty shootout that followed.
It used to be suggested that part of why Messi was never embraced by Argentines in the same way as Maradona was his inability to tap into the vibrant, erratic culture of those that follow the national team. Even his introverted, awkward personality seems to have been overcome by the weight of feeling surrounding him and his country now though. He now leads the battle cries ahead of kick-off and is central to post-match celebrations. An act as simple as Messi preparing to take a corner has a quasi-religious element attached to it as fans shower him with adoration.
Maybe it is this emotion that will prove disruptive to a supremely self-assured and well organised French team in Sunday’s final. The outpouring afterwards, regardless of the result of the game itself, could be something unlike the World Cup has ever seen.
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