ATLANTA — So it turns out that the method to create a two-time World Cup finalist squad is fairly simple. Start with a fanbase whose devotion to the team makes reverends and pastors envious. Build a squad of rabid wolverines trained to drag anyone in a different jersey down to the grass, hard. Add in a manager who calmly turns up the heat on the pot you’re sitting in, so slowly you never realize it’s boiling until it’s too late. And top it all off with a divinity in human form, a genius with the ability to see the chess board that is a soccer pitch five moves ahead of the rest of humanity.
Easy, right? There’s your roadmap, USMNT: be more like Argentina.
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Of course, nobody can be like Argentina. That’s the whole point of La Albiceleste. They’re singular, a force unlike any in the World Cup this year, maybe unlike any in World Cup history. They are the defending champions, yes, but they’ve found a new, bizarre roadmap to victory in this year’s tournament.
Argentina scored twice in under seven minutes with less than 10 minutes left in regulation time to defeat England 2-1 on Wednesday, which would be impressive enough on its own … but this marks the fourth straight time La Albiceleste has yanked out the heart of the opposition with little time left on the clock.
England could only watch as Lionel Messi and Argentina claimed another victim.
(Alex Livesey – Danehouse via Getty Images)
In all four of its knockout rounds this year — against Cape Verde, Egypt, Switzerland and now England — Argentina has won without holding the lead after 90 minutes of play. “They find a way to win” undersells what Argentina does, time and time again. Argentina win after the other squad has already begun dreaming of moving on, begun buying plane tickets, begun naming their children after their poor soon-to-be doomed heroes.
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Argentina is the monster lurking under your bed, in your closet, in the backseat of your car late at night. Argentina comes back to life after the credits have rolled. Argentina will speak up and halt weddings while all others hold their peace. Argentina simply will not die.
There’s an old line about never wrestling with a pig, because the pig will drag you into the mud and beat you with experience. That’s exactly what Argentina did to England, knocking the Three Lions off their game with foul after foul — 12 in all — in the first half, then using goalkeeper Jordan Pickford as target practice in the second. Hit anything with a sledgehammer enough times and it’s going to break.
Yes, England parked the bus way too early. There was never any chance that Anthony Gordon’s goal in the 55th minute was going to hold up, not against a Leo Messi-led attack. But Argentina clearly possessed something intangible that England didn’t, a will to win, a will to fight long after all others would have given up. (See: France on Tuesday.) Argentina believes it can’t be stopped for a simple reason: Nobody’s been able to do it so far.
“We had come off three tough matches where things got complicated, yet the team always managed to dig deep,” Lautaro Martínez, who scored the winning goal, said after the match in Spanish. “Today, once again, even after falling behind, we managed to turn it around in stoppage time. That really defines this group, a team that never settles and always wants more. In the end, that’s what matters.”
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In truth, Argentina probably had the England match won long before that. La Albiceleste probably secured the victory prior to the game, when its gathered fans drowned out both “God Save the King” and “Sweet Caroline” with chants and whistles. The Argentina fans, tens of thousands of Messi jerseys strong, are the squad’s 12th, 13th and 14th men, a wall of sound and love and devotion you can’t go over, under, around or through.
So, word of warning to Spain and all La Roja supporters. You may outplay Argentina through 90 or 120 minutes on Sunday in New Jersey. You might even outscore Argentina, and that might make you think you’ve actually won the World Cup. Many others have made the same mistake.
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Because when you least expect it, when you’ve gotten comfortable with the thought of victory, when the echoes of cheers have faded from your ears, when you’re back home with the trophy in your arms … that’s when Argentina will strike. That’s what Argentina does, and no one yet has figured out how to stop it.
