The first to try it was Diego Maradona, who returned with “Coco” Basile at the 94 World Cup, having had his legs amputated three years earlier as a result of a positive doping test.
That great team was close to embodying the best team ever, in a career that included winning the World Cup in 1986 and two Americas Cups (Chile 91 and Ecuador 93).
But fate wanted us to wait a little longer, even though the title of “best team” in history was close to being a permanent title.
Lionel Messi later tried to overcome it, with the painful final loss at the Maracana to the Germans in 2014, and the Copa America, which Chile won on penalties, the last of which was at MetLife in New Jersey in 2016, where Messi failed from the penalty spot 12 steps.
In addition, Angel Di Maria added tears in the finals, criticism and intersections that continued until the final in the Maracana.
Before that, this generation had only won the Olympic gold medal in Beijing 2008, but it had even been awarded the “Silver Team” stamp in the three finals it lost, with Gerardo “Tata” Martino the most persecuted, along with stars like Gonzalo Higuaín for his missed goals and Messi himself, who had won everything he had with Barcelona and nothing with Argentina.
And until Sunday they touched the sky with their hands, adorning the last glorious stage with the great celebration at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, to enter the Olympus. The harvest with the former interim coach Lionel Scaloni as a spontaneous strategist, which eventually included the immortal Copa America in the Maracana against Brazil (as dreams suggest, victory over the classic rival in their legendary homeland) and no less than the World Cup in the exotic Qatar 2022.
Will this be the most successful operation in the history of Argentine football? Comparisons between Mario Alberto Kempes, Diego Armando Maradona and Lionel Andres Messi are now futile. The curious thing is that in the three most successful stages, they had a mandatory trial in the United States, between doping, the Copa America Centenario and the new title won by the Colombians.
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“It breaks my heart.” Scaloni’s confession about not calling Dybala for Copa America
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“They will trick me.” Amidst the joy, Nicolás González expressed his regret for what “went wrong” in the Copa America.
A society in which football is considered the fourth or fifth most popular sport after American football, baseball, basketball and ice hockey, turns out to be an improvised judge in the general historical assessment of Argentine football.
Little by little, Messi is becoming a star figure in these lands, with his image in the Inter Miami jersey displayed on posters, murals and even buildings, an aspect that Pelé was never able to achieve when he arrived with the New York Cosmos in the 1970s.
On television, the agenda continues to prioritize weather journalism with forecasts of impending storms from the Caribbean, comic book production inviting everyone to dress up as their favorite superhero, whether from Disney or Pixar, and some heated discussions about traffic or politics. Although the media has not made such a fuss with attacks on former President Donald Trump, which would have been the focus in Argentina.
Are we now facing the best Argentine team in history? There is still a tournament to justify it, in two years, where the United States, with its organization and questionable infrastructure (especially the stadiums), will be judged again, along with Mexico and Canada, to solve this hypothesis, from two-time American champion to two-time world champion. Will Messi be the best in 2026 to continue making history?
People always
A separate paragraph for the Argentine fans who are affected by the team’s character: the 35-degree heat and humidity of the previous match were ignored in that disorganized security and access to the stadium organization, with the chaos that arose on Sunday, which could have ended in tragedy. It was a miracle that did not happen.
All this with some accusations from Colombians, who suffer from being a minority in the stands, with the start of the match delayed by an hour and 20 minutes, worried about the departure of Lionel Messi with an ankle injury, crying relentlessly in front of the screens. He showed his image with red eyes on the bench, running alongside the 36-year-old Di Maria in the “last dance” and screaming with passion and relief at Lautaro Martinez’s goal to reach absolute glory.
It also concerns the national team, the Argentine national team.
Meanwhile, the bus driver or taxi driver hardly knew that Messi was playing in his country and that there was a dispute over the Copa America a few blocks from his house. It was all happening in the United States, which will again, in 2026, be the referee for the Argentine national team.
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