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The national soccer team defeated Brazil in the final stage and got hold of the international title. Argentina won a competition for the last time in 1993 when they beat Mexico and became champions of the CONMEBOL America Cup that year.
Twenty-eight years had to pass by. Twenty-eight years, eighteen competitions, and seven final matches had to pass by between Argentina’s last title and last Saturday. But now, the jinx has ceased to exist. And we prefer using the word “jinx” other than “bad performances” because that’s how we see it. Argentina’s national soccer team has had several opportunities to get an international title. But, still, twenty-eight years had to pass by.
But the long-lasting drought was not the only spell Argentina found an end to with this title. There’s another jinx that took sixteen years for it to know its limit. And its name is the best player soccer has seen worldwide in the last years: Lionel Messi. After his debut in the national soccer team in 2005, it took him fifteen years to win an international title. What a relief for him and all of his Argentinean – and non-Argentinean, too – supporters.
Argentina had a more-than-decent group stage throughout this America Cup. With four wins and a draw, the squad qualified first in its group. With an improving performance from beginning to end, the team showed proof that it deserved the first place. Fortunately for them, this did not change during the second phase. An outstanding performance against Ecuador and an excellent display of goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez in the penalty shootout against Colombia gave them the ticket to the final match.
But, again, this was not the first time during these twenty-eight years without titles that Argentina got to a final match. They still had to pass the final test, and it was against a powerful rival as Brazil. In a game that didn’t seem to end, Ángel Di María stepped forward and scored the only goal defining the final score. It was 1 – 0 for Argentina. Cup, title, and an enormous celebration that echoed in many foreign countries as well.
The twenty-eight-year drought for the Argentina soccer team started back in 1993 when, coincidentally, they won the CONMEBOL America Cup. With Colombia as a hosting country, the national team defeated Mexico in the final match and raised the cup for the last time until this year. It was 2 – 1 for the champions, with two goals by Gabriel Batistuta, an outstanding striker back then.
From that moment, Argentina went through different performance stages. Their worst one was in the 2002 World Cup when they couldn’t make it out of the group stage. But they also reached the final match during that time on seven occasions: One World Cup in 2014 lost against Germany; four America Cups in 2004, 2007, 2015, and 2016; and two Confederation Cups in 1995 – back then, it had a different name – and 2005.
Apart from the end of a national – and personal – drought, there is one more thing we should take into consideration with this international achievement. Argentina’s coach, Lionel Scaloni, got to the position without having vast experience. This fact made him the object of criticisms and people who didn’t trust him as a leader. However, some statistics prove them wrong. These are some of the numbers that the Argentinean national team has had with him as a coach.
At Inmersivo, Empointe’s learning platform, we congratulate Argentina on its recent achievement. We always find joy in seeing any Latin American national team succeed, and we are glad Argentina could end such a long drought. We invite you to subscribe to our newsletter to receive news, updates, and tips on English related to sports. Thanks for reading, see you next time!
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