DOHA, QATAR – Argentina are a work in progress. Or, perhaps, a voyage of self-discovery. This may seem like an odd thing to say when you’ve lost just one of your previous 39 internationals, when you’re coming off three wins on the spin and when you’re in the last eight of the World Cup. But there is a weird and unexpected fragility to this side and it came to the fore against Australia on Saturday night. On the flipside, when things aren’t quite working as they should, there’s a chap named Lionel Messi to call upon.
Buoyed by a phenomenal support that turned the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium into a sort of Estadio Monumental, Gulf Edition (the stands were a sea of Albiceleste with a tiny Tetris-piece yellow shape representing Australia), Argentina were 2-0 up and cruising for most of the game.
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Then, with barely 15 minutes to go, substitute Craig Goodwin‘s hit-and-hope from the edge of the box rocketed off the back of Enzo Fernandez and looped past keeper Emi Martinez to make it 2-1. Scarcely five minutes later, left-back Aziz Behich nearly achieved World Cup highlight reel immortality, with a ridiculous mazy run that saw him slither past four opponents and fire on goal, only for Lisandro Martinez to somehow get a block in. Behich, a 31-year-old journeyman who has turned out for 10 different clubs in his career, was playing in the Turkish second division this time last year. Earlier in the game, he clashed with Messi, with the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner getting in his face.
Evidently some of that Messi stardust landed on him. “Had he pulled it off, it would have been Messi in a yellow shirt,” Australia boss Graham Arnold said after the game.
It was a reminder that the World Cup, especially in the knockouts, can be a great leveller and that every moment on the pitch is an opportunity for a no-name to enter lore.
“Two-nil would have been fair,” Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said afterwards. “But that’s football. Football is about moments. Moments when you dominate and moments when you suffer.”
The Behich scare did shake Argentina awake. In the final minutes they could — and should — have scored bundles more, with Messi and substitute Lautaro Martinez both squandering multiple chances. But, again, deep in injury time, 18-year-old Garang Kuol — the youngest player to feature in a World Cup knockout game since Pele in 1958 — forced a tough save from Emiliano Martinez that would have levelled the game.
This is not how things are supposed to unfold. Not when you are comfortably in control and, pound for pound, several orders of magnitude more talented than the opposition. And that should give Argentina boss Scaloni something to think about.
Argentina controlled the game (good) but, through 85 minutes, managed just three shots on target, one of them Julian Alvarez‘s goal to make it 2-0, which was a gift from Aussie keeper Mathew Ryan.
