Argentina forward Lionel Messi heads into his sixth World Cup and hopes to lead his team to a defence of its 2022 title, which it earned by defeating France in a dramatic finale.JUAN MABROMATA/AFP/Getty Images
Mindful of what happened four years ago in Qatar, and just hours after seeing his Tunisia counterpart Sabri Lamouchi fired following a tournament-opening loss, Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni issued a quick reminder to his countrymen Monday as the defending World Cup holders prepared to launch their title defence.
“Remain calm,” he said through a translator, no doubt wary of the opener going the way of the one four years ago, when Argentina was upset by Saudi Arabia in a World Cup shock for the ages. The three-time champions, currently ranked first in the FIFA rankings, open Tuesday against the 27th-ranked Algerians.
“This is a game, and we’ve had the experience of the last World Cup, so the first match is not critical. I mean, it is important, but it doesn’t end in the first match.”
With that sense of calm emanating from the top, combined with the fact that 15 of Argentina’s 26-man squad were part of the team that won in Qatar, Argentina will aim to do what no one else has done since Brazil in 1962 – repeat as world champions.
Of course, it helps that the team still has Lionel Messi. Though the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner now plays in Major League Soccer instead of the hurly-burly of the world’s best soccer leagues, he is still very much the heartbeat of an Argentine team that has also won the past two Copa Americas to go with its coveted global crown.
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Heading into his record-setting sixth World Cup – a mark he will share with Cristiano Ronaldo, of course – the 38-year-old is set to play his 200th international game for his country on Tuesday. According to those who know him best, he’s still an inspiration.
“He’s also a competitive animal,” long-time teammate Nicolás Otamendi, who has a tattoo on his ribs of Messi lifting the World Cup, said through a translator. “That’s precisely what makes you keep on trying without just settling, because you want to be there with him, for him, supporting him, serving him.
“That’s exactly what makes us happy. It doesn’t only make us happy, it makes the whole world happy because he is a competitive man, and who doesn’t love Messi?”
You can probably count Kylian Mbappé and France among those that are not paid-up members of the Lionel Messi fan club. Despite a hat trick from the French striker – just the second in World Cup final history – Messi lifted Argentina in Doha to deny France the chance to join Brazil and Italy as the only countries to successfully defend a World Cup.
Kylian Mbappé of France, seen here arriving at Boston Logan International Airport this past Wednesday, scored a hat trick in the World Cup final in 2022, but it wasn't enough to get past Argentina.Jaiden Tripi/Getty Images
This year’s tournament debut on Tuesday brings Les Bleus face to face with the ghost of World Cups past. Didier Deschamps’s team is in New Jersey to play Senegal, which upset then-reigning world champion France at the 2002 tournament in South Korea.
N’Golo Kanté was 11 when France suffered that shock, which precipitated the team losing two of its three games and suffering a humbling first-round exit.
The former Chelsea and Leicester midfielder – who was on the victorious 2018 team but missed out four years ago through injury – played down revenge as a motivator. He chose instead to focus on the possibility of reaching a third straight final, a rare run of success which has only been achieved by Germany and Brazil previously.
“To be in the final is a target for most of the teams,” he said. “We want to be there, but the way to be there can be very difficult.”
Deschamps, who has already announced he will be stepping down after the World Cup, dismissed any notion of revenge against Senegal, which remained a French colony until 1960.
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Besides, Senegal, currently ranked 16th in the world, is a far better team now than it was in 2002, and was briefly African champions earlier this year (before the Cup of Nations win over Morocco was reversed by an appeal board – a decision that has since gone to the Court of Arbitration for Sport).
“This was history, but even N’Golo, I’m not sure he saw the game,” says Deschamps through a translator of the 2002 match. “Most of my players weren’t born in 2002 so, well, I was watching the game, I wasn’t there.
“I know that you like this word revenge, but there’s no revenge in football. This was 24 years ago. This will be another page to write now.”