Like few times, the intervention of the Argentine soccer team in the Under 23 South American Pre-Olympic Tournament in Venezuela generated an unusual curiosity in me. The fact that many of its members are already professionals and stand out in their respective clubs contributed to such expectations.
Such players as, Thiago Almada, Valentin Barco, Claudio Echeverri, Federico Redondo, Juan Nardoni, Ezequiel Fernandez, Cristian Medina, Pablo Solari and Luciano Gondou among others, They heralded a good game and certain possibilities of accessing the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
However, For a group to function as a team is much more than the sum of individualities. You have to make each of its pieces mesh and don’t forget that, when the ball starts to roll, the opponent also plays.
That is why the best individual technique is not enough. To this we will have to add adequate physical preparation, tactics (with a game pattern and a defensive-offensive balance), as well as, a strategy according to the opponent on duty.
All this could be presumed to be facilitated, when the footballers have a good footing and sufficient mental stimulation such as representing the country and being able to qualify for the greatest feat of international sport.
Yeah. With all these ingredients, a team should overcome any adversity and in the remote case that something is missing, it is very typical of the Argentine to resort to the quasi-redemptive phrase: “to lay the egg.”
More, as the experienced Julio Velasco points out, “laying eggs” is not just showing determination. It is also important to have the ability to make a complex technical gesture in a moment of maximum anxiety, or having the temperance not to react to injustice.
With a little of all this, Argentina had just enough to beat Brazil in the final match by 1-0, with a cross from Barco and a header from Gondou and with it get tickets to the French capital.
But being a youth team with a great future ahead of it and beyond the enormous joy of qualifying, it doesn’t hurt to play devil’s advocate. In such order, It is unacceptable that a player like Barco wearing the light blue and white jersey is expelled in the first game of the final round, for having thrown a ball at a Venezuelan player with his hand.
Due to this circumstance, the Argentine full-back was left out of that match and the Paraguay match that ended in an agonizing 3-3, with the determining factor – as he demonstrated with the green and yellow – usually being his presence on the field of play.
There should be regulations for entry to the national team of any sport, where as a preamble, a player who is expelled through his own fault is sanctioned internally and even fined.
It may seem like an extreme measure, but the fact of leaving the team in inferior conditions is an individualistic attitude that postpones a great collective effort, consequently, it must be extirpated from group sports.
As background on the matter, we can remember for its disruptive nature Ariel Ortega’s headbutt to Edwin Van der Sar just minutes after being eliminated from the 1998 World Cup in France, Zinedine Zidane’s headbutt to Marco Materazzi in the World Cup final. Germany 2006 or Frank Fabra of Boca’s slap to Nino of Fluminense in the final of the Copa Libertadores de América 2023. In all of them, the injured team was that of the offending player.
The thing is An elite athlete must be able to overcome circumstances such as those mentioned and this characteristic must be one of the elements of judgment to be considered by the selectors. at the time of making your choice.
If the rules are clear from the beginning, together with the fact of not reacting and not entering any “game†, they are warned in advance, this will contribute to the player’s collaborative attitude and above all to group consciousness.
In times of likes and navel-gazing selfies, group work must be strictly respected over individualism.
Something that the Scaloneta made very clear and that some youth players seem to have a hard time internalizing.
If we stop conceiving these types of reactions as sins of youth and take advantage of that great moment of capillarity and triumph to leave an educational messagewe will be doing a great favor to the sport and to future generations.
*Abogado. Prof. National Tax Education. University Professor. [email protected]