So, the struggle finally ended for Argentina. The feat of Maradona never looked to be repeated at this world cup. 40 million Argentine fans would have only dreamt of that because of the little genius in the team. But he never really looked in his prime at the biggest stage. It looked like the pressure of all the hopes really got the better of him. But surely he is not the one to be blamed for every damage that we watched being happen to this team. So, where did it all go wrong? Why a team with the likes of Messi,Di Maria,Aguero, Dybala looked so much in despair? These questions surely are worthy to be discussed.
1. Road to the world cup was no cakewalk :
It is one thing to get knocked out of world cup but a whole different other to not even reach it. And when the team is two time world cup winners, it is impossible to even think. But the lights looked dim for Argentina until Messi hit a hattrick against Ecuador in the last match of qualifiers. La Albiceleste finished third in the table with lowest no. of goals scored (19) among the qualified teams. Three changes in coach for the team didn’t help either. Even the friendlies before the world cup were a hard task for as they lost 4-2 to Nigeria after scoring the two and by a devastating margin of 6-1 against Spain. The Argentines never really looked a genuine contender for the cup while on the journey to Russia.
2. Messi carrying the team everywhere :
The most obvious reason of the Argentine misery in the competition was over dependence on one man. A football team stands on 11 pillars on the field. You cannot construct a whole team according to just one man, even if he is the genius himself. Everytime they played without him it looked horrific on the field. In the qualifications, Messi played for only 10 matches out of the 18 in which they got 21 points in total. Now for the horrific side, Argentina managed only 7 in the rest of 8. Messi was their highest scorer, obviously, whereas the other world class strikers were able to put the ball in the nets only on three occasions. Aguero, Higuain, Icardi , Dybala are regular names on scoresheets when we look at the club games. But they were all non existent when came to the national side.Nobody had the slightest idea what burden they were becoming on the shoulders of a not so tall man.
3. Unimaginable selections and no Plan-B :
Jorge Sampaoli is not going to be a very liked name in Argentina after this world cup. And he has himself to blame, no one else. He did a fine job with Chile but he most certainly failed here. One of the very first shocking decision Sampaoli took was to not bringing Mauro Icardi to the Russia. He had 29 goals under his belt while playing for Inter in Serie A an d one thing that Argentina missed most in the front was a consistent striker. Well, who would have guessed.
The biggest problem that was seen was the absence of midfield. No proper holding midfield player was to be found, which meant they were unable to keep the ball in midfield even for two seconds. Poor passes, touches and regular mistakes always kept them under the threat. This problem was opened like a wound in the match against Croatia. Modric and Rakitic had so much time on their hand that they would have spent whole 90 minutes there. And it looked so easy for them to just rip the defense open with the no resistance from the mid. Fabregas rightly said-” It was 5 attackers and 5 defenders playing on the field.”
One other major problem of the many was the existence of only a single plan- “Pass the ball to Messi and wait for something to happen”. And every team facing them were aware of this fact. Thats why in each match there were atleast 2-3 players marking him. With him being surrounded the defenders had no one to pass to in the mid and the last straw was to play on the wings which is certainly not their main strength. Against Iceland, they had no clue how to make a move against a parked bus. That was the reason of trying 27 shots and getting only a single result. Against Nigeria it was individual heroics from Messi and Rojo to get them past the group stages.
The strangest things were happening on the teamsheets. With no proper structure of the team there was just too much experiments done with the team. And not picking players like Dybala, Aguero for the starting line- up was just too much for everyone to comprehend. Latest experiment being failed in the match against France just shows the hopelessness in team selection. With Messi playing False 9 there has to be a player on either wings who can connect with him for the passes. But at the end it came all just to individuals having their days. They were outdone and outpaced by the likes of Pogba, Kante and especially the prodigy, Kylian Mbappe.
The dream is over for this world cup for Messi and millions of Argentine fans. It might have been the last time we see the little Mozart in a world cup game. We can surely say that the world cup will always be grateful that he graced the field in the contest. Some flaws, indecisions, and an absence of real heart might have been the reasons that it has to end for him and for everyone but there is always the next sunrise.
Beyond Minute 90 