cashew | World Cup 2022 - /(ㄒoㄒ)/~~

First: Fuck the pundits. Argentina played well and the upset was depressing, but Argentina as a team was overall pretty good. There was a huge amount of luck involved in Saudi Arabia's win, but, more importantly, a lot of bad luck in Argentina's loss. Sometimes the weaker teams win, not because they played better or they were more strategically sound, but simply because they got luckier and the stronger team wasn't. What's more, Saudi Arabia has been training together since September preparing for Argentina, whereas Argentina only had a week together and are probably still adjusting to the local environment.

Second: That isn't to say there aren't things that need further improvement with Argentina. Unity isn't the problem, the team's chemistry and tactical advancement is. Of Argentina's current batch of players, only Messi and Di María are World Cup veterans. That means they're the ones who are best capable of dealing with the pressures of a World Cup tournament. The other players are pretty much all World Cup newbies who understandably freaked out after going down one goal against Saudi Arabia. How they adjust their psychology to prevent a negative spiral is going to be key to whether they can get out of groups. A win against Mexico will do a lot for their mood, but given they just saw Mexico and Poland in a 0-0 draw today, hopefully the team will be mentally prepared for a very hard grind through the group stages.

In addition, the problems Argentina had in their team continues to be a problem. The defensive line is very weak, the midfield hasn't figured out how to compensate for not having Lo Celso, and the passing could be better. The team also continues to have difficulty breaking down defensive blocks. When the opponent pulls back and throws 7-8 people into defense, the team needs something to break that block down. How do you generate good attacking chances when you're constantly out numbered in the box? We'll see if Scaloni can come up with a winning strategy.

Finally, people keep citing Spain 2010 and how they lost the opening game but went on to win the whole thing. However, these people seemed to have forgotten Spain 2014, where they lost their opening game and got knocked out of group stages. Which path will Argentina follow?

(General predictions: I'm not very optimistic about Argentina's chances, not because the opening game loss, but because Argentina hasn't demonstrated they can adapt to losing Lo Celso, who was critical in midfield buildup. On purely capability alone, Argentina has what it takes to get out of groups. But after that it's pretty much a crap shoot.)