Lionel Scaloni, the coach of Argentina of the future

In the thousandth demonstration of football as a living, unpredictable phenomenon, without an instruction manual, the youngest and least experienced coach in charge of a team in Qatar 2022 –44 years old, without a resume when he took office in Argentina, in September 2018– He will sit this Sunday on the substitute bench at the Lusail stadium for the World Cup final.

This is Lionel Scaloni, the coach who, in these days of street frenzy in Buenos Aires and the rest of the country, also took a step towards the future: he left behind forever the ideological confrontation elevated to holy war that scarred the Argentine football in the last 40 years, the fight between César Luis Menotti and Carlos Bilardo, the only two world champions, one in 1978 and the other in 1986, referents of antagonistic styles, one lyrical, the other pragmatic,

In a few hours, Scaloni could join them both as the third Argentine coach to lift a World Cup but, beyond the result against France and a career that is just beginning, he has already been blessed by the crowds as the coach of the new generations. a modern coach, with his own profile, without labels or labels, who in his versatility feeds on the different doctrines of Argentine soccer.

It summarizes many styles in one: Menotti's leading role, Bilardo's pragmatism and his experience with José Pekerman and Marcelo Bielsa, the coaches who directed Scaloni himself and his collaborators –Pablo Aimar, Walter Samuel and Roberto Ayala– in their days as players. in the selection.

“I cannot put myself at the level of people who made history in the world, not only with Argentina.

Directing a final is already a privilege”,

Football in Argentina is religion and philosophy but Scaloni, who created a place of comfort and challenge to free Lionel Messi from the obligation of being the savior -and thus achieved his most splendid version in the national team-, does not embrace dogmas of the absolute nor does he prioritize a scheme: his priority is to take care of Emiliano Martínez's goal without this implying that Argentina is a defensive team, sometimes he wants the ball and other times he gives it up, he changes the formation depending on the rivals and alternates various designs tactics during Qatar 2022.

"Rather than saying that the World Cup is won by the teams that defend well, I am saying that it is won by the intelligent, cautious teams that know when to attack and when to defend," Scaloni responded a week before the World Cup, avoiding conclusive corsets such as "defensive" or "offensive".

“Rarely does a team that overwhelms, that is constantly in the opposite field, win a World Cup.

We are clear about that, we have seen it and we have to adapt to it.

Statistically it is so.

We'll give it a spin, ”he added, surely remembering that, in his World Cup as a player, in Germany in 2006 –his assistants also played in 2002 and 2010–, Argentina was left behind with teams that were more offensive than effective.

In a country where football is debated 24 hours a day, even in triumphs, his chameleon facet would have been a source of controversy.

But, for the Argentines who rediscovered their love for the national team in the 2021 Copa América after 28 years without titles -and there are already a majority of those who never witnessed the 1978 and 1986 titles-, Scaloni's adaptability and empiricism is a decision. holy.

Based on Messi's confidence, he put together a team in which everyone immolates himself for the cause without the coach stopping to make strong decisions, such as having relegated historical figures from the cycle in the middle of the World Cup and giving that ownership to young people like Julián Álvarez, Enzo Fernandez and Alexis MacAllister.

His utilitarianism, until not long ago, would have remained in the antipodes of Menotti, but it was precisely the current national director of AFA selections who recommended to President Claudio Tapia, at the end of 2018, that he not give him a short contract, until the 2019 Copa América, but three more years, until the World Cup in Qatar.

“Scaloni grew, like all coaches, from the players.

The only way for a coach is for the players to believe you, and he and his assistants did a great job in silence.

They conveyed an idea, and that is not easy.

Scaloni makes changes because the team has an idea, even in their different ways of approaching a game.

He always knows what he's playing at”, says Roberto Saporiti at 83, a long-standing technical director, Menotti's assistant in the 78 World Cup and close relationship with Flaco, but also a friend of Bilardo, an atypical point in common between two opposing coaches.

“The conversations with Flaco Menotti did him very well.

And then all the credit belongs to him, Scaloni showed immense wisdom.

I see a mixture of Menotti and Bilardo.

Of César, because he looked for the players so that they would develop his football idea.

Scaloni made a generational change and surprised with Dibu Martínez, (Cristian) Romero, (Nahuel) Molina, (Rodrigo) De Paul, and now Enzo (Fernández) and Julián (Álvarez).

And I see pragmatism in Carlos, who looks for the game intelligently and without becoming unbalanced, without creating large spaces, something that will be essential against France.

When he loses the ball, Argentina goes back.

And when he recovers it, he moves forward with all the freedoms.

And then, of course, there is the genius, Messi”, adds Saporiti.

Messi precisely, minutes after the 3-0 defeat of Croatia, still on the field of play, approached Scaloni and finished blessing him: "He's all yours," he whispered in the ear of the coach idolized by the new generations.

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