Nothing left

In what was surely Lionel Messi’s last World Cup, Argentina simply ran out of emotional energy

By MARCUS HAYDON

Deep in the bowels of the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, Lionel Messi stopped in the mixed zone to speak with reporters. After a few generic questions about the match, a reporter asked Messi what came next. He paused and focused his gaze on the middle distance. “For me, the national team is over,” said Messi, his eyes glossy with emotion. “It hurts me more than anyone, but it’s evident that this is not for me.”

It was June 2016 and Argentina had just lost to Chile in the Copa América final. The defeat extended their trophyless run to 23 years and was their fourth straight loss in a final. Messi would later reverse his decision to retire but had to wait until 2021, aged 34, to claim a first international title, setting Argentina on a run of three consecutive tournament wins.

Coming into this World Cup there was a sense of a team still basking in the glow of its recent success. Lionel Scaloni’s side cruised through qualifying and dispatched a selection of modest rivals in friendlies; their opponents the mere supporting cast in an extended victory tour. The World Cup squad featured 17 of the 26 players who went to Qatar and there had been some signs of reduced dependency on Messi. Any doubts about his centrality to the team were quickly extinguished though with six goals in the group stage.

At some point during every World Cup, articles will appear in the Argentinian press offering advice from cardiologists on how to manage stress during matches. Those articles emerged particularly early this time, provoked by two nerve-shredding ties against Cape Verde and Egypt. Those wins, in extremis, were faithful to the Argentinian tradition of suffering in victory and exposed some of the side’s vulnerabilities. “What a group of players” said Scaloni after the Egypt comeback.

Another laboured performance against Switzerland in the quarter-final hinted at a team running largely off sheer willpower. “This is now a different Scaloni and, by extension, a different national team, almost unrecognisable from its best version,” said Cristian Grosso in the newspaper La Nación . “Uncomfortable, vulnerable. Stagnant, sluggish. Its style has practically been erased; it has lost its DNA. Had Switzerland not handed them the numerical advantage, they seemed lost.”

Argentina tend to reserve an extra gear for such occasions and so it proved

The semi-final against England was a chance to raise energy levels. For Argentina, the game offered an excruci - ating dichotomy: win and add another memorable chapter to this team’s reel of achievements; lose and face the ignominy of being eliminated by the “English pirates” in what will surely be Messi’s last World Cup. So fraught had been the previous rounds that many feared the worst. “Our only hope is English mediocrity, which has been apparent this year, too,” said the El País newspaper. Some admitted to being more nervous than for the World Cup final in 2022.

Argentina tend to reserve an extra gear for such occasions and so it proved. As England retreated, Scaloni’s team grew in the tension of Atlanta, outplaying their opponents with the potent combination of grit, lucidity and talent that Argentinians yearn for from their national team. The late comeback meant that only two of Argentina’s 11 knockout goals arrived before the 79th minute. The players holding up a fan-made flag claiming the “Malvinas are Argentinian” generated much defiant pride back home.

“Messi needed to be a bit more like Maradona to get past the English – that’s how we imagined it,” said Alejandro Wall in Tiempo Argentino . “But the team won in its own way, it won in Messi’s way, even without Messi scoring. There’s nothing left for him to do, don’t ask any more of him.” The scale of the overseas criticism for supposed FIFA favouritism and an overly aggressive style annoyed many and pro - voked pushback online. That some of the comments extended into a more generalised disparaging of Argentinians caused a surge in the use of the term argentinofobia , the implication being that the criticism was based on inherent prejudice.

Spain awaited in the final and the phrase going in was “whatever happens, happens”; Argentina had already won the game they had to win. In the end, the physical and emotional toll caught up with Scaloni’s men and there were tears again for Messi at the MetLife. Tears of defeat, but also tears recognising that this team’s journey, and possibly his own, are coming to an end. “Not all love stories have a happy ending,” lamented the commentator on Radio Mitre. “But this one was worth it.”