And now what and how?: The Argentina national team has no margin for error and the feeling is that the bubble has burst

And now that?

The blow is brutal, unexpected. The World Cup of illusion has become another World Cup to suffer. Too fast. With that bitter feeling, the thousands of fans who arrived at the Lusail stadium left chanting “that by the hand of Leo Messi we will all turn around…”; Those who got up before 7:00 in Argentina had to face the rest of the day with that disappointment.

“Will it be cursed, Qatar?”everyone wonders; “Will there be a resurrection in time?”ask the stars.

Both, the entire football planet in fact, imagined that the match against Saudi Arabia would be the beginning of a World Cup to be experienced, what we had previously (and perhaps incautiously) defined as the Messi as if that would guarantee the title for Argentina. But Messi (poor Messi, what we all ask him) this time was not up to par and neither was the national team.

in a strange way, the captain did not understand how to play a match in which Saudi Arabia defended 40 meters from his goalbet on the complicity of the semi-automatic offside, he wove the canvas with that idea and gave the first big blow to Qatar. The Selection has followed Messi in his confusion and also in his shipwreck.

And now that? Now Argentina has to get up before the count to ten so that the hand is not a knockout. The problem is how.

There is no time: Saturday must stand.

The undefeated remained at 36, in the least anticipated game. It could happen, we all thought, but later, when there would be heavier teams ahead. Calculation error. This earthquake is similar to that of Cameroon at the 1990 World Cup. That time the team, with Maradona and Bilardo, knew how to react, topped the group, miraculously survived against Brazil and reached the final. It should not be forgotten that the big nose he sharpened his scalpel and many never played again. They are reminders in the form of self-help.

The debut in Russia was also a surprise, with a draw against Iceland, but Sampaoli’s team was a fragile and shaky team. The current one has overcome all that internal turmoil and experienced a honeymoon, perhaps a dangerous one. “Couldn’t have come better”acknowledged Lionel Scaloni at the press conference.

Argentina’s World Cup history reminds us that when we are better it was worse for us (with Bielsa in 2002) and that when we got worse it was better for us (with Billardo in 1986). Just curiosity?

Maybe it’s an opportunity to give a touch of epic to a World Cup that many imagined as a fairy tale.

But first there are concrete things to analyze. Like that team from Bielsa, which a year earlier in Korea-Japan was on the podium of the team world championship, this one from Scaloni was also in full swing months ago and arrived on a somewhat downward curve.

Injuries hurt him. The absence of Giovanni Lo Celso is to be regretted, the lineup changes of the last hour (left Joaquín Correa and Nicolás González) have left some marks and the non-ideal physical conditions of several players such as Cristian Romero or Papu Gómez, among others , are starting to annotate.

The feeling is that the bubble has burst, the one where everything went perfectly: Messi’s leadership, the intimacy of the team, the relationship with the coaching staff. Can it be repaired? How?

“It’s time to get up,” says Scaloni, “there’s no other choice than to win the next two games.” The count is not so exact: in Russia 2018 the national team topped the group with a draw and a win. The problem this time is that Arabia were considered by all to be fourth in the group and have now become a possible qualifier. The surprising 2-1 changed the map. The margin of error has narrowed and the national team has already exploited it allowedif the term is valid.

So, yes: winning both matches (Mexico and Poland, who helped out by drawing to zero) is the most reliable remedy.

In the ideal world in which we thought the Scaleneta lived, a cloud was bothering us: it was not known how the team would react to an adverse situation. The answer was far from reassuring. She had the hitherto unknown experience at a very inopportune moment, her debut in the World Cup, but it was logical to think that something like this would happen in Qatar. On the pitch against Arabia they didn’t know how to handle it, even if it is true that two goals in five minutes or more, if they act to overturn a result, affect any team. But the national team had more than half an hour to rearrange emotions and the game and they didn’t succeed. He has always gone the wrong way and has shown individual performances well below what was usual, including Messi.

Beyond the worrying image left by the team, beyond the historic result, the most urgent issues now revolve around the resilience of the squad and the technical staff, who are forced to react without delay.

And now how? This is the main question. The Selection needs to recover the recent memory and overcome the trauma. Scaloni shouldn’t hesitate to make changes, just as he didn’t hesitate when he decided to sack Joaquín Correa and Nicolás González. The World Cup requires quick decisions. Whoever is better off must play, regardless of the importance of the services provided in recent times. If you feel you need to remove any of your regular references or titles, you should do so.

The loss hit where the team seemed strongest, in their confidence. Without that fuel, football doesn’t circulate.

And without football you cannot win.

Doha, Qatar. Special delivery