Copa America 2019: Not relying on Messi magic the biggest positive for Argentina in Venezuela win

Andy West 00:22 30/06/2019
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  • Messi had an anonymous game in the win over Venezuela.

    There were plenty of positives for Argentina to take from Friday night’s 2-0 victory over Venezuela, setting up Tuesday’s highly enticing semi-final against Brazil.

    In attack, Sergio Aguero and Lautaro Martinez both delivered strong individual performances while showing more signs of a burgeoning partnership, with the former playing a role in both goals while the latter converted the opener with aplomb.

    They were backed up by a solid and hard-working midfield trio of Rodrigo De Paul, Leandro Paredes and Marcos Acuna, who worked well as a unit to control the centre of the field, provide attacking width and ensure the back four was never left without protection.

    That defensive line was equally solid, with centre-backs Nicolas Otamendi and German Pezzella keeping things simple, clearing their lines decisively and ensuring that goalkeeper Franco Armani had very little to do.

    There was also a sense of cohesion all over the pitch, with those separate units of defence, midfield and attack showing a mutual understanding which has only been conspicuous by its absence over the last few years.

    But hang on…we are now into the sixth paragraph of an article about Argentina’s football team and two words have not even been mentioned yet…so what about Lionel Messi?

    Well, the skipper deserves to be omitted from the list of major contributions to the victory because, to be blunt, he barely contributed at all. Other than an outswinging corner which led to the opening goal, Messi had little direct influence over his team’s success and it could even be argued that, with his frustrating habit of conceding possession cheaply, he was Argentina’s worst player.

    A team display from Argentina.

    A team display from Argentina.

    And, stranger still, that could well be the biggest plus of them all to emerge from the game for coach Lionel Scaloni and his players: at long last, they played well and won not only without a major input from Messi, but when he was actually playing badly.

    This is quite a change of direction for an Argentina team who have been embarrassingly over-reliant on their captain over the last few years, and it is also an extremely welcome development.

    Pinning all their hopes on Messi was a self-defeating strategy for Argentina, benefitting nobody but the opposition: the infatuation with the captain’s ability to perform solo rescue missions ended up inhibiting his teammates, who had no room for personal expression or collective combination because they were compelled to think that everything had to go through Messi. And it was no good for the number ten himself, because he found himself burdened by an intolerable level of pressure without being given the necessary support structure to succeed in a team sport. It was a lose-lose situation.

    At the start of this Copa America, it looked as though that same hopeless path was still being trodden, with Argentina apparently unable to extricate themselves from the mental rut of not knowing how to do anything unless Messi was doing it for them.

    Gradually, though, progress is being made. How and why is a mystery, but from the rubble of the horrible opening game loss to Colombia and the barely-better draw with Paraguay, a team is somehow emerging.

    A team, remember, is a group of people who work together for a common cause. Against Venezuela, that’s exactly what Argentina were. As described in the opening paragraphs, the disparate individuals fitted together to form a pretty well organised whole. It was disciplined. It gave everyone a role. It made sense, and just looked right.

    Argentina are starting to click as a collective, and the best possible evidence – and confidence-booster – was provided with Friday’s victory over Venezuela, which can allow the rest of the squad to truly believe they do not need to rely exclusively on their captain.

    That is not to say, of course, that Argentina do not need Messi at all. To overcome Brazil, they will have to play much better than they did against Venezuela, and Messi regaining his usual standards would be the best possible way of adding even greater cohesion and attacking threat.

    The good news, though, is that Messi is now being asked to form part of a team, rather than being the whole team. He is one of eleven, and it looks like an eleven that can function pretty well without him. Like everyone else, he has a role to play, and of course he is good enough for that role to be decisive. But, at last, Argentina are not only all about Lionel Messi, and both he and they will be much better off for it.

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