Rabbit out of the hat

Almost everyone in the Argentine football circles knows about their once "unofficial Godfather," the controversial Julio Grondona, as he is referred to by several media outlets. The man who oversaw the affairs of the Argentine Football Association for something close to 40 years as if it was a monarchy, also having some unpopular influence in FIFA. Counter-intuitively, La Albiceleste's football somewhat thrived during his tenure but was also dying slowly and unnoticeably like a degenerative disease.

It all became apparent at his demise in 2014 when a supposedly democratic election to replace the forefather, raised a middle finger towards the whole of Argentina's football fraternity. It was a rabbit out of the hat moment, less of a lucky redemptive moment but a curse springing out of nowhere. Two candidates, one who preached reform and the other a perceived perpetuation of Grondona's iron fist regime lined up for voting as 75 members of the association went to the polls. A ridiculous and unmathematical 38-38 tie was the result, yes, out of the 75 votes cast, with the latter candidate eventually getting the nod.

Five years later, things have never been the same as far as Argentina's football is concerned.

Beginning of the end

The election did hint on the beginning of the end and so did the team's performance on the pitch in the same period, though not obvious to the eye. This was the same 2014 where Lionel Messi led La Albiceleste to the World Cup final against Germany in Brazil. Everyone had been rooting for the talisman to bring home the only prize missing from his illustrious trophy cabinet and indeed, he had put on a show worthy of praise and honor. He, in fact, walked away with the Golden Ball prize, the award for the best player of the tournament, howbeit reluctantly receiving it. He wanted more, their people wanted more, a chance to redeem a nation by winning a first major senior trophy in close to 21 years had been tombstoned by the Germans in the final. To be fair, it was not only Messi who had rearranged highways and landscapes on their way to the final. The whole of the White and Sky-Blues had punched way above their weight and just like the Germans, could have exhausted all their drive and winning mojo in that tournament.

Although they were not the most talented squad, players like Lionel Messi, Angel Di Maria, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Javier Mascherano and Gonzalo Higuain were the crème de la crème. As few as they were, their quality did rub on the likes of Marcos Rojo and Sergio Romero, with the whole unit fighting like gladiators, giving even what they didn't have for football and country. It was not just the World Cup, La Albiceleste had phenomenally appeared in 2 of the 3 prior Copa America finals before Brazil 2014. They would then appear in two more finals after 2014, however, they were unlucky not to get their hands on some elusive silverware on all the occasions.

Most or nobody could have known, but that run in which they lost no match in regulation time during the whole of the 2014 FIFA World Cup was a fat lady sings moment, almost the end of an impressive era.

Their 2018 World Cup run was just a symptom

The degeneration became apparent during the 2018 World Cup in Russia where the casual football fans witnessed a shocking performance by the South Americans.

The seasoned Jorge Sampaoli who had masterminded Chile's Copa America triumph and done a great job at Sevilla looked way out of his depth at the helm of the White and Sky-Blues. Bizzare tactics and formations that left out key players such as Sergio Aguero, Paulo Dybala, Angel Di Maria on the bench for the likes of the unheralded and untested Christian Pavon and Maximiliano Meza got everybody talking. Sampaoli himself was crucified on social media to say the least. Of course, he did deserve some of the criticism, but even he was just a symptom and scapegoat of a much rooted and bigger problem. Preparations for the Russia tournament were far from ideal. Sampaoli was even appointed to save Argentina of the bushes of missing out on the World Cup in 48 years after a poor qualifying campaign that was rescued by a Messi hat-trick against Ecuador on the final day. A result that became Sampaoli's only competitive win prior to Russia. Scheduled international friendlies didn't help him thoroughly prepare either with a couple getting cancelled, for instance, the Jerusalem one had poor funding from the federation being a major obstacle (which we will thoroughly explore in the next section). It was during such preparations in March 2018 that Argentina suffered their record-equalling defeat at the hands of Spain, a 6-1 humiliation, which Messi was hardly able to finish as he made his way into the tunnel.

In the end, their 1-1 draw against Iceland, 0-3 loss to Croatia and a last-minute fortuitous 2-1 win over Nigeria that granted them passage into the round-of-16 were all actually not shocking but deserved results. La Albiceleste were eventually knocked out of the round-of-16 by eventual champions France with a 3-4 scoreline.

AFA Shenanigans

In 2019, results have barely improved either. A third-place finish at the 2019 Copa America clouded just how dismal their overall performance had been. An opening 0-2 loss to Columbia, a dull and lucky draw against Paraguay and an eventual win over lowly ranked Qatar were enough to send them through as one of the best 3rd placed teams. Something which shouldn't have been the case for the 2-time world champions. Their governing footballing body, the Argentine Football Association (AFA), has had a lot to do with this, if not everything to do with it. Let's look at only a few of the issues;

a. The 2014 Election

Surely without getting any more evidence; the circumstances surrounding the succession outlined in the introduction tells a lot about the cancer of corruption damaging the institution. Corruption itself as a phenomenon basically means more money to people behind the scenes and less towards the development of the game where results are expected. This can even be further evidenced by the following two other concerning issues.

b. Managerial appointments

It's very hard to explain Argentina's recent managerial struggles given just how endowed they are in terms of managerial talent as a nation.

Think Diego Simeone, Mauricio Pochettino, Marcelo Bielsa, Gerardo Martino only to mention but a few. They have a pool of renowned tacticians which has been headlining UEFA Champions and Europa League finals as well as the most competitive domestic leagues in Europe. But who have they appointed instead in recent times, Edgardo Bauza, Jorge Sampaoli and the current caretaker coacher Lionel Scaloni, Sampaoli's assistant who has been barely tested. Maybe the top guys are not just interested in the national team job, but for them not to be, there should be a good reason why. It's fair to assume that such former international players and sons of the soil would be at least patriotic enough to want to help revive their country's football. The former Barcelona manager, for example, Martino quit his role after somehow having only 12 players ready at his disposal heading into the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics.

Simply put, AFA actually seems to be holding back in financing top managerial appointments.

c. National team logistics

Many would remember that the Argentinean captain, Lionel Messi once quit the national team. It was immediately after the 2016 Copa America where they lost to Chile in the final. The five-time Balon d'Or winner had himself missed a penalty during the final shoot-out. Messi would then eventually cite poor professionalism and far from ideal logistics by the administrative body as reasons for him quitting. For someone who had given so much over the years and still not managing to help his nation regain major silverware in over 20 years, you would understand the frustration. He was tired especially given the fact that AFA didn't seem to be pulling their own weight. Messi obviously returned to international duty after a presidential and public plea.

More of friendly matches scheduled in the less known parts of the world for financial gains, only if AFA can guarantee the appearances of top players such as Messi and Aguero has also been damaging the team's competitiveness. They are treating their stars as cash cows.

There could be more, but who else wants to continue hearing about such pathetic stunts by Argentina's football governing body.

A drying talent pool

Contrary to popular belief, the current Argentinean squad is not actually very talented and balanced. After mentioning names of aging stars that include Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, Angel Di Maria, Gonzalo Higuain, Paulo Dybala, Icardi, Manuel Lanzini and Lautaro Martinez; the rest of their team members' names are not as glamorous and neither do they have crucial first-team roles at their respective clubs.

Even the above crop of excellent forwards, they are just that, forwards and they all can't play together at once. Take the 26-year-old Juventus forward for instance, Dybala, he has made little impact on the international stage because he is most effective from a position and role undertook by arguably the biggest talent of the century, Lionel Messi. The same can also be said about Lanzini; Icardi, Aguero and Higuain. No wonder coaches like Sampaoli ended up dropping some popular names on the bench.

On the face of it, this may look like karma is residing in Argentinean football right now, perhaps by having mothers give birth to and nurse only forwards in the current generation. Not really. Their current footballing structure is to be blamed for letting this happen. They are no longer as impressive in being a convincing conveyor belt of talent. La Albiceleste won the Under-20 FIFA World Cup in 2001, 2005 and 2007 and of their 20-man 2018 World Cup squad in Russia, seven of those were U20 World Cup winners from 11 or 13 years previously. Now in their last three U20 World Cup squads (2011, 2015, 2017), only two players featured in Russia. Evidence that the pathway to the first team for youth players has become less straight forward.

It is because of that reason that many talented players could be "leaking" from their current system.

Spare the rod on Messi

It's fair enough to argue that the case we have presented so far is enough to exonerate Messi from being the scapegoat of the national team's woes. Punditry commentary such as "he doesn't mark for the ball, he is not a good leader, he doesn't care about his country enough," should be trashed.

If it were not for Messi's stunning free-kicks and late solo goals against the likes of Iran, they wouldn't have made the 2014 World Cup final. Argentina might have not made even the Russia finals if the talisman had not bagged a hatrick against Ecuador in their 3-0victory on the final match-day of the qualifiers. It was only the 32-year-old who scored a competitive goal for Argentina between November 2016 and the commencement of the 2018 World Cup finals. So when he lost his cool against Brazil or Chile in the 2019 Copa America finals, understand he had more than one good enough reason to justify a mere normal human emotional outburst.

To say the criticism on La Albiceleste's all-time leading goal scorer has been unfair, it's a gross understatement. Where can Argentina go from here Their challenges and shortcomings surely seem obvious now, but how do they turn it around? It's simple at least on paper, AFA just has to do the opposite of what they've been doing right now. They should take good care of players on international duty, schedule friendlies that make competitive and not just financial sense, become more international in establishing a clear pathway to the senior team for the youth players, recruit vastly experienced managers amongst many other things.

If their recent 6-1 friendly victory over Ecuador is anything to go by, maybe they've started the rebuilding process with youthful players under Lionel Scolani.

Here is what the gaffer said;

"It was a positive tour. We got what we wanted which was that the kids get some minutes and for them to be able to show that they could be here. I'm excited because of the way they understand what it means to play with this shirt. There are five or six players which are the base of my team. They don't need to play as much anymore because they've shown and have given us so much.

After that you could win or lose because the best team doesn't always win. No one is unbeatable but this is a national team that will be difficult to beat." – Lionel Scolani