Luis Islas
07/11/2021 3:44 PM
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 07/11/2021 3:45 PM
Happiness is complete for this title of the Selection.
People expected this joy because we had not been champions of America for many years.
It makes me very happy for the Argentine people and for football, because this empowers all of our players and coaches.
Argentina needed to lift a Copa América.
Why did we have to wait 28 years for another Senior National Team title?
Because sometimes the result is not given due to a bad decision, a bad play or the luck factor.
But Argentina always had competitive teams and played several finals.
Very important work was done, although you could not finish with a title on the court.
This Selection seduced me by the capacity and quality of each of its members, who have a very great football wealth.
But the greatest quality of this team was its temperament.
They always had to play with the absolute pressure to beat each rival and to be champions.
Psychologically, this Selection needed this title because it was known that if it could not get it now, it would be highly criticized.
They were very strong mentally and were able to overcome that pressure without any inconvenience.
Lionel Messi greets the fans on his return to Ezeiza Photo: Rafael Mario Quinteros
I am immensely happy for Lionel Messi, because he is the best player in the world and he received too much criticism for not being able to win a title with the National Team.
He also knew that he had to try from every point of view to be champion, because he
felt that he was in debt to the Argentine people
.
But thanks to God, thanks to him and thanks to all this great work team of the coaching staff, they succeeded.
Lionel Scaloni was also playing these games with a lot of pressure and a lot of tension, because he realized that he
was being evaluated
.
Personally, I always trusted his work and that of his coaching staff.
I am happy that he has achieved this title because it will give him a lot of tranquility and a lot of inner peace to continue working in the same way and with the same intensity.
I have no doubt that
a change was needed in the team
, because football is dynamic and intense.
Here we saw the ability of Argentina's coaching staff to leave Messi, Di María, Agüero and Otamendi, but also to start incorporating players like Paredes, Guido Rodríguez, Molina and
Nico
González, to name a few, who are doing things at a very high level.
If there is something that is important in this team, it is the unity of the group.
One realizes as a coach, as soccer people, that they
are very united soccerically and humanly
.
They were convinced of going for the very clear objective: to be champions of America.
There is a hero like Messi, but he is accompanying strongly with a group unit that I think is fantastic.
Emiliano Martínez, with the trophy for the Best Goalkeeper of the Copa América.Photo EFE
Draw
Martínez has had a very important job and has responded very well in the National Team goal.
I think it is very well covered by him, but also by Armani and Marchesín.
Argentina has players in all sectors of the playing field.
And in the arc he has a very important competence,
butdra
has done things very, very well.
Regarding the penalties against Colombia, his work was fantastic when he saved three penalties, because it gave the National Team the possibility of continuing in the Cup. What do I think about talking to the rivals before kicking?
The only sense is to try to get them out of their concentration, to put pressure on them.
And it obviously paid off.
I have no doubts that this team already has a very important football base for the Qatar 2022 World Cup. Some player may join, but this will be the base of the National Team on the way to qualification and to play the World Cup.
* Luis Islas was a national team goalkeeper, world champion in Mexico 1986, the 1992 Confederations Cup and the 1993 Copa América. He is part of "Loading you can win", Cinzano's campaign on the value of humor and "loaded" own in football.
Look also
Celebration for the Copa América: the story behind the T-shirt with a butterfly that Marcos Acuña used
Argentina, champion of the Copa América: all the records that Messi and the national team achieved after the Maracanazo against Brazil