Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni had no doubt in his mind. Neither the final against France four years ago nor the 2021 CONMEBOL Copa America decider against Brazil at the Maracana had had quite the same effect on him as Friday night’s .
His 100th match at the Argentina helm had provided the proverbial rollercoaster of emotions. “Surely of the 100 [game], this has been the one which has marked me most as a coach,” affirmed Scaloni after Argentina’s extra-time triumph.
After all, it had contained the undulating sensations of a thrilling denouement featuring three goals in extra time – notably the stunning, second Cape Verdean equaliser by Sidny Lopes Cabral. There was also the moment he saw a weakness in his Argentina team and articulated the tweak that was needed – and immediately the African team equalised. “To me it seems like a match that's going to help me as a coach – and precisely the 100th one, and winning it, which is better as if we’d lost it would be a sad statistic," he said.
Scaloni went on: “We should take away the positive: this team never laid down their arms. The same for our opponents, but in the end we’ve got the win. I think this is something to take away with us because we had knocks at certain moments and perhaps they can diminish you and stop you going after the game but we have gone after it. We took a knock and carried on trying to get to their goal. I think that’s a good thing.”
With Lionel Messi’s opening goal, it seemed Argentina had the game under control. Yet after Deroy Duarte’s 59th-minute equaliser, the match opened up and, in Scaloni’s words, it was blow for blow till the very end. "It was a show of character,” Scaloni added. “And logically we'll correct what we have to correct. There are some things I have [clear] in my mind, others not so much and we’ll have a look at them.”
In his post-match press conference, Scaloni compared the match with Argentina’s defeat against Saudi Arabia in their opening game at Qatar 2022. "At a certain moment, the feeling was very similar to that day,” he said. “The day of the Saudi Arabia game, we were winning well. They equalised, then they got the goal for 2-1 and the atmosphere changed. Comparing it with that day, I think the team this time had a reaction. Today we have much more experience. They [Argentina's players] know what it is to win a World Cup. Against Saudi Arabia we had a couple of situations but we were finished. But not today – the team were always [in it]. That, I think, is the difference.”
For Scaloni, this is proving a tournament full of hard-fought matches. In such instances, teams must find other ways to win – and that was the case here with Scaloni alighting on the source of the winning goal: a set-piece. “We scored a dead-ball goal,” he said. “Walter [Samuel] and ‘The Mouse’ [Roberto Ayala], who work on them, were particularly pleased. That's something to highlight and also the show of character. We always tried to go forward, looking for a goal. We probably didn’t always choose the right approach but we had chances. I would be much more worried if we hadn’t had scoring chances.”
With a last-16 meeting with Egypt around the corner in Atlanta on Tuesday, Scaloni left Miami Stadium with plenty to think about. After his press conference he said he would be having just a light dinner and a camomile tea. Nothing too heavy. After all, the preceding 120 minutes had already given him plenty to digest.
Sources: FIFA Official
