Lionel Messi was the first to cross the finish line, carrying the trophy he had hardly let grip of since he first saw it. Then why not? It is an incredible sight, the sort of thing you could cherish forever, that completes you and, in his case, football as well. Next came Rodrigo De Paul.
The remaining members, still in their uniforms, began singing, thudding, bouncing, and colliding with one another until the partition walls nearly collapsed. Lautaro Martnez had somehow acquired a fluffy microphone and was singing into it. Champagne or another bubbly liquid was splashed about.
They sang, “It doesn’t matter what those f*cking journalists say!” as they rushed by those journalists and out of the area. Because the national team is present. Not just any national team, but the champions of the globe. “I had a feeling it would be,” Messi stated. “You must appreciate it.”
In the last month, he has done so more than ever before, which is a significant factor in their advancement to the championship game, despite Messi’s admission that they had also suffered. Nico Tagliafico, however, said, “If you don’t suffer, it doesn’t matter.”
After the final, De Paul said that Messi left a secret note while he and he were drinking together in the room before everything began. The midfielder stated, “I don’t know if he went to the restroom or what, but I scrawled on a piece of paper, ‘Today, November 20, I promise you that we will be champions.'” This document must still be in the folder in the room. I felt it.”
Shortly after qualification, Lionel Scaloni spoke with Messi, through whom everything is assessed; the coach believes he’s never seen a player with the same influence on teammates as his captain. Scaloni’s primary responsibility is to remove the strain from football and relativize it.
Tomorrow, the sun will rise, he repeats. However, if this pertains to losing, it also applies to winning. And, having already won the Copa América, he was concerned that these expectations were becoming too great; failure could be crippling.
“Leo asked, ‘What difference does it make? It will be all right,'” revealed Scaloni. “That gave me enormous fortitude. I felt compelled to communicate with him and let him know how I felt. After speaking with him, I felt that all was good.”
Which it was, even though it wasn’t. Two days after De Paul’s email, Argentina’s opening game was lost to Saudi Arabia. They were on edge because the competition had just begun and they already risked elimination.
They were now aware that they would be required to win every game. A young team comprised primarily of World Cup rookies was on the edge of disaster. According to the news conference held before their second game, it was the greatest calamity in their history.
Despite this, and unlike the post-final song, neither the criticism nor the group’s fragility was so severe as to cause a split. Scaloni’s four-year tenure has resulted in significant gains. Losing the 2019 Copa América semi-final and Messi’s public confrontation with authorities had forged something; winning it in 2021 strengthened their relationship.
De Paul stated, “After the Saudi defeat, we discussed for hours and realized there was still a long way to go.” Immediately after the final whistle, Messi implored fans to “believe in us,” stating that “now is the time to display our unity and collective power, to demonstrate that we are truly strong.
Hervé Renard, the coach of Saudi Arabia, believes Argentina will still win the World Cup. He was correct, as evidenced by victories against Mexico, Poland, Australia, the Netherlands, Croatia, and France.
However, this was not merely the group’s strength. “In failure, you see things that you did not see in success,” Lisandro Martnez stated. According to a member of the unit’s inner circle: “At that point, Scaloni could change and perhaps save the situation, or he could not change and die.”
His success stems from the fact that he possessed the personality to implement the change; the group’s success stems from the fact that they did not oppose the change but rather supported it.
From the first to the second game, Scaloni substituted five starters. He gave two more players their first start in the third. He sought a solution for a midfield that he had labored over for the better part of two years, but which could no longer remain unchanged.
Gio Lo Celso was injured after having adapted De Paul, Leandro Paredes, and Gio Lo Celso to new, complimentary positions. He stated, “No one else does what he does.” Paredes was in poor health, and Argentina had already lost two players to injury.
The Saudi game highlighted the importance of youth, physicality, and enthusiasm. That application has revolutionized them.
Against Mexico, Guido Rodrguez and Alexis Mac Allister entered the game, with the former performing a one-game-only protective role for the fullbacks. Enzo Fernández then started against Poland. Julián lvarez also appeared at that time. Since then, this line of three — De Paul, Fernández, and Mac Allister — has begun, as has lvarez.
The data explains it: Fernández is 21, Mac Allister is 23, and lvarez is 22; they each had three, eight, and twelve caps before the World Cup. However, they played football. Injuries and lack of opportunities limited Papu Gómez to 645 league minutes and Paredes to 373; Mac Allister had played 1,257 minutes, Fernández to 1,057 minutes, plus eight Champions League matches. This appeared very differently now, with those three at the center of their achievement.
Scaloni continued to demonstrate his adaptability, with each game featuring a fresh tactical approach and the team’s composition evolving. “It will end horribly if you persist on dying with your notion,” adds Scaloni. There have been 4–4–2, 4–3–3, and 5-3-2 systems utilized in the same game.
Against Australia, Gómez was reinstated, albeit for barely 50 minutes. Against Croatia, Scaloni added a midfielder with the return of Paredes, Argentina virtually played a 4-2-2-2, a sort of square block in the middle of the field, mindful of how they can control possession. In the final against France, ngel Di Mara, who had struggled with fitness, made a shape-shifting return.
Left-footed rather than right-footed, he tore into France an hour before being withdrawn. If that was an error, the justification was tiredness. Scaloni stated of his team, “They grasped the game very well.”
Not for the first time, however, came a time of suffering, which nourishes a sense of destiny but increases the likelihood of failure due to razor-thin margins.
Messi’s goal handed them the lead against Mexico, and Scaloni acknowledged that they had defended “tooth and nail” until the final whistle. Against Australia, they built a two-goal lead with relative ease, only to find themselves under siege late in the match, requiring a crucial intervention from Lisandro Martnez and a save from Emi Martnez.
In 10 minutes against the Netherlands, they nearly squandered the game. Then there was an abundance of shithousing. Scaloni later stated, “That game was played the way it had to be played – by both teams.”
If they controlled Croatia so effectively that they were able to offer minutes to players who did not anticipate them, then the final, which had begun so brilliantly, witnessed a repetition of that unexpected anxiety. Scaloni expressed regret that they had not resolved the situation more amicably, but there was steel, or perhaps fate, or simply good fortune, to win a game they were obligated to win more than once.
The coach stated, “Sometimes the danger comes from the side you least expect, but it’s always best to analyze.” Kylian Mbappé, who had been unnoticed for eighty minutes, exploded in stature.
And then there was world champion, Emi Martinez, dancing on his line before dancing into the mixed zone and out into Lusail.
The sun will rise tomorrow, just as Scaloni predicts. When it does, they will be nursing hangovers, wearing shirts with an additional star, and pondering the bizarre dream they just had.
