2018 FIFA WORLD CUP: Argentina national team

2018 FIFA WORLD CUP PREVIEW – ARGENTINA NATIONAL TEAM




Summary of the Team

Argentina are coming off of a very tough qualifying campaign, just about making it into the tournament. Argentina are one of the main contenders to win the world cup because of their main man, the best player in the world in my eyes Lionel Messi. Messi has single handedly took Argentina to the world cup and will hope to continue to do so at the world cup, but of course someone else will have to help him. Argentina have an incredible amount of attacking talent with players such as Messi, Aguero, Di Maria, Dybala, Higuain, but they can’t seem to put it together for a few years now. A prime example of Argentina’s attacking problems was 4 years ago where they only scored 2 goals in the knockouts and although they made the Final, it really wasn’t in the Argentinian type of way, they scraped results out. For the attacking talent that they have, it’s really weird on why they struggle to score goals, but they’ll have to sort it out for this world cup. Argentina’s biggest question mark will be the defense and the goalkeeper and although they seem to always put it together defensively for the past few years, it will always be a question. Their goalkeeper problems are probably the biggest concern overall as they have a backup Chelsea keeper as a number one option, the 36 year old Willy Caballero. Argentina are coached by Jorge Sampaoli, he loves to play high press attacking football which should hopefully get Argentina to play exciting football unlike they’ve done recently, he is a successful coach, had a great run with Chile taking Brazil to penalties in R16 in 2014 and winning copa America in 2015. Only bit of controversy with Argentina would be the exclusion of Icardi who’s been probably their best striker during the season, but still that doesn’t change the fact that Argentina are full of threat.

Road To The Finals

Argentina as mentioned already have had an insanely tough road to the finals. They literally left it until the last day of the campaign where they had to beat Ecuador. Argentina finished 3rd with 28 points and 7W 7D 4L record in the campaign. They were very inconsistent and if they didn’t have the best player in the world it’s unlikely they’d be here. Argentina were in massive danger of being knocked out during the qualifiers, but Lionel Messi’s greatness in the last game against Ecuador away which they had to win to qualify came through. Messi scored an incredible hattrick leading Argentina to a comeback win from 1-0 down to 1-3. It was one of those legacy making games for Messi.  Overall Argentina were pretty poor going forward in the campaign only scoring 19 goals in 18 games which was tied for 2nd worst with Paraguay and Venezuela. I mean Brazil managed to score 22 more goals than Argentina in the qualifying campaign. Argentina’s top scorer was of course Messi with 7, Di Maria mercado and pratto added 2 goals each and then a few others scored 1 each which just shows that they had struggles to score because Messi was the only consistent player there. Argentina had some shocking results like drawing Peru and Venezuela at home or losing to Bolivia away or losing to Brazil 3-0. But in the end they did pull through and advanced to the world cup.

The History of Argentina's National Team

Argentina are one of the most historic nations in football history. Argentina are a 2 time world champion in 1978 and 1986 led by the magical Maradona. They’re also a 14 time Copa America champions and won Confederations cup. A total of 17 trophies for Argentina. Argentina have produced some of the greatest players of all time like Maradona and Messi who are both in conversation for the greatest ever. They have produced so many great attacking players over the years which always made them one of the most exciting national teams to watch. Argentina have had quite a long drought without trophies however. They haven’t won anything since the Copa America in 1993 which is now 25 years without a trophy and they’ll be hoping that Messi and Co can finally give them something to cheer about, bringing home the world cup would surely put Messi up there with Maradona as the greatest to play for Argentina.

Key Players

Lionel Messi: I think it’s pretty obvious whose Argentina’s most important player will be. It’s clearly Messi. The only Argentinian player that has been consistent over the years taking them to the tournament all by himself. Plus Messi is the captain which means it really depends on him if his teammates are willing to go out and fight for each other, Messi will be the guy that will set the tone for others. Messi is Argentina’s best goal scorer and best passer meaning if he clicks then the team will click, if Messi doesn’t play well then the team will just most likely fall apart. I don’t think there’s much more that I have to say about Messi. Best player in the world, the captain of his nation, the only player who’s been consistency good for Argentina. All that sums it up really.

Javier Mascherano: It’s an interesting one but Mascherano is gonna be very important for Argentina. He’s the player that has been in multiple world cups before, he’ll be running that midfield for Argentina with an ability to make tackles and put long balls forward for attackers to attack. Mascherano is the old head for this team and his voice is going to be very important for the team. He’s really gonna be one of the biggest keys for Argentina to keep the balance between attack and defence. He’s played a lot of big games throughout his career with Barcelona, Liverpool, Argentina so when they get to latter stages of the competition, Mascherano’s experience will be crucial for Argentina especially when they face huge pressure, he’ll be the guy you’d expect to calm his teammates down especially younger ones like Dybala if he plays. This is why Mascherano is so important for Argentina. Also his defensive powers will help their suspect defense out massively.

Nicolas Otamendi: Otamendi is Argentina’s best defender and has played on the big stage quite a few times before. Otamendi has had his best season of his career winning a double with Man City, being a part of a first 100 point premier league ever and the in form defender will be Argentina’s biggest rock in their suspect defense. Otamendi is also an experienced player who’s played for Argentina in big games before and knows what it takes to go far in the world cup. The experienced winner is definitely a player you want to keep the backline organised. Otamendi can also provide Argentina with headed goals from set pieces, he’s just a great defender all around, he’s really turned himself into one of the worlds best. Argentina don’t have too many good defenders but Otamendi will definitely be one of them.

Possibilities, Predictions and Expectations:

Argentina have been drawn in what some people would call the group of Death with Nigeria Croatia and Iceland. None of these teams are going to be pushovers and if Argentina don’t get their act right it’s possible they could get knocked out. Now personally I think they’ll battle it out for the 1st place with Croatia and I honestly don’t know what to expect between those two. I’d be willing to give Argentina an edge due to the fact they have Messi and if their whole teams actually does click together then there’s going to be no stopping them. Assuming Argentina advance to the next round they’d face one of the group C teams that include France Denmark Peru and Australia. Argentina will be hoping to avoid France because that’s the only way I’d see Argentina get knocked out in the R16. Other than that none of the other opposition would worry me if I was Argentina, just a bunch of average sides.

If you’re Argentina you really gotta try to avoid France in R16, other than that I definitely see them going all the way to the final 8 where anything can happen. I think Argentina would get eventually eliminated in the Quarters or the Semis because I’ve not been fully convinced about their team over the past few years and don’t know if anyone other than Messi will show up, but I do think they’re better than everyone in the groups and will avoid France in R16 which should mean that Argentina will get to the quarters with no problems. However if they do run into one of the top boys then I think it’d be curtains. My personal prediction would be quarters, but I’ll give them a shot at Semis at best. Now as for bets, I’d recommend over 5.5 group goals at 1.91, and elimination stage being at Quarter Finals at 3.50, if you think they can go further then Semi Final elimination would be 5.00 at WilliamHill.

Argentina's World Cup squad - the 23 names

Sergio Romero, Willy Caballero, Franco Armania, Gabriel Mercardo, Cristian Ansaldi, Nicolas Otamendi, Federico Fazio, Marcos Rojo, Nicolas Tagliafico, Marcos Acuna, Javier Mascherano, Eduardo Salvio, Lucas Biglia, Giovani Lo Celso, Ever Banega, Manuel Lanzini, Maximiliano Meza, Angel Di Maria, Cristian Pavon, Lionel Messi, Paulo Dybala, Gonzalo Higuain, Sergio Aguero.

Potential Starting Lineup (4-3-3)

Caballero

Salvio Otamendi Fazio Rojo

Mascherano Lo Celso Banega

Messi Higuain Di Maria