I was actually thinking how great it is to win 3x straight titles. Just a few things. If we had won the CA in 21, lost 22 and won CA 24, it wouldn’t have been anywhere as sweet. Just having that thought of losing that final would've still left this CA title hallow. But 3 major titles is really historic. It is in many ways the cherry on top. Another point is that you can say that we really won this title with Messi being at 60-70%, at best? He had a good showing in the first game, quiet in the second, missed the third, quiet v Ecuador, better v Canada and quiet, injured, and subbed out in the Final. All in all, we’ve shown we can win in many ways. Over this last few years our best version was perhaps the showing v Italy, and some of the games in Qatar. The way the team just pressed and ran circles around teams was something to behold. It was aspects of Menotti who was the romantic of the game, where beauty and substance matter. However, in this CA, we showed a lot grit and an old school version of ourselves. In many ways, Bilardo’s sides who would bite down and never give an inch. Scaloni seems to be happy with the group. There were hints of him leaving but I think he still wants to continue. I just hope the financial issues have been resolved. He and the entire staff should get bonuses and raises. He also deserves a nice vacation. All of the players and staff do. Yet, whenever they return, scouting, integrating new faces and planning for the future has to be the next step. I also think Otamendi retires after the Olympics. When Messi called over Fideo and Ota to lift the trophy together, it symbolized something. He’s also been a valiant servant, even though we all had to pray when he came onto the pitch.
Our midfield becomes so fluid once messi got subbed. Now team will start believing they can win without messi. This victory should be the foundation of our future success. We should keep aiming high and the more cups the better.
Sunday was the first time since 1993 that the Argentinean senior National Team won a title where DiMaria didn't score in the final. Angel is a bonafide goddamn legend
The mexicans are crying in the BS copa america thread. I didn't understand you guys when you keep mentioning the mexican BS forum, but now I get it
I know hindsight is 20/20, but did Scaloni do the right thing not to bring Paulo to this tournament? Nico G seems to have attributes that Scaloni likes. He can run, press, and win headers. Now, asking him to score a goal, you need a miracle. His constant pressure on the defense put a ton of strain on the Colombian backline. If Dybala was here, I am unsure if his physicality would've made a difference. He's not that type of player. Now, Paulo can score a goal out of nothing and create for his teammates. His technical ability and eye for goal are leaps and bounds better than Nico's, but even if we had an extra spot for him, I am not sure Scaloni would've used him.
Personally I think Dybala should have been selected, it's hard to believe that he does not make a squad of 26 players. Yes, I get Scaloni loves Nico, I think every manager, either at club level or international level, has that one player that they will always select and no one can quite understand why, and I think Nico is that player for Argentina. And call me sentimental, but given that Dybala was part of Finalissima, the world cup squad, actually make an important clearance in the last minute of the final when Mbappe was charging through, scored his pen in the shoot out, it just seemed really harsh not to pick him for the squad even if he played very litttle, in reality he probably would have played in the final group stage game when everyone was being rested.
Yeah, perhaps. I mentioned this before the tournament. He could've very well taken Dybala to the tournament instead of Carboni. But I did not he would want to insult a player like Paulo where he gets called-up and hardly ever plays or where Nico is constantly picked over him. Carboni was perhaps brought up to get a feel to be at a tournament and be around the guys. Scaloni mentioned it again that he felt bad neglecting Paulo. Well, Paulo is taking the plunge in a few days, let's see who will be at his wedding. But the good news is he has already sent the team a congratulatory message. But I am not sure if we will see Paulo very much again with the senior side. Or maybe we might for the four remaining qualifiers for this year.
I guess it will remain one of those decisions which I'll never really understand, I mean simply on merit Dybala should have made the squad because he had a good season at Roma, let alone the whole 'thanking the world cup winning squad' vibe. And, unlike Icardi, Dybala doesn't have a reputation as being completely bats**t insane off the pitch or a bad influence. Hey, ho, such is life I guess.
Argentina defeating France in Paris and winning the olympic gold will have a whole new character now.
Why the f**k are Argentina players singing racist songs about black French players to celebrate winning the Copa? Why? And I guess all of the Argentina players are native to that country. I mean none of their parents, grand parents, great grand parents emigrated to Argentina from Italy or Spain or Ireland or Scotland. I'm so sick if this s**t. Then they stream it on the Internet.
Same reason we sing "el que no salta es un ingles" even though it's not relevant at all. We hold onto grudges stupidly long. I love banter but a lot of times like this it misses the mark.
Btw, we won this tourmanent without earning a single penalty. Even when VAR went blind on Colombia handball, we still got our winning goal
Still, before they talk about their "feeling" being hurt, lets talk about Argentine people that being hurts on stadium, also the ones on Maracana not long ago. I'm sure nothing will be done.
The Argentina NT has fans all over the world, I don't know how to quantify this, but they must be one of the best supported NT's in the world. And that support is across the board, China, India, Bangladesh, the Middle East, Europe and the image that is being presented at the moment is just horrible. I mean I'm the child of immigrants, I'm not white. I won't write anymore on this but I'm just really dissapointed.
I never gave my personal take on the chant, because I didn't want to derail the thread and doubt somebody cares anyway. And like you, I'll leave it here. Sorry, it'll be long, feel free to skip it. I just find baffling people can't see where the racism is. Imagine being a child of inmigrants born in France, and all your life you had to suffer some people treating you like a second class citizen, some people that'll never accept you as one of their own no matter what you do. And then you hear a song that says you're not french because your parents are not from there. Of course you are going to take issues with it, I totally sympathize with them. "But France as a nation is worse and they are the reason they feel like that on a daily basis". That's a different dicussion, here we are talking what a group of players did in a bus. I hate the "what about" game, it's only good for not making people accountable for anything, ever. It's childish behaviour, and hey we're all to blame, we all fall to it from time to time. So I feel bad for the people I mentioned, whatever the typical white europeans hypocrites will say about us in general, I couldn't care less. That said, I am argentine, and I know how our stadium culture is. We love banter, and try to say the most provocative things to our rivals just for the giggles. A personal example: I am from Santa fe and in 2003 we suffered a massive flood that killed many people, destroy houses, thousands of people had to evacuate, etc. The stadium of my team got caught in it and we are still getting mocked by it. And we don't care, the stadium worked as dam to contain the water, it literally saved lives. Just two months after the disaster, we played a match against Racing and we start chanting to their fans "A esa empresa le tenemos que ganar" (We need to beat that company. They were not a club owned by their associates then) and they immediately responded "a los evacuados les tenemos que ganar" (we need to beat those evacuated). Everybody laughed and said good one. No matter how fresh the disaster was in our minds, we knew there was no really harmful intention in there. The city had received massive support from the rest of the country, and chances are some people in there helped as well. So, that's our culture, and it's likely this song was not intended to be that harmful. Now, this is the world stage, thinking everybody will get it and that they have no reason to getting offended is delusional. Fwiw, the song went viral before the world cup but never made it into a Qatar stadium, not even against France. Thousands of argentines in there knew better than to be racists. That should count for something. Having fans all over the world is one of the many reasons we have to be proud of. Hopefully, that never changes.
At the end of the day the intention was not meant to be racist. It is just breaking balls. Yet we live in a world that is hyper sensitive and everything is deemed racist. All of our players play with players from different cultures and those players will likely say that the Argentines players they are teammates with are not racist. I understand live streaming is a way of connecting with the fans but when we are with the “guys” we may say something in jest, particularly if we are drunk, that others will find offensive and the world media will run with it. Our players just need to cautious what is being said. I’m just not a fan of the double standards that comes with this issue. When France won the 2018 World Cup press from all over the world, including from Africa praised this as a win for Africa. It was noted “These players of African roots or children of African have showed the world that African football is alive and thriving.” Or when a player like Rudiger wraps around a flag of Sierra Leone around his waist after a CL title. Or you have a Dutch contingency who call themselves the “Ghana Boys.” That’s fine and he can he should feel proud about their roots but if we may a crack about “their passports say France but their parents are from XYZ” there is a giant shit storm. Shrugs. I’m standing with the team. Nobody is going to rain on our parade. No matter how hard they try or to manufacture something that isn’t there.
Yeah the stadium culture is kinda crazy in Argentina, to give another example. Last year, Romagnoli (actual San Lorenzo's coach and legend of the club) was asked in an interview about his favourite San Lorenzo's song, and he answered singing it, even the part where it mocks of the deaths of two Huracan fans (Huracan is the "clasico" of San Lorenzo). Half of his family are Huracan fans, his father even play for them. Many songs of many football teams in Argentina talks about killing the rival team and/or their fans, people will sang them and later hang out with a friend who is a fan of that team. All that said, club football is not the same as NT football, because the songs of football teams were mostly made by "barrabravas" who at some point they became more like gangs than Hooligans in Argentina. All those songs came from a context of it's time. Trying to reinvent one of those to make it a national team song and do it against a nation (that we don't even have some rivalry) is stupid, and the players who sang it are even more stupid for don't realize that.
I think there's a difference between acknowledging a player's heritage and insinuating that they aren't a real member of their nationality. I'm happy to acknowledge I'm of Argentine descent, but I would be offended to be told I'm not a real American when I was literally born and raised here and identify even more culturally with it.
It is the intention and manner of what is being said. I did not see any malice. And another thing to point out is look at the people who reposted this video and stated, "Argentine national team are racists! Look at this racist song they are singing!" All you have to do is look at their page(s) and see who they support. They are a bunch of haters and unfortunately, in this climate of hyper-sensitivity, the media saw it and ran with it. They succeed in drawing negative attention. I can also understand if somebody says "I do not like that song, please, do not sing it because it offends me" and I'll stop. I think all of our players won't do it because they now they understand the song could potentially offend others. But you know what's going to happen, right? Now, you'll have more fans singing this song even more now and even louder because they feel not only the seleccion is being attacked but also the country. But anyways. Enough of that on my end. As I said, I am not going to let this cast a shadow on our title, or should I say, titles...