Argentina-Uruguay.
Marcelo Bielsa-Javier Mascherano
.
July 16, 2003. A call and a history of Selection.
Like
déjà vu
, like a Macondo story in One Hundred Years of Solitude or a chapter of Dark, German fiction.
What relationship exists between the past, present and future
?
Are they independent spatio-temporal units or do they feed off each other?
The journalistic chronicles will say that the coach who made the young 18-year-old midfielder debut in the Argentine National Team without yet having a match in River's First Division, will now, more than 20 years later, face him in a match between the pre-Olympic teams of the classic River Plate rivals.
Argentina-Uruguay
.
Marcelo Bielsa-Javier Mascherano.
February 2, 2024.
Bielsa knew Mascherano well before the call for the Senior National Team.
The kid had already been in the Sub 15 when he still belonged to Renato Cesarini.
Then in the Sub 17, now in River, and in the Sub 20. In March 2002, for a tour of Europe prior to the World Cup, El Loco called up 11 youth players as sparring partners.
There was Mascherano.
He was dazzled
.
For this reason, the young midfielder also had a place among the kids who went to the 2002 Korea/Japan World Cup.
In December 2002, he had a double call-up, for the Sub 20 that was going to participate in the South American in Uruguay and for the tour of Central America that would mark the start of Bielsa's second cycle in the National Team, after the renewal of the contract despite the elimination in the first phase of the Korea-Japan World Cup.
The youth team was champion and
Masche
, without much time to celebrate, immediately left for Honduras along with
Gonzalo Rodríguez
and
Emanuel Rivas.
In the three friendlies (Honduras, Mexico and the United States) he was on the substitute bench.
Javier Mascherano celebrates the South American Under 20 title in 2003 in Uruguay.
Mascherano continued to be a fixture in the youth teams while he was relegated at River, much more so after the arrival of the Chilean Manuel Pellegrini.
El Millonario had an abundance of central midfielders:
Leonardo Astrada, Claudio Husain, Guillermo Pereyra
and
Oscar Ahumada
.
He, meanwhile, was training with the Reserve, the
Vitroleta
, directed by
Jorge Ghiso
, with Negro
Marcelo Gómez
, who had returned to the club.
It was
Vitrola
who received the call from
Claudio Vivas
, Bielsa's assistant, confirming that the kid would be called up to the Major, when he had not yet made his debut for his club.
On May 21, 2003, the inauguration of the Único de La Plata stadium was scheduled and Mascherano was going to be the starter.
However, torrential rain flooded the city and flooded part of the stadium and the friendly with Uruguay was postponed.
The classic was played two months later.
Bielsa, again, summoned the
Jefecito
.
Also to
Lucho González
.
On July 7 at 11 in the morning there were 17 names and at 7 p.m., the list given by the AFA included 15. Neither of the two were there, after an agreement with the River leadership for both to go on the tour of the Nuñez team for the United States.
An employee told Loco and he exploded.
He urgently called a press conference in Ezeiza on July 8 and, true to his style, made his position clear.
He was angry, so he read the entire message he wanted to give.
"I requested this contact because I wanted to make a clarification regarding the way in which this call was implemented. The list to face next Wednesday the 16th (at 9 p.m., at the inauguration of the Ciudad de La Plata stadium) does not coincide with the one that I supplied. Mascherano and González, who had been informed by us of the nomination, were excluded. This measure was taken by the AFA and I found out after it was implemented. The usual procedure, which in this case was altered, consists of informing which are the members of each call simultaneously to the AFA authorities, the clubs and the press. This procedure used in the 50 previous calls aims to prevent the designations from being the product of previous agreements and thus all the clubs receive the same treatment. Each club has the right to deny the chosen player without having to justify the refusal. The AFA does not exercise the right to disqualify the denied player, beyond the fact that it is a right it has.
I do not know the reasons why the method that is always used was not applied and that is why I thought it pertinent to clarify to the players and coaches that I am not responsible.
This is the synthesis of my thoughts on how this last call came about, I wanted to express it to make clear what my responsibility is in the path that was chosen
.”
The fracture in the relationship between Julio Grondona and the coach, who would resign a year later because he ran out of energy, deepened.
Bielsa's conferences in 2003 were unmissable.
Finally, Mascherano started against Uruguay in the first soccer match played at the Único stadium, on July 16, 2003.
“Play calmly, I trust you,”
the coach told him.
It was 2-2 and the first Uruguayan goal was due to a poor delivery by the young midfielder.
On
The Players Tribune
site , the current U23 coach recalled that first experience: “
The game ended, we returned to the Predio, I got into my car, drove to my house in Belgrano and went to sleep.
Ready".
Javier Mascherano, on the day of the debut against Uruguay in 2003, marking Ernesto Javier Chevantón.
But in each note, the footballer who managed to complete 147 matches until 2018 (the first 10 with Bielsa on the bench) and
is the second footballer with the most matches with the blue and white
after
Lionel Messi
, always appreciated the opportunity that it gave him. Bielsa.
And again.
Even in May 2012, in the run-up to the final between Barcelona - him as a player - and Athletic Bilbao - Bielsa as coach - for the Copa del Rey, he expressed: "
I was part of the group they used for friendlies.
We were a group of 17 and 18 year old players who were on tour with the national team and we went to the World Cup.
After the defeat in Korea, with all the press against him, he was encouraged to grab a player who had not even played in the first division and put him in the national team.
He had much more to lose than gain and he took a chance on me.
I am grateful to him for life
."
Barcelona coach, Tito Vilanova (r), greets Athletic's Argentine coach, Marcelo Bielsa (l).
Photo: EFE/Alejandro García
But he didn't stop there and spoke about what was at stake: “
I want to win this title, it would be a perfect finishing touch and the best way to face next season.
From the feeling, one wants to see Marcelo winning titles, because football with him has been too unfair when it comes to rewarding him, because he has deserved much more than what he has won.
But perhaps his greatest triumph has been leaving his mark on every team and every player he has coached.
"
Two decades after that debut, a decade after that final, Mascherano will face Bielsa for the first and surely only time.
With Argentina qualified for the final quadrangle and Uruguay already eliminated from the competition.
It will be this Friday from 8 p.m. in the city of Valencia, in Venezuela.
The past and the present.
And the future?