There’s a lesson in Argentina’s exit at the first hurdle. A cohesive team is more important than 11 individuals – whatever their status.
Marcelo Bielsa’s team came with high expectations and I for one had been mightily impressed by their qualification record.
Add to that a Who’s Who of world class stars and the ingredients for a successful campaign were all in place.
It was a case of Argentina and A. N. Other progressing to the knockout stages, with Argentina odds on to go all the way. But what do they say about the best laid plans.
It all started so well with Gabriel Batistuta’s winning goal against Nigeria, but that was their only goal from open play – despite all their efforts against England and Sweden.
It will come as little consolation to the Argentines that those two matches were among the best in the World Cup – I certainly enjoyed them!