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#2 The two Lionels can’t rescue Argentina
Before the tournament started, thousands (even millions) of eyes were trained on the two Lionels in the Argentine camp. Lionel Scaloni, the lesser known of the two, found himself in the eye of a gigantic storm that had been cooked up after the World Cup.
He was appointed as a caretaker manager till the culmination of the Copa America to allow the Argentine board to make an informed decision on their future course of action. Thus, he found himself in an unenviable position where he had to get the results despite not being assured of his job.
Though he brought in a breath of fresh air at the start with his squad changes, his team also started to odour of the staleness that has plagued the Argentine side for the past few years.
Scaloni’s system never seemed to be designed to get the best out of players at his disposal and his decision to favour unheralded youngsters over players with proven European pedigree raised a few eyebrows too. None of those transpired as he would’ve liked and with a Copa America semi-final defeat in his bag, one feels it’s only a matter of time before he gets the boot.
As for the other Lionel in question, he had a below-par tournament by normal standards. Messi created just a solitary goal and the only time he made the net bulge was from the penalty spot.
Moreover, he looked tired and visibly jaded after a gruelling season. And though he wasn’t helped by those around him, he certainly didn’t cover himself in any glory through the course of the competition.
At this juncture, Argentina find themselves in an almighty mess. A mess that is a combination of some unavoidable circumstances and others not so unforeseeable. While each country goes through generations that might not be as high on the quality quotient as those gone by, Argentina certainly could’ve offset that by utilizing their resources better.
La Albiceleste are on a slippery slope currently and one feels they need to turn things around massively to be challenging for the 2022 World Cup. After all, you know a situation is quite dire when even the great Lionel Messi can’t dig you out of it.
