Argentina felt ‘dead’ but after days of reflection and criticism they are still alive

When Lionel Messi stopped in the mixed zone after Argentina’s shock defeat to Saudi Arabia in their World Cup opener, it was like the team had lost more than a game.

Asked how everyone was feeling in the locker room, he said, “The truth, muertos“. The players were dead.

After 36 games unbeaten, a stunning upset arrived when the reigning champions of South America least expected it and the national conversation back home turned from dreaming about the tercera — Argentina’s third World Cup triumph — to whether this was the worst loss in the history of the Seleccion.

“It’s a very hard blow for us all,” Messi explained.

His team-mate Papu Gomez described the five second-half minutes in which the game got away from Argentina as a “fatality”. The rest of the players walked straight past the media, wash bags in hands, a funeral march to the bus.

But Argentina aren’t dead and buried, and it’s not as if Messi had not already contemplated the worst-case scenario.

Before the tournament, he told Argentina’s sports newspaper Olé, “We have to know that it is a World Cup, that it’s going to be very difficult. Where all the details add up. That anything can happen in a match, that games don’t always follow a logic.”

Messi has been in football long enough to know Argentina’s unbeaten run wasn’t going to last forever. Better to suffer defeat now, when you’re still able to come back from it, than in the knockout phase of the competition where losers go home.

His former Argentina skipper, Javier Zanetti, remembered his own experience in the 2002 tournament. “We beat Nigeria (in the first game, 1-0). We started perfect. And how did it end? Well, we all know…” A 1-0 loss to England and a 1-1 draw with Nigeria meant they were eliminated after the group stage.

It isn’t how you start but how you finish and Argentina’s resurrection may have already begun later on Tuesday, when Poland and Mexico, the other teams in Group C, played out a 0-0 draw that mitigated the damage caused by that Saudi Arabia result.

It served as consolation, as did the decision by head coach Lionel Scaloni to let the players have some “family therapy” on Thursday. Loved ones were allowed on campus at the University of Qatar, where Argentina are training.

Scaloni used those academic surroundings to study what went wrong with his assistants Pablo Aimar, Walter Samuel and Roberto Ayala.

Some time was then spent testing out a back three, although Scaloni isn’t expected to move away from the variations of 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 that have served him so well these past few years. Major surgery isn’t on the agenda for Saturday’s middle group game against Mexico.

“Don’t forget Argentina are still a fantastic team,” Saudi Arabia coach Herve Renard magnanimously observed. After all, the xG for the game was 2.26 to 0.15 in Argentina’s favour.

“They have amazing players. But this is football. Sometimes completely crazy things can happen… You can lose the first game and be the world champion. For Argentina, it’s possible.”

Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni has credit in the bank after last year’s Copa America win (Photo: Hector Vivas – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

Renard was not happy with how his team played in the first half on Tuesday.

“I don’t think we did a good job tactically,” he said. “Our block was compact but the pressure on the centre-backs and (Leandro) Paredes was not enough. In the first minutes of the first half, (player of the match Mohammed) Al-Owais saved a fantastic goal. Then they got a penalty kick. There were a couple of tight offside positions. At that time, if we had conceded a second, the game would have been finished.”

But Renard adjusted. Scaloni and his players did not.

“We hadn’t been through a situation like this in a long time,” Argentina forward Lautaro Martinez said.

Now everything is being seen through the prism of one game rather than 36.

The World Cup has that effect. It narrows and sharpens the focus. Olé has even asked a body language expert to analyse the Saudi game.

Three years have been reduced to one day — the day of the Saudi game, the day of the muertos, and the doubt is palpable.

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Scaloni still has plenty of credit in the bank after overcoming the scepticism that surrounded his appointment by winning Argentina’s first Copa America since 1993 last year. But this is his first job in management and, at 44, he’s the youngest coach in the competition.

The squad includes experienced players such as Messi, Nicolas Otamendi and Angel Di Maria and this group, give or take a few fresh faces, is the one that won the Copa America together by beating Brazil in the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro. But for 19 members of this 26-man squad, this is their first World Cup.

“For many of us, this was our first match at the World Cup,” Lautaro reflected. “We were anxious, excited; many emotions were going through our minds, our families were in the stands.”

“Argentina is different from other national teams,” argued Scaloni. “It’s not the same to make your debut at a World Cup with the Argentinian jersey. It’s different.” It can be overwhelming.

Of greater concern remains the general fitness and conditioning of the team. Argentina looked sluggish at times against Saudi Arabia, the fug and fatigue contributed to making their passing slow and sloppy.

“We had almost a week to rest,” Lautaro hit back, dismissing the idea his team-mates are jaded and too banged-up from club business to give Argentina the best version of themselves. “There’s one game after another. That’s what we usually do (with our clubs). Of course you have some pain, always. Some discomfort. It’s normal. But the whole group is doing well.”

Some better than others.

Cristian Romero looked rusty, as did Paredes and Di Maria after considerable time out injured. But memories of Tottenham Hotspur centre-back Romero valiantly gritting his teeth and playing through the pain barrier in that 2021 Copa America final and Di Maria scoring the winner in it were always going to die hard, even amid calls for the fresher and in-form Lisandro Martinez, Enzo Fernandez and Julian Alvarez to come into the side and inject some energy.

Messi’s tentative performance — his restrained penalty and deferral of set-piece duties — continues to be a source of anxiety, with rumours swirling that he didn’t train yesterday (Thursday).

“There are pictures of him training yesterday,” Scaloni pointed out. Messi apparently just joined the rest of the team a little later, after doing some stretching and preventative kinesiology.

Some of the criticism aimed at Scaloni has focused on his decision to fill an enlarged 26-man squad (up from the traditional 23) with guys who are not ready. Paulo Dybala, for instance, doesn’t seem able to come off the bench and make the impact he did in the Finalissima against European champions Italy in June, having only recently come back from a muscle tear he sustained while taking a penalty for Roma three months ago.

“We will break our backs for Argentina,” Lautaro insisted.

It was a line Scaloni repeated.

Two or three changes are expected for the Mexico game but he promises “we will play our style, our football”. There will be no overhaul.

As ever, the shadow of Diego Maradona looms large over Messi and Argentina. Friday was the second anniversary of his death.

“For us, for everyone really, it is a very sad day,” Scaloni said. “(On Saturday) we hope to bring some joy. He will be looking down on us from the sky.” And Argentina could use la mano de dios.

“(Mexico) will be the match for us,” Lautaro stressed. “It will be like a final, because we need to win.”

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(Top photo: James Williamson – AMA/Getty Images)