Argentina
Appearances at World Cups
The national team of Argentina has played in the final stages of the world cup 16 times. It became a champion twice (1978, 1986) and lost in the final match of the tournament two times. Moreover, these two defeats were at the first world cup in 1930 and at the last one in 2014.
It's curious the Argentineans had already been five-time winners of Copa América by the debut in the world championship. The championship in 1986 is the most memorable one for the Argentinians. Their national team played the legendary quarterfinals against the national team of England in this tournament that had the Hand of God performed by football genius Diego Maradona and his Goal of the Century.
But the Albicelestes got to Russia with difficulty. It wasn't clear till the last match day whether the collective chaired by Lionel Messi could limp till the end and win the long-awaited ticket to the WC. In the end, a hat-trick performed by Messi and the defeat of other opponents for the exit from the group allowed the team of Argentina to solve the problem anyway.
year | G | W | D | L | М | total |
1930 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 18-9 | 2 |
1934 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2-3 | 1/8 |
1958 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5-10 | 4 th place in group |
1962 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2-3 | 3 rd place in group |
1966 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4-2 | 1/4 |
1974 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 9-12 | 2 nd round, 4th place |
1978 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 15-4 | 1 |
1982 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 8-7 | 2 nd round, 3rd place in group |
1986 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 14-5 | 1 |
1990 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 5-4 | 2 |
1994 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 8-6 | 1/8 |
1998 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 10-4 | 1/4 |
2002 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2-2 | 3 rd place in group |
2006 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 11-3 | 1/4 |
2010 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 10-6 | 1/4 |
2014 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 8-4 | 2 |
Total | 77 | 46 | 10 | 21 | 131-83 | - |
Head coach and best player
Forward of Spanish Barcelona, owner of five Ballon d'Or awards Lionel Messi, undoubtedly, is the driver of the Argentinians. It's impossible to imagine this squad without Messi. A friendly against the national team of Spain illustratively proved this fact – Argentina lost 1-6 without its leader. Very Lionel has already claimed they need to win the World Cup ''now or never'' – the ''alien'' will be able to go to the next WC only at 35 years.
Jorge Sampaoli headed the national team of Argentina after its failed performance under Edgardo Bauza. Having said goodbye to Spanish Sevilla, the specialist decided to accomplish the goal of going through the group with the Argentinians and immediately started to build a new collective. Sampaoli based on his working experience with the Chilean national team, thanks to which he is widely known in world football as a coach. Now he will need to make a greater breakthrough – it won't be easy to win the World Cup with Argentina whose squad has not only excellent forwards with worldwide known names but also unknown players in defence.
- Preliminary squad: Romero – Fazio, Mascherano, Otamendi – Salvio, Biglia, Banega, Acuña – Di María, Messi, Agüero.
Base camp and cities
Two European squads are in one WC group together with Argentina – Iceland and Croatia as well as Nigeria. As we can see, it's impossible to call this quartet simple. The WC for the Albicelestes will kick off in Moscow with a match against tenacious Icelandic players. Then Messi & Co will go to Nizhny Novgorod to fight against Croatia, and the decisive match against Nigeria will probably be in Saint Petersburg. The city of Bronnitsa (Moscow Oblast) was chosen as a base camp. The collective from Argentina will settle in one of the most advanced sports complexes.