Gustavo Alfaro analyzes the champion, exclusively for Clarín: “Argentina started building this Cup when they beat Brazil at the Maracanà”

It is always said that the final is a different game and indeed it is. Because the path that the teams have traveled does not count. And more, in a World Cup. And starting from the point of view that France in Russia began to make their way to the title by beating Argentina. that he told me deschamps in the draw for the cup, that if they can defeat Argentina, they could be world champions.

That’s why Argentina took responsibility. Not only for Messi but also for this generation it was the chance to close with victory and raise the Cup. And they had the reigning champion in front of them and facing him was an extra responsibility.

In that sense, you have to be more busy than worried. More engaged in the mental, psychological and physical, than by what can happen. This is a one off match. One game of soccer and there’s a strategy to develop and a game to play. Argentina has won at all levels. He won it for his manners, attitudes and grit. In the unemployed she started to win.

France he doesn’t need to handle the ball to create danger. happened with England; he handed him the ball, but it turned out to be dangerous, so control of the ball was key. If France were forced to retreat, it made him one of the few players who had to settle with his back to goal, which was griezmann, also had to turn back to face the target. The only one left to fix with the back was mbappe. And Argentina has decided to isolate it.

The court management it was essential. They gave him the opportunity to manage the game in the place on the pitch that he wanted, the pitch in France. and here it comes a success of Scaloni in reproducing something that gave him results in part of the breakeven. He puts a three-man midfield, at that moment with Paredes, Lo Celso and De Paul; vertical on the outside, Di María, leaving Messi and Lautaro above, gave him verticality, beyond the fact that Messi had to move from center to right, with De Paul and Molina collaborating, to avoid a possibility of setting up the game with Theo Hernández for that sector.

Used it again here, this time with MacAllister Y by Paul in the middle of the field, with Enzo Fernández, and there it was impossible for France because Argentina had more direct communication with De Paul-Messi. In those passes between the lines, players coming from behind take up more space. They could never have taken De Paul, if at any moment they wanted to take him, Messi was free, he was in a space they could not restrict. This created problems for control of the midfield. Every time I generated verticality you say maria He presented Koundé with issues having to brand him, and when Mac Allister made it inside, France has always lacked a man and has never found a way to dismantle it.

there was no departure live balls so that he doesn’t take advantage of Mbappé’s speed, but there Argentina had the merit of pressing after losing. The rapid pressure forced France to have to play and that inaccuracy he had with the players playing with their backs to goal meant that France could not feature.

To counter this, you have to have the ability to keep the ball and break the pressure, Argentina offers once or twice, no more. That’s where the defensive bilgewhich was the key, he ended up turning it into a team of European disciplines with South American talents. This was the big change that happened with Venezuela in the qualifying group.

In this plane he started winning with the attitudespressure after leak e individual battles. He began to define it with grit, there is always something important when you score your first goal, especially in the following minutes. You can speed up or wait to see your opponent’s reaction, those five minutes later marked the position. And because of that determination he had to look for, it’s no surprise that he went into a very fast counter-attack to make a big difference. This was seen with the changes made by Deschamps, who moved the bench in the 40th minute of the first half.

France could not find a way into the match as Argentina outplayed them in all areas. The first half is over and we need to see what the second held. It was more or less the same.

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The return of Mbappé​

But France have players, like Mbappé, who solve what a team cannot solve, and although Mbappé’s first strike came after 70 minutes, there was nothing to suggest France could get into the match. Then came those fateful minutes. There was a live ball left, there was a dubious criminal – for me both were doubtful, like many we have seen in this cup – and they allowed him to enter the game.

And in those next five minutes, a team is sometimes sidelined in an opponent’s ability to exploit their options. And with little, France did so much because Argentina had been superior, that they deserved to win the match.

He came to stretch where it was just tense. But the best thing that could happen was going to extra time, because Argentina has regained its shape, has renewed the air in the center with the changes, in between he had made a supreme effort. In another very good play he made the difference and once again the rebellion of a champion like Mbappé, trying with his own imprint, puts him on 3-3, but Dibu’s coverage in the end is not a detail, they are covered because they are goals, he feels, it’s not that he hit him, he shrunk and covered by extending his foot.

Football has these things, these instances make talented players like Mbappé achieve that result that the team cannot achieve. Today Argentina had individuality, but also a game plan and that’s why they won the cup. He was a champion through and through. He played with integrity, it was very fair and deserved.

It’s easy to dwell on the players, who are the protagonists, on Messi, on Dibu, they all had merits, but I would like to dwell on the coach’s choices, highlighting and enhancing to the right extent what ends up being fundamental.

The merits of Scaloni

The harmony was fundamental, it demonstrated the satisfaction of that coexistence that manifests itself in the field. Sometimes what happens off the pitch is more important, which ends up being relevant than what you see on the pitch, the plus that a group gives is that addition that teams give when things don’t work out. First Argentina won it more as a group than as a team, Scaloni rediscovered internal harmony.

He put together a team that contained MessiUnlike previous processes, Argentina has changed course without giving up on research.

Was tactical strikesmoving from a line of 4 to 3 a vertical, Messi and a 9, has given him a solid and strong team profile that enhances Messi’s natural abilities. He has played in different ways and has not given up on his identity.

In Brazil, when he beat him at the Maracana, he started building this Cup.

Knowing how to rebuild a team in adversity was also important. Because the unexpected defeat before Arabic it put him in a conflicted situation, but it was a defeat that served rebuild. There have been responses and football results. And Scaloni made the decisions he had to make and they are not easy. There were players who had to leave through injuries or before a defeat changed form and players.

And it also stimulated them to play a final like a champion plays and a champion wins. The merits of Scaloni are many and they deserve the compliments.

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Deserved tribute to Messi

At the end Messi. You have experienced a well-deserved tribute. Sometimes football is so demanding, thankless and demanding, that it requires demonstrations of this value put him on the throne of legends and Messi can rest assured that he has become a football legend.

Argentina won it and Messi played it in all its dimension and splendour. welcome Messi to the altar of glories. With those human values ​​that promoted the conquest. That he is at that level of legend as Diego, someone who has stolen our hearts in sublime moments, is sensational. And a gold brooch.

* Gustavo Alfaro is a renowned football manager and led the Ecuadorian national team in this World Cup in Qatar.