The way Argentina got kicked out of this South African World Cup comes with a bitter taste of humiliation. Not only because of their earlier than expected exit, but mainly due to the unnecessary way they were crushed by the German side. The indisputable quality of Maradona´s squad was lacking a very important characteristic for any team that aspires to be World Champion. They were missing a coach.
Revealing a great amount of inexperience, cracking under the media pressure and showing overwhelming emotion when it comes to tactical decisions, Diego Maradona, singlehandedly sent Argentina home through the back door of the most prestigious stage of football.
How Argentina Was Defeated
The reason for the Argentinean team excruciating defeat lies simply in their formation. With one simple change on the team’s tactic and the Germans would have had a lot more trouble getting pass the South Americans.
The tactic presented by Maradona exposed unwillingness to adapt and opened the “Latino doors” to the already well known devastating German counter attack that has been making victims throughout this World Cup. He shot himself in the foot by using the same formation he used against Mexico which, by the way, had not worked very well an only earned them a narrow victory, as the Mexicans caused a lot of problems to Argentina’s defensive line and could easily have ended up winning the match if their strikers had been more effective.
The mistake resides in his stubbornness to keep putting Carlos Tevez in the starting 11 at the expense of Sebastian Veron. To make things even worst this decision was clearly an emotional and not a tactical one. Maradona and Tevez, undeniably, share a bond that goes beyond the lines of the field. This blunder caused a lot of problems offensively and especially defensively to the two time winners of the FIFA World Cup.
The absence of Veron in the starting lineup made Messi and Di Maria vanish from the game. Messi had to go against his nature as a footballer and go to unknown territories to actually have the ball in his possession. Ironically, considering he is one of the strikers upfront. On the other hand, Di Maria passed by through almost every game like a faint ghost since it was Veron that inserted the young Real Madrid player in the team game to haunt the defenses. Without him Di Maria was limited to what he could do individually.
People wonder why Lionel Messi, the FIFA best player of the world, did not have a successful World Cup. Quite clearly the main reason is that Maradona didn’t let him play.
Maradona’s errors reached their peak in the defensive layout. It was actually very impressive that the South American team only lost by four goals against Germany since they had a second defensive line of one man, and one man only. Poor Mascherano was in nothing less than a nightmare, guarding alone that midfield against the relentless German midfielders.
Maxi Rodriquez, Di Maria or Messi are not by definition defensive players. The old legend of football was using too many attackers thus leaving the defense completely unguarded. Veron would had given other defensive stability, allowing more freedom to Messi and especially more ball possession in the midfield, the place where you are suppose to start constructing the offensive game.
The Problem of Maradona's Coaching Style
Jurgen Klinsmann stated in a press conference before the game regarding Maradona, “Diego is the emotional face of the team and the players love him – it’s like a father-son relationship.”
In the football universe this is not a compliment. A coach should be emotionless and make himself being heard and respected as such. This was Maradona’s crucial mistake.
Hugo Crispim - Hugo Crispim is a young Portuguese freelance writer that graduated in 2009 with an honor degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. ...
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