Argentina national team will play against history

The first finalist of the World Cup will be determined today by the match between the two teams, which in Qatar have already experienced a lot of harsh but successfully overcome trials. And which of them – either the Argentinean with Lionel Messi, who is finally very similar in terms of influence on the team to Diego Maradona, or the Croatian, who has learned to endure torment better than anyone in world football, and has just knocked out the Brazilians from the tournament – to consider favorite of the confrontation, the question seems to be purely a matter of taste.

Before this match at the Lusail stadium, it was not difficult to imagine what thoughts and observations warmed the souls of the fans of the teams he brought together. Those who are not indifferent to the Croatian, thinking with horror about how its players will solve the ill-fated problem with Lionel Messi, which even the Dutch with their seemingly strongest defense in the quarterfinals did not solve, probably comforted themselves with memories of the previous meeting. Knocked out by the Croats in a penalty shootout, the Brazilians seemed – including people who have lived in football a lifetime – the undisputed favorites of the Qatari championship. And what you certainly can’t argue with is the fact that the Brazilian attack is much more complicated than the Argentine one. It had many equivalent, equally dangerous options. And nothing, the Croats coped with it. Moreover, no matter how solid the superiority of the Brazilians in terms of strikes, no matter how handsome the goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic may look, it cannot be said that they managed to do it by a miracle.

In this sense, the Argentina national team should be much easier. For some reason, it is customary to talk about her as a team that is fantastically brightly staffed. But it’s kind of a stupid stamp. Let’s remove Messi from the composition with the magical radiance emanating from him. Is Julian Alvarez, Enzo Fernandez, Alexis McAllister – this is the set of players that should inspire fear, with which you need to dream of world championship gold? Why is the list of Luka Modric, Marcelo Brozovic and Mateo Kovacic worse?

You can’t get away from the fact that in the current Argentine team, a lot is tied to the leader. In fact, all other attacking options are just for show. And when you know where the main threat comes from, this is a serious plus, almost decisive. Especially if others are added to it – well, not pluses, but pluses. In the form, for example, of a disqualification for the enumeration of warnings from Marcos Acuña. In fact, this is a serious loss, because, apart from Acuña, there are no players in the Argentine application who would be able to fully cover the left flank, that is, it is equally useful to play in front and behind. And this means that Josip Juranovic, who plays for the Croats on the right, will have more freedom to connect, who by the end of the championship began to be perceived not just as an ordinary element of their mechanism, but as an extremely important element.

And there is a plus sign already from the irrational area, but so catchy that you won’t pass by in search of rays of hope. The Croatian national team twice crossed paths with the Argentines at the world championships: in 1998 in France, they lost in the group – 0: 1, in 2018 they defeated their rivals in Russia (with Messi, by the way, on the field) – 3: 0. And both times after these clashes, the Croats made the steepest take-offs in the team’s rather short history so far: first they won bronze, and then silver. It’s a good sign.

Those who love the Argentina national team, think with horror of the diabolical stubbornness and patience of the Croats, who almost enjoy hosting the second World Cup in survival mode and won, counting the Qatari penalty shootout victories over the Japanese and Brazilians, for five consecutive matches play -off, who climbed outside the main time, probably console themselves with the fact that such a mode has a price, after all. It cannot not be. The Croatian team before the semi-finals played two marathons with an interval of four days. And she is not so young: Marcelo Brozovic is 30, Andrei Kramaric is 31, Ivan Perisic and Dejan Lovren are 33, Luka Modric is 37 at all. And you can’t put any of them on the bench.

And to characterize the advancement of the Croats in the tournament distance, if desired, you can choose a different, much more pleasant interpretation for opponents than the one that brings to the fore stamina, as well as the wisdom and density of the middle line. To do this, out of the total number of goals scored by the Croatian national team in Qatar, just throw out four, sent to the gates of inexperienced Canadians. And what’s left? Two goals in the playoffs – to the Japanese and Brazilian teams. Brazilians – in overtime, through a rebound, almost crazy. Two goals in four matches against great opponents! Yes, all this looks like ordinary luck, like walking on a thin wire, ready to break at any second.

And advancement in the tournament distance of the Argentina national team looks like a classic championship path: difficult, with a defeat from the Saudis, acceleration, followed by a gradual acquisition of tone, a gradual exit to the peak. Even the quarter-final Argentinean victory with the Croatian victory, despite their formal identity (the outcome of both meetings became clear after a series of penalty shootouts), is silly to compare. In a difficult situation in the match with the Dutch, the Argentines were put only by the unsuccessful ending of regular time. The rest of the game followed the trend quite well.

And the Qatari route of the Argentina national team resurrects its last championship in memory. In Mexico in 1986, she also accelerated with a creak, but, having accelerated thanks to Diego Maradona, who turned from a superstar either into a football god, or into a football devil, as you like, Diego Maradona and the hard work of his partners, turned out to be unstoppable. And Maradona did not care about all sorts of historical incidents. At thirty-five, Maradona, finally for real, already without reservations, is similar in terms of his role in the team, in terms of the influence of Lionel Messi on her.

Alexey Dospekhov