Poor Diego Maradona, he probably thinks he can cleave the kit back on and improve this Argentina team. More desperate still, so do his many millions of his devotees. Maradona, like his beloved Albiceleste, is a chaotic mess who needs saving from himself.
The cult of the genius can be destructive as well as exalting. And in this stage of his life, the deification of Maradona is not doing him any favours. The next time he might not avoid the hospital bed he dodged in St Petersburg on Tuesday night.
Down on the pitch the investment in genius goes on in the shape of Leo Messi, as brilliant a player as was Maradona, but who alone cannot deliver what the myth suggests he can. Neither could the great Diego, yet the soaring narrative that is wrapped around him would have you believe he carried Argentina to World Cup nirvana solo in 1986. What his majesty masked was the quality of staff he had in the ranks.
Willing attendees
The Jorges, Burruchaga, who scored the winner in the final, and Valdano, La Liga’s foreign player of the year at Uefa Cup winners and Spanish champions Real Madrid, were willing attendees in attack. Sergio Batista, Ricardo Giusti and Héctor Enrique, flooded the midfield with industry and craft. At the back Oscar Ruggeri, regarded as an all-time great, and buff enforcer Jose Luis Brown had the tournament of their lives. Maradona was the lighthouse, his team-mates the rock on which it sat.
Messi’s predicament today is proof that without good players doing their thing a team cannot be saved by one man. And if you think a desperate goal five minutes from time delivered with the right boot of a bang-average, left-footed defender was deliverance you are as deceived in your reverie as the believers in Argentina.
This is a team in revolt against the leadership, playing according to its own rules, overly reliant on the god-figure that is Messi. Argentina are caged not liberated by their Messi love. They got lucky against Nigeria. The reality is they could not beat Iceland, were smashed by Croatia and were five minutes from doom against not so Super Eagles.
Destiny
On Saturday in the last 16 in Kazan they face France, a team that has yet to get out of first gear, who rested key players in the final group stroll against Denmark. On the evidence of what we have seen Argentina are unlikely winners. The biggest danger to them in the aftermath of the St Petersburg tumult is to believe all over again that destiny is driving them on, that events are somehow playing out according to a chronicle foretold.
What Argentina’s convulsions reveal is the failings of faith, the limit of their investment in Messi as the all-out, absolute saviour, however sublime his goal against Nigeria. It was the kind of finish we expect of him, smashed home under pressure, at speed, after taking two gossamer touches to control the ball, the first with his knee. This was peak Barcelona, the ball in the back of the net in a blur, leaving observers to process what they thought they had seen without quite believing anyone could actually do such a thing.
Anomaly
Argentina are not Barcelona. Messi is not supported by a Xavi, an Iniesta, a Busquets in midfield, he does not have an Alves or a Jordi Alba tearing down the flanks or a Pedro, a Samuel Eto’o or a Thierry Henry creating space in attack like he had for so long at the Camp Nou. The ball is not fed to him at pace, and as a result he is not as effective. The goal was the highlight of the first half. It gave Argentina the lead, but nothing flowed from it because in the context of this World Cup it was an anomaly.
In the second half as Nigeria first drew level and then began to dominate, Argentina were an increasingly fraught rabble. Up in the stands poor Maradona mirrored his team, slowly disintegrating, barely understanding how this could be happening to them, to him. Myth does not allow for miserable, crushing failure.
Marcos Rojo’s late bolt of lightning sprung the jail door. But as we know, it rarely strikes twice, not even for gods, not even for Messi and Maradona.
More on World Cup 2018:
Diego Maradona says he is ‘fine’ after concerns over his health at the World Cup
Diego Maradona responds to claim he made ‘clearly racist gesture’ at South Korea fans
Nigeria 1-2 Argentina: Five things we learned from Rojo rescue act
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