BASIL SYLVESTER PINTO
PANAJI
Going into the tournament as one of the major draws, finalists at the quadrennial showpiece of the last edition, Argentina are enduring torrid times with their chances of making it to the Round of 16 at the ongoing FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 insecure.
In an exclusive with The Goan, a travelling Goan fan of the blue and white stripes laments on his disappointment on the situation of one of the most successful national teams in FIFA World Cup history. Allan Fernandes is still coming to grips with Argentina’s horror result against Croatia.
“It is extremely difficult for Argentina to pass through the group stage as it all depends on the Iceland vs Nigeria game (on Friday). Looking at the way Argentina has been playing, they are in a mess. They may have been last edition’s finalists, but every World Cup one cannot expect Messi to deliver. Some of the others should also stand up,” Allan told this paper from Moscow.
Allan is in Russia with a group of nine Goan fans -- Ashok Naik, Sameer Toroscar, Francis Gonsalves and Lourenco Fernandes from Goa, and Michael Fernandes, Niven Noronha, Mario Fernandes and Kevin D’souza from Dubai. Talking about their initial journey to Russia, he said: “When we applied for tickets, we could not get Argentina matches tickets. But we did get tickets for the Portugal vs Morocco and Belgium vs Tunisia games.”
Not one to lose hope easily, he felt he could manage to get at least one Argentina game ticket somehow as many people tend to sell their tickets before the game. “Reaching Moscow with high hopes, we came across thousands of Argentina fans also hunting for tickets. Realising that their own countrymen were without tickets, we lost hope. But that was when we opted for a fan park atmosphere in Moscow which easily accommodates 40,000 people. We watched the Argentina vs Croatia match there,” Allan said.
“But before watching this game, we did get to experience Live World Cup matches first, for the Poland vs Senegal game, and then the Portugal vs Morocco clash,” he revealed. “When we reached the stadium for our first World Cup game it felt awesome. There were 95 per cent Polish fans in the stadium, while only 5 per cent were Senegalese. But the 5 per cent were as noisy as the 95 per cent and after the first goal they silenced the Polish fans,” Allan recalled.
“Portugal vs Morocco was our second game. I always read Ronaldo is booed most of the time and he still comes out strong. I witnessed it here against the Morocco game,” stated the Candolim-based fan.
Coming to the all-important, Argentina second match against Croatia witnessed at the massive fan park in Moscow, he conceded their spirits were down. “The most important game which we actually went for was between Argentina vs Croatia. Our morale ahead of the match was already low as he missed a penalty (that could have been decisive) in the first game,” he admitted.
“With Argentina being in a Group of Death, a win against Iceland was very important because Croatia is a technically better side. They (Croatia) have the best midfielders in Luka Modric (Real Madrid) and Ivan Rakitic (Barcelona). Besides, they had Mario Mandzukic, the striker as well,” Fernandes said.
“Argentina may have Messi but football is not a one-man game. He cannot win for you always while he may have single-handedly guided Argentina to Russia,” he matter-a-factly said.
“Argentina has a very weak midfield. When the line-up against Croatia was out, the first shocker for us was Di Maria on the bench. He and Messi had a good understand and chemistry. Sampaoli also benched Rojo and Banega. You play a three-man defence and cannot have a kid (Tagliafico) instead of Rojo in defense. Banega was dropped from our weak midfield. One could clearly see that in the first half, Messi hardly got a touch on the ball and Rakitic and Modric were too good for the Argentina midfielders. Then there was the horrendous error by the Argentine goal-keeper (Cabalerro). And then (Jorge) Sampaoli replacing Aguero with Higuain I also feel was a wrong move,” lamented the Argentine supporter.
“Now we knew to score twice would be difficult and with Modric scoring the second it sealed the game. Rakitic rubbed salt on our wounds with the third goal,” he further stated.
“May be if the goalkeeping error was not there it would have been a different story,” Allan pondered over what might have been.
