The Falcioni draw: Scaloni had a barbaric World Cup and the national team played a final to take off your hat

He suffered, but it was worth it. What joy they have given us! There is Lionel Messi lifting the World Cup, that dream photo. He had the of him. Congratulations to him, to Lionel Scaloni and to all his technical staff, to all the players, collaborators, family members who are always with us, who are the pillars. Even for us fans, who have encouraged and supported us, there are a few in Qatar and the vast majority in our country.

It’s hard to analyze the game why emotion runs through all of us. But it must be said that the team played 70 or 75 minutes of the highest level. It’s not easy to play in a final like Argentina. One has to tip the hat to the personality everyone showed.

From these columns we try to be respectful of Scaloni’s work and we repeat it whatever he had arranged would have gone well. The coach has done it again. Not only did he insert Ángel Di María from the start, but he also inserted him on the left, when he had played most of the minutes on the right, with a changed profile. And Di María played a great game: They gave him the penalty, he scored the second, he ran, he dribbled, he left his skin on the pitch.

Argentina was better in almost the whole game. Dynamics and flow were the keys. The first half was exemplary: everything was done well. The constant pressure and narrowing of spaces caused the French to make mistakes. The defense was high, the media went looking up, Álvarez led everyone and Messi also collaborated. With these movements we did not allow France to progress with the ball, Mbappé remained too isolated on the wing and Griezmann had difficulty finding his place (he moved more from inside midfield to the right than from midfield).

How to stop Mbappé was something we all wondered in the previous one. Di María’s insertion on the left was not capricious. As Ángel is dynamic, he joined in the midfield line and allowed Rodrigo De Paul to move down the right to help Nahuel Molina mark. Enzo Fernández and Cristian Romero were also in that sector. Thus, Mbappé remained closed in that square that was set up between Molina, De Paul, Romero and Fernández. We mark him well, but he’s the type of player who only needs half a centimeter to get noticed.

Deschamps played with changes 40 minutes into the first half. We knew what kind of team France were and they showed it. You can’t relax for a second because they always have something. They took two works out of the bag and tied us up in no time.

It was not easy to recover from the equalizer blow. You were playing a perfect game for almost 80 minutes and in two breaks it feels like you have nothing left. But this is a team that has inner strength. He had already proved it against the Netherlands in the quarterfinals.

Some proper nouns. Messi, First. Everything that happens to him is deserved for his career, for his career, for his football. Lionel was accompanied by a great team that sacrificed itself in each of the matches.

It is also right to write something about staircases, which had a barbaric World Cup. All the decisions he has made have been made with conviction. He found solutions before, during and after matches. He planted several tactical schemes and used the 23 players on the field.

I also want to talk about Emiliano Martinez. I said it before: Archers are here to save your game. Dibu has done it again. And he didn’t just talk about penalties, where he naturally becomes a giant. Dibu had two very important saves: one at the end of the second half and the other in the final moment of extra time. In the first he stretched out to cover a definition for Mbappé, who made a play on the left. The second will go down in history, with that leg stretched out to stifle Kolo Muani’s cry.

Champion of Argentina, what an immense and well-deserved joy. A title that is also a recognition for our beloved Argentine football, with many kids who played in the country until recently. Let’s enjoy it.