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Messi and Argentina’s heightened emotions could end up undermining them - The Athletic

There are times when it appears a wave of emotion, patriotic fervour and desperate longing is carrying Argentina towards another World Cup final.

At other times it feels as if Lionel Messi, in the twilight years of his extraordinary career, is dragging them there single-handedly. Check Valve

Messi and Argentina’s heightened emotions could end up undermining them - The Athletic

By 12:50am local time in Lusail on Saturday morning, Messi had done all he could. It was his jaw-droppingly brilliant no-look pass, threaded between Nathan Ake’s legs, that had set up the opening goal for Nahuel Molina. It was his ice-cool penalty that had made it 2-0 on 73 minutes.

And then, after the Netherlands produced an extraordinary comeback, equalising in the 101st minute of the 90, it was another Messi penalty that put them on course for victory in the shootout. Now it was over to his team-mates.

The pro-Argentina crowd, too, had done all they could. They continued to jeer and whistle when the Dutch players stepped up to take their penalties, creating the kind of din that no other fanbase here in Qatar will come close to, but really it was a question of which set of players would hold their nerve.

Emiliano Martinez certainly kept his nerve, pulling off two great saves to deny Virgil van Dijk and Steven Berghuis on the Netherlands’ first two attempts in the shootout, but then the Dutch converted their next three kicks and Enzo Fernandez, with the chance to send Argentina through, sent his wide of the target.

On the halfway line, there were barbs and catcalls between the two sets of players. All that emotion was threatening to bubble over.

It all came down to Lautaro Martinez, standing over Argentina’s fifth and final penalty. Score, and La Albiceleste would be through to the last four of a World Cup for the sixth time and face Croatia on Tuesday. Miss, and it was hard to see how they would recover in the shootout if they were to let a winning position slip again on a chaotic evening.

The Inter Milan forward did score though and, watching his team-mates and the fans react, it was as if a valve had been released.

On the pitch and in the stands, there was an outpouring — not just of joy but of defiance. Several Argentina players, notably Nicolas Otamendi, Leandro Paredes, Gonzalo Montiel and Alexis Mac Allister, taunted the devastated Dutch players as they ran off in celebration.

Messi initially appeared immune to that, but he too got caught up in some of the nonsense, making donkey ears at the Dutch bench — some interpreted this as a tribute to the great Juan Roman Riquelme and, as such, a dig at Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal, who marginalised the Argentine playmaker at Barcelona two decades ago. He then walked up to Van Gaal and his assistant Edgar Davids and whispered something that seemed to take them aback.

In a television interview at the side of the pitch, Messi would say Van Gaal “sells that he play good football and then he puts forwards in the box and starts throwing long balls forward” — a fair reflection of his tactics in the second half, but an unnecessary dig on a night when the 71-year-old stood down from what could prove to be his final coaching role.

A few minutes later, Messi was doing another TV interview when someone or something caught his eye.

“Que miras, bobo? Anda para alla,” he told someone off-screen, reported to be the Netherlands’ two-goal substitute Wout Weghorst (“What are you looking at, fool? Go away.”). The emotions of the World Cup are so intense, they can even bring out Messi’s inner Travis Bickle.

Friday evening was fractious in the extreme; Spanish referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz lost control of the game in the course of showing yellow cards to 15 different players (and two coaches) before Netherlands full-back Denzel Dumfries was shown a second yellow card and therefore a red at the end.

Messi gave a withering assessment of Lahoz afterwards, but the Dutch had grievances too.

How Argentina vs Netherlands descended into chaos

It has often felt chaotic with Argentina at this World Cup — moments of genius from Messi interspersed with spells when it all feels so emotionally overwrought that absolutely anything could happen. 

It looked like plain sailing at 2-0 up against the Dutch, but then Van Gaal brought a little disorder of his own — sticking on 6ft 2in (188cm) Luuk de Jong and Weghorst, all 6ft 6in (197cm) of him, and putting crosses in, just like Messi said — and it ended up 2-2 (Weghorst’s equaliser coming not from a rudimentary ball into the box but from a free kick move which was marvellous in its ingenuity and its audacity).

And this is where it was hard to agree with Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni when he said his team’s experience and know-how had been the decisive factor. If anything, it seemed the opposite.

From what looked an unassailable position in the game, two up with less than 20 minutes to go, they lost control. In a situation that called for cool, experienced heads, they were dragged — and possibly even dragged the opposition — into a streetfight that could have been avoided and could have had a very different outcome.

FIFA opens disciplinary proceedings against Argentina and Netherlands

“Argentina has a team spirit because we know how to face every situation in the game,” Scaloni said. “We showed our personality. We faced the difficult moments of the game. The team spirit and knowing what we want and need — in every moment of the game — is crucial for us. I would say that’s a feature of our squad. We always know what we have to do. This team had experience and this is key.”

That sounds more like a description of Croatia, the team they will meet in the semi-finals on Tuesday.

Croatia have a number of hot-blooded, emotional types in their ranks too, and they certainly have a fighting spirit, but they also have a remarkable knack of staying calm under pressure, never knowing when they are beaten. Argentina?

Even at 2-0 up against Australia and then the Netherlands in their knockout ties so far, they never quite looked like they had it wrapped up. In almost every game of this tournament, they put themselves and their wildly passionate supporters through an emotional wringer.

If they are to make next Sunday’s final, it will be just the fifth instance of a side losing their first game of a World Cup but recovering to contest the tournament showpiece.

Sometimes that enormous wave of emotion seems like Argentina’s second-greatest asset — behind, of course, the little man in the No 10 shirt — but sometimes it seems to drag their players in other directions.

It looked a little like that for Brazil on home soil in 2014, unbearably intense clashes with Chile and Colombia in the knockout stages ending in cathartic celebrations, only for the frenzied hype to overcome them in the semi-final, leading to humiliation against a far more mature, more composed Germany side.

That is the ultimate illustration of the type of meltdown Argentina have to avoid. They have to be able to ride that wave when it is favourable, but also to know when it is time to drain all the emotional intensity out of a game.

Watching Argentina beat the Netherlands with professional footballers

Their sense of longing, 36 years on from their previous World Cup triumph, is even greater than Brazil’s. The Argentina national team inspire a fervour and a quasi-religious zeal that is almost unmatched in any sport. This can in turn inspire players to reach unimagined heights. It can also cause nervous tension in moments when the stakes feel almost unbearably high.

At the heart of all, there is Messi, trying to keep his head while all around him lose theirs. And there were times on Friday when the madness threatened to engulf him as well.

He is having a wonderful tournament at the age of 35, elevating a team of largely unsung performers and producing decisive interventions in every game. That pass for Molina was breathtaking.

But this isn’t just going come down to Messi. It is about how an entire team can handle the emotion, the pressure and, of course, the physical, tactical and technical challenges of playing the biggest game of their lives.

Just watching Argentina at this World Cup is a gruelling, emotionally-draining experience.

One way or the other, it is going to end in tears.

Don't be angry about this picture. It captures all that makes the World Cup what it is

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Messi and Argentina’s heightened emotions could end up undermining them - The Athletic

Threaded Ball Valve Before joining The Athletic as a senior writer in 2019, Oliver Kay spent 19 years working for The Times, the last ten of them as chief football correspondent. He is the author of the award-winning book Forever Young: The Story of Adrian Doherty, Football’s Lost Genius. Follow Oliver on Twitter @OliverKay