They can’t comprehend why Messi is able to score three goals a game playing for his club, FC Barcelona, and then fails to prove his mettle against Venezuela.”]Buenos Aires, Argentina – Julián Arrechea is a soccer fan who devotes any free time almost entirely to the king of sports, as he plays soccer three times a week and watches at least two games on TV daily.
For Arrechea, the Argentine national team is hands-down the most important thing on this planet.
However, the current lackluster performances of La Albiceleste, especially an astonishing 1-0 loss to Venezuela in a qualifier for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, have him worried.
“The Argentine team is slack, very slack,” Arrechea said. “It’s incredible that it’s full of individual talent, yet it’s so poor collectively. They lack ideas, and the saddest thing is they aren’t hungering after glory.”
In Argentine logic, soccer fans, commonly known as hinchas, act as though they’re coaching the national team.
But when the team falters, its very passionate fans always blame the coach, meaning all fingers are pointed directly at Alejandro Sabella.
Argentine fans also agree that the magic and beauty that surrounded La Albiceleste teams that won the 1978 and 1986 World Cups has vanished, leaving it with a squad that hasn’t won a major title since Copa América in 1993.
“To tell you the truth, the low marks have been so discouraging that I’ve become a passive hincha, without much excitement left to root for the team,” said Christian García, a 28-year-old civil engineer.
After the successes of 1978 and 1986, plus the second-place finish in Italy in 1990, the ensuing world championships have seen a significant drop in results.
Consider its World Cup standings: in the United States in 1994 the team was out at the round of 16; in the 2002 Korea-Japan tournament it didn’t make it out of pool play; and it couldn’t get past the quarterfinals in France 1998, Germany 2006, and South Africa 2010.
Now, add La Albiceleste’s poor showing at Copa América this past July, when it was defeated by eventual-champion Uruguay in penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw at the quarterfinals, and the fans’ spirits cannot take any more beatings.
Esteban Colombo, a psychoanalyst who specializes in sports, said the “team acts like a true role-model for the hinchas to identify themselves with; and a projection takes place in which the team has, in their minds, the obligation to gratify and satisfy collective aspirations.”
Christian García, an Argentine soccer fan, said the national team’s recent lackluster performance has disheartened him so much he has become a passive hincha, as soccer fans are known. (Noelia Antonelli for Infosurhoy.com)
The problem starts when these aspirations are not met, as has happened recently, Colombo said.
“[That’s’] when you see the hincha become frustrated in similarly [inverse] proportions to his aspirations,” he said.
[captionpix imgsrc=”https://thecostaricanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/argentina2.jpg” align=”right” captiontext=”La Albiceleste has all the talent it needs, but Argentina’s most recent coaches, Diego Maradona, Sergio Batista and Sabella have not been able to figure out how to make 11 players on the field perform as one unstoppable juggernaut.”]And that’s because Argentines simply can’t understand why a team that is led by Lionel Messi, the reigning two-time FIFA World Player of the Year, is ranked 10th by FIFA, making it the third-best team in the Western Hemisphere. Uruguay is ranked fourth and Brazil fifth, after top-ranked Spain, second-ranked Netherlands and third-ranked Germany.
In its next World Cup qualifiers, La Albiceleste hosted 115th-ranked Bolivia in Mendoza, Argentina, on Nov. 11 before facing 30th-ranked Colombia in Bogotá four days later.
And the team’s fans are worried.
They can’t comprehend why Messi is able to score three goals a game playing for his club, FC Barcelona, and then fails to prove his mettle against Venezuela.
“Messi doesn’t play for the [Argentine] team like he does with Barcelona,” García said. “You see he’s uncomfortable, distracted, I don’t know if the problem is him or if it’s the team, but I want to switch channels any time I see the team on.”
Messi is not the only star player, of course. The team features Javier Mascherano, a world-class defender with FC Barcelona; winger Ángel Di María and striker Gonzalo Higuaín, who shine with Real Madrid.
And there’s also Sergio Agüero, a star for England’s Manchester City. In other words, as a team, La Albiceleste has all the talent it needs, but Argentina’s most recent coaches, Diego Maradona, Sergio Batista and Sabella have not been able to figure out how to make 11 players on the field perform as one unstoppable juggernaut.
“Perhaps it’s the hinchas who need to lower their expectations or demands,” Colombo said. “For a group to become a team you need to work on a key concept, which is cohesion, [where] the group is more important than the individual, and where the priority is the sense of belonging, and having [an identity and] a common goal.”
Regardless, the team continues to loom large in the collective psyche of Argentines, Colombo said.
“In Argentina, there is a need for immediate success,” he said. “But [the team] hasn’t figured out the connection between success and work, let alone the process [it requires].”
Agostina Semprini, a 27-year-old who works in a bank, said she’s not a big fan of the sport, but “when the team plays I become [a fan]. It’s still a great pretext to get together with friends to watch the games, and even if there are fewer expectations of winning, hope is the last thing you lose.”
By Noelia Antonelli – Infosurhoy.com[captionpix
