The victory of the
Argentine National Team
3-1 against
Costa Rica left
Lautaro Martínez
as the top winner
.
It took
777 minutes
and more than a calendar year for El Toro
to score again on a cold night in Los Angeles wearing the Albiceleste shirt
: he entered midway through the second half and it was enough for him to score the last goal of the match by defining half turn inside the area.
He celebrated angrily, trying to vent.
And from the substitute bench, Pablo Aimar
's goal cry
made it clear that he was suffering firsthand from the bad streak.
With effusiveness and kicking the advertising billboard, as if the context were that of a game for points and not a friendly.
In this way
Lautaro celebrated his goal after 16 games
, with subsequent congratulations from all of his teammates.
The opposite is the case of the coaching staff when the cameras showed a passive celebration on their part.
It seemed like they were confident that the goal would come at some point.
Except Aimar.
Further apart from the rest of his teammates,
the
Clown
opened his hands, clenching his fists and looked at the sky when Lautaro was reunited with the goal
.
With his eyes closed, in a pose of quasi-gratitude,
Aimar experienced the situation as if it were his own.
Likewise, the celebration coming from Aimar is not strange.
It seems that he is a man of passionate screams: he adds this morning to the list that opened with that goal against Mexico in the World Cup, where he sat on the substitutes' bench as he could not hide the emotion of the moment.
Aymar's celebration WE WERE ALL pic.twitter.com/rKT5GQb9Gq
— lud (@scalwt) March 27, 2024
Lautaro's last goal had been before the World Cup in Qatar, in a friendly against Honduras, back in September 2022
.
In between, countless unrealized opportunities occurred.
During the drought, the Bull always tried to be calm when faced with questions.
Although, now that the goal arrived, he hinted that the situation was already beginning to get to him.
"Even though you try to avoid those things, sometimes you think and you are always going around
. A reward for work and gratitude to the teammates who are always nearby," said the Bull after the victory.
And he added: "I talked about it a little with my family, but they also made me get out of it a little, because
these issues make me more nervous and anxious to look for the goal
."
At Inter, his reality had been completely different: top scorer in the league with 23 celebrations in 29 games.
🗣️ LAUTARO, AFTER CONVERTING AGAIN WITH THE ARGENTINA SHIRT: "Even though one tries to avoid those things, sometimes they think"
🐂El Toro closed the victory against #CostaRica and broke his scoring drought with the Albiceleste.
After 3-1, he expressed himself about it.
🎙️ @gastonedul pic.twitter.com/1QmMhA0ccA
— TyC Sports (@TyCSports) March 27, 2024
Despite the bad streak of more than a year that he had to go through, Lautaro's numbers with the Scaloneta remain firm:
he scored his 22nd goal with the National Team
(all in the Scaloni cycle) in 56 games and
it is the second most gunner since the arrival of the native of Pujato
, in 2019.
Beyond a year and a half of drought, his pursuers are far from reaching him.
Ángel Di María just appears third with 10 goals, including his recent free kick bomb
.
Lionel Messi leads the ranking with 41 goals
.
LAUTARO MARTÍNEZ IS BACK.
🇦🇷🤫 pic.twitter.com/QCk0i9guz7
— Ataque Futbolero (@AtaqueFutbolero) March 27, 2024
But that is not all.
In addition to the present impact that the Inter Milan captain's goal had, it also allowed him to sneak into a ranking of high historical value:
he became the tenth top scorer of the National Team
.
He equaled
Daniel Passarella
and
Leopoldo Jacinto Luque
.
"Very happy to enter the top 10 scorers of the Argentine National Team
. Thank you to everyone who supports me. Let's go for more," wrote the Racing player on his Instagram account.
See this post on Instagram
A shared post from Lautaro Javier Martinez (@lautaromartinez)
Now he will go in search of catching up with
Luis Artime
, who has a personal record of
24 goals
.
What better context to do so than in the Copa América, with renewed energy.