The Argentina-Netherlands quarterfinal, a volcano that began spewing lava at midnight on Friday, was building up energy and rage rather quietly.
In his room, the albiceleste goalkeeper Emiliano
Dibu
Martínez (Mar de Plata, 30 years old) turned on his mobile the day before and read statements from the Dutch team that he did not like very much.
They talked about revenge after losing the 2014 semifinals against them on penalties and about how much they were rehearsing from 11 meters in case the duel was resolved again in the shootout.
The goalkeeper decided to take screenshots of those words, showed them to his psychologist and told her: "He lit the dynamite."
In the end, it was he who exploded, and for the better, in the duel from 11 meters: he stopped the first two shots, to Van Dijk and Berghuis (each one to one side), and paved the way to the semifinals.
Another work of his from that distance (he already did it in the 2021 Copa América) that reminded what other leaders in his country (the Goycoechea and company) had done in the past, and that showed that one of the keys to the new airs of hope that run in the Albiceleste is under sticks.
Against Australia, in the round of 16, he also avoided a tie at the last moment that would have caused astonishment.
Dibu
Martínez belongs to that group of soccer players that has normalized the use of the psychologist.
He has been resorting to him for five years - two or three times in the run-up to matches - and he says so openly.
In this World Cup, in addition, he has needed it in a very special way.
The initial defeat against Arabia plunged Argentina into confusion and the goalkeeper into frustration.
“I especially suffered a lot these days talking to my psychologist.
Being kicked twice and scored twice is hard to swallow.
I could have given more ”, he revealed after beating Mexico, in the second game.
He came to these sessions after many years in England accumulating assignments and in an almost permanent state of waiting.
At the age of 12 he had left the family home to a not very comfortable Independiente pension and at 17 Arsenal signed him, where he went convinced by his family and his agents more than self-convinced.
“We lacked a bit of economic level [in the parental home].
I did it more for that than for sports ”, he confessed in an interview with this newspaper a year ago.
"An ice cube"
At the Emirates, Arsène Wenger, the
Gunners
' affiliate and a carousel of loans, was waiting for him.
The worst, José Bordalás' Getafe, in 2017-18 (just six games);
and the best, his trip in January 2019 to the depths of the second English, to Reading.
There he began to pry.
"It was a perfect marriage," says the Portuguese José Gomes, coach of that team from the London outskirts, until recently at Ponferradina and about to return to Marítimo on the other end of the phone.
“We helped each other those six months.
We needed a goalkeeper who knew how to play with his feet and had air forcefulness, and he, continuity.
Nobody believed that we could save ourselves and we did it ”, celebrates the coach, who highlights Dibu's natural leadership – “he only spoke when he had something to say – and his mental strength.
“He was an ice cube one on one.
That's not just technique, ”he underlines.
Again, the head.
"My forte is mental work," the goalkeeper has warned on more than one occasion.
The following campaign, back to Arsenal,
He was promoted to the Albiceleste a year ago and has always been regarded as enlightened.
“I am made for the national team, since I was 13 I knew that I could arrive.
In Russia, I was on the field with my brother and a friend, and I promised them that I would play in the next World Cup, ”he assured a few months ago in
Clarín
.
In the end, he appeared under the sticks only 10 days before the 2021 Copa América that he lifted and there he has stayed.
He didn't leave him even when his daughter was born (he caught him training).
It was a penalty shootout that definitely screwed him up and, of course, a mental game with the pitchers.
In the semifinals, the Colombians went crazy.
“You're laughing, but you're nervous.
Play
dumb, I already know you.
Look
, I'll cut it off for you, I'll eat you, brother, ”he released Yerry Mina.
"I'm sorry, but I eat you, brother," he told Davinson
Sanchez.
He didn't yell at Cardona, but he didn't care.
All three failed.
A performance and a staging that joined the saga of Argentine goals that were uncovered from 11 meters in a World Cup.
Like Sergio Goycoechea in 1990, who stopped four (two in the quarterfinals against Yugoslavia and two in the semifinals against Italy);
Carlos Roa in 98 (two against England in the round of 16);
or Sergio Romero in 2014 (another two to the Netherlands in the semifinals).
The first is the one with whom he has been most closely related.
The two have regular talks - nothing deep, Goyco clarifies - and Dibu was photographed these days with a printed T-shirt inspired by the one his colleague wore 32 years ago.
In the months before Qatar, Emiliano Martínez, 1.95 tall, pampered himself conscientiously to avoid injuries.
He didn't touch the bread and he didn't give himself a cola drink even when he won.
He already has what he took for granted as a child.
On Friday he shone against the Netherlands and now it's Croatia.
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