Now that the dust has settled, realistically, could Argentina have won the WC final? Their entire strategy seemed to be to push to penalty shootouts Could they have done something else?
>>157948327They literally almost took it to penalties (and obviously would have won).
>>157948327>>157958582Memes aside, it is impressive they managed to hold out that long after two of their better defenders (Romero, Lisandro) got injured while a total donkey like Molina was still on the pitch. And after Enzo got the red card, forcing them to play with 10 men. Enzo's first yellow for talking back to the ref was lame.I think Portugal was the last team to beat this current Spain squad and they did so by dragging the match to a penalty shootout, which is Spain's weak point. That was only a Nations League game though. Players don't give it their all and risk injuries for the Nations League.Argentina should've brought along Prestianni so they had a proper Di Maria-style winger, which they sorely missed this year. Prestianni has looked good at Benfica (much better than Mastantuono or Garnacho desu), but the Vini Jr incident hurt his big club prospects.But this reflected Scaloni's conservative attitude this year, relying too much on older and slower players and not integrating the younger players into the team throughout the tournament. De Paul was "good enough" in 2022 but he's a traffic cone now. Otamendi is 38 years old. Nico Gonzalez, meh. Molina was never good and almost every goal Argentina conceded was his fault.I don't think Argentina is hopeless post-Messi though. Nico Paz has more speed than 39 year old Messi and linking him with Alvarez/Lautaro could still produce good results. Prestianni could be good for the national team. Enzo is much better than people like to admit. MacAllister, when he's in form, is one of Liverpool's best players, though it's not clear how much gas he has left in the tank. I'm undecided on Barco because of Chelsea's mixed EPL results. Their main weakness is still their backline, especially since Paredes is most likely wrapping up his career (his PSG years were his peak) and won't be patrolling the midfield. But lots of other top national squads are unbalanced or have obvious weaknesses as well.
>>157958582I think they could have pulled it off had that disastrous red not happened >>157958697The Enzo first yellow was retarded
There is an universe where Messi wins 2 WC
>>157959898And it's the one where Gonzalo Higuain doesn't exist
>>157959908>>157959898It's the one where Angel Di Maria doesn't get injured in the quarterfinal against Belgium.https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/37380268/angel-di-maria-gets-world-cup-final-revenge-argentina-germany-four-star-failures-according-media
>>157959935Pretty much this. Also in 2018 we had a really good chance (we only lost against the champion and runner up) but sadly having two bald frauds involved in our NT was too much even for our elite players.
>>157948327Aiming for penalty shootouts is a terrible strategy because you have to deal with the extra time and that is very taxing on the body. If they do that the whole final phase then the final match would have been a nightmare.
>>157959988It was impossible to keep up in pace, our team had no pacey ngubus + Pissi couldn't really run that much to press because of his age. If Scaloni fielded younger players, they'd have fucked up strategically against Spain because they lacked experience playing for the team + lack of experience overall because of age.I think De Paul was a starter in the final because he was supposed to pull off a prepared set piece with Messi off a free kick for an early goal which didn't happen but in hindsight that was a terrible idea because Spain was never going to foul at a distance where it'd have worked.
