Lol. Meh football ? Revisionism at it's finest. They won at the Maracana. They dominated Holland for most of that game, ditto Croatia and France. People coming up with excuses well you know the French team was under the weather. Didn't look like it when they were given a route back in by the penalty after being dominated for eighty minutes.
Scaloni's tactics were excellent. Some young players who will be the core in 2026 came in and played very well and they gradually built towards the final getting over the loss of Lo Celso and Gonsalez who had been important cogs in La Scaloneta.
They played some sound defensive football which you need to win tournaments and also some excellent possession football too. Had it not been for some poor finishing, the odd misplaced pass some of the scorelines would have been more emphatic. This is an excellent team with a special ingredient like Messi. As in 1986 when Diego was and it was a functional but very decent side that just needed a coaching shake up. The players in that side remember had played for RP and Independiente and beaten the best club sides in Europe.
The sole criticism lies at Scaloni being reluctant and slow to make changes and the right ones ie Paredes against Holland and sitting on a lead. Congratulations to the seleccion and all Argentina fans everywhere. Now the task is to win in 2026, another Copa and the u20 title with some of the superb talent esp. in midfield that is emerging.
The sole regret is that Messi should have more than one World Cup. 2006 Pekermans awful subs, 2010 Maradona is not a football coach, 2014 poor finishing and 2018 a shambles with some terrible players chosen and awful tactics.
Hi mate, welcome to BF
1) Yeah, it's meh football if you compare it to the football we watch at club level, and the football the greatest NTs historically, like Spain 2010 for example, have played
They proved better than all other NTs in this tournament, I can agree with that, but overstatement is not my thing
2) Good defensive football for sure, but that alone doesn't indicate greatness. In possession, they weren't able to break buses and most of their goals come either from counters or from opposition's mistakes
3) Scaloni was great I agree, the biggest revelation IMO of this Argentina NT, along with some great performances by Enzo, McAllister, and Alvarez who were their best players
4) Messi's performance had nothing to to with Diego 1986 who was making the impossible seem easy. Messi in this tournament was just the same old Messi we see at club level with just 2 moments that reminded us of his past self. Sorry to disappoint you, that's my judgment on him
5) Don't agree that Messi deserved more WCs. ARgentina either didn't have good coaches OR didn't have good players all the years he has been playing.
They didn't even deserve to go to the final in 2014, it was a super meh team despite Messi being individually still at his prime or thereabouts.
He was lucky that a good coach along with some great youngsters appeared out of the blue, so he had the chance to win it at the end of his career