With the final whistle, the Argentine lost his last chance to attack, and the score on the huge monitor over the pitch was frozen at 1:2. Argentina, who won last year's Copa America, broke its first upset of this World Cup, losing to rivals Saudi Arabia in the opening game of the group stage. Hoping for a defeat to Saudi Arabia, the world's lowest ranked team in the group, where did Argentina lose tonight?
Prior to this match, Argentina were unbeaten in all competitions by 36 games, just one game away from breaking the record set by Italy. Since Scaloni became manager, this Argentina team has a relatively mature tactical system after several years of polishing, and the overall performance of the team is stable, and last year's victory from Brazil is the biggest affirmation of this Argentina. But just as the World Cup began, midfielder Lo Celso and forwards Joaquín Correa and Nicolas Gonzalez withdrew from the national team squad due to injury, which actually had a lot of tactical impact on Argentina.
Appointed at the time of defeat, Scaloni, without being favored by the outside world, through unremitting efforts to form this quite powerful team. And among all these efforts, the most important point is to do everything possible to make Messi "comfortable". As a former member of the Argentine national team, Scaloni knows the importance of Messi in Argentina, and as Messi gets older, he needs to have the right helpers around him when he can't provide too much movement. First of all, he needs a center with confrontation in front of him, preferably the kind that is flexible in running, able to win physical confrontation without being bulky; Secondly, there needs to be someone behind him who can help him defend, provide him with protection while also pressing forward when he is too late to land, and grab the ball by grabbing at the right time; Last but not least, someone up front needs someone who can provide speed to create space for Messi's passing with high-speed and sustained movement. Following these demands, Scaloni brought him Lautaro Martínez, De Paul and Di Maria.
It is true that with the support of these players, Messi's talent has been maximized in the national team, and the team's achievements are naturally obvious to all. But Di Maria is no longer young, and he can't keep the front pressure high for 90 minutes of play. Lo Celso and Gonzalez, who used to be able to provide running on the left wing, were both absent, and Alejandro Gomez, who appeared on the left wing, was limited by his technical characteristics and could not play a corresponding role, which also laid the groundwork for Argentina's defeat in this game.
There is still much debatable about Scaloni's line-up for this game, with the choice of left-back also affecting the "speed" of the game. In a situation where left-back Gomez can't provide enough runs, the role of left-back Tagliafko is particularly crucial. But in terms of the actual performance of the game, Tagliafico's running is mostly concentrated in the local half, which means that he has not been able to give enough support to the front court in running. We can't know if it had anything to do with Scaloni's pre-match set-up, and judging by the final result, a shrunken full-back is not the role Argentina need in this game.
A hard-won victory made Saudi Arabia remembered by fans around the world, and it is also worth remembering that they ran 10km more than their opponents in this race. It may be precisely because of these 10km that Saudi Arabia was able to achieve this unexpected result; It may be that because of this 10km less, Argentina's group qualification possibility is more uncertain. With only two group games remaining, if Scaloni is unable to resolve the problems that arose in this match, Argentina's qualification prospects will be clouded by layers of gloom. An eagle that can't flutter its wings and fly high, can it still be considered an eagle?