One of the brightest football stars in the world, Lionel Messi, playing for the Argentinian national team, poor performance in the World Cup is a tragedy for the "white-blue" fans. However, the fact that the team plays without passion in the stadiums of Russia is more than a tragedy, written in lrytas.lt portal.
After the defeat against the Croatian team 0:3 on Thursday, almost all Argentinian media wrote about it, enraged not only by the poor performance but also by the indifference and lack of fighting spirit of the football players. The most enraging and surprising for the Argentinians was the passive playing and Messi's attempt to hide from the ball.
On Friday, the newspaper "Uno" printed a large picture of J.Sampaoli on the front page, next to which was written "The father of the defeat".
Although the Argentinian national team has not yet lost the chance to reach the quarterfinals, continuing the fight for the World Cup, the headline of the newspaper "Cronica" stated the opposite: "They killed hope". The front page of this newspaper featured pictures of disappointed fans, not football players.
The words "Worldwide fiasco" were repeated in the headlines of many websites and newspapers.
Now, for some Argentinians, poor performance and the defeat against the Croatian team seem inevitable. Everything could have been foreseen during the preparation phase, where the "white-blue" did not appear as a cohesive team.
"The team did not miraculously come together in the middle of the championship," wrote one of the largest Argentinian newspapers "Clarin". "Creating a team suddenly in the middle of the World Cup would be a miracle. Nevertheless, the national team hoped to unite around L. Messi, expecting that his strong personality and the coach's hand would help other players to develop. However, the circumstances did not line up, and Croatia's victory now seems completely inevitable. A team that is not prepared to endure and dream could not achieve any result other than a fiasco in the World Cup.
Although there was a breakdown after his mistakes, it would be too cruel and unjust to crucify W. Caballero. Where was L. Messi? What happened to the captain? Why didn't he even try to be the captain after the goalkeeper's misfortune? And J. Sampaoli? What decisions did the coach make? This is not a team. This is suffering.
J. Sampaoli was completely helpless. The national team is going down the drain. Now it remains to defeat Nigeria and pray. There is still a chance, but without intelligent leadership and overshadowed personalities, it will be very difficult to seize that opportunity."
Since the Argentinian football players managed to earn one point in the first round playing against the Icelandic team (the match ended in a draw 1:1), the chances of reaching the quarterfinals are not lost yet. However, the Argentinians will need to not only defeat the Nigerian team on Tuesday, but also wait for a favorable result in the other group matches.
"We came to the World Cup for the great matches of L. Messi with Ecuador. Now we are on our way home because the best football player plays poorly. Very poorly," wrote "Ole", dedicating a cutting article to the leader, titled "L. Messi's nightmare".
lrytas.lt
