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'Blame me, not team', says devastated Argentina coach
Argentina’s despondent coach Jorge Sampaoli took the blame for Thursday’s shambolic 3-0 World Cup defeat by Croatia as he tried to deflect the criticism from a terrible goalkeeping mistake and a poor performance by his captain Lionel Messi.
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“It’s not the boss’s partial responsibility, it’s his total responsibility,” said Sampaoli, after presiding over Argentina’s heaviest defeat in the World Cup group stage since 1958, a result that saw Croatia qualify for the last 16.
In front of a massive and increasingly incredulous following in the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium, Argentina collapsed in the second half after keeper Willy Caballero messed up a clearance and Ante Rebic fired home Croatia’s first goal.
“It’s not right to blame Caballero,” said Sampaoli, looking bemused during his post-match news conference.
“If I’d planned things differently, it would have worked out differently ... I honestly thought the plan for this match was going to put pressure on the opponent. But after the disaster of the first goal, it was tough, we were lost emotionally.”
Messi, probably playing in his last World Cup, had minimal impact, largely marked out of the game by well-drilled Croatia.
“Our driving force is Leo, but we couldn’t find him. We work as a team to get the ball to Leo, but also the other team (Croatia) works to avoid that,” added Sampaoli, whose best players have all underperformed during his year in charge.
“It’s the driver’s responsibility... Everything that happens to the team is due to the leadership ... Leo is prejudiced by not having in us drivers as good as him.”
Third in Group D with one point after two games, Argentina is now struggling to scrape into the second round and an exit at this stage would be humiliating for a team of its stature.
“There is shame, pain, at not delivering for the Argentine people. It’s been a long time since I felt like this, and now it’s happening with the shirt of my own country. It hurts badly,” added Sampaoli.
Argentina drew 1-1 with Iceland in its first game, when Messi missed a penalty, and next faces Nigeria, which lost its opener to Croatia, in its final Group D match.
“We have one match left, and we have to take whatever opportunity the others give us to see if we can get through to the second round,” Sampaoli said.
“I say sorry to all the fans who made such an effort to come to Russia. “I shared their dream. I did the best I could.”
Endless turmoil leaves Messi's Argentina in disarray
The 2014 World Cup final in Brazil was supposed to be Lionel Messi's crowning moment, the chance for him to take his place alongside Diego Maradona in Argentina's pantheon of heroes.
Instead, defeat by Germany set in motion four years of chaos in the international set-up that has brought one of the great footballing nations to its knees and leaves the South Americans staring at a ignominious early exit in Russia after their 0-3 loss to Croatia.
Barring an unlikely sequence of results, this gilded generation of players looks like being forever remembered for a succession of bitter defeats. Argentina's struggles in Russia should come as no surprise after their pre-tournament preparations were wrecked by controversy and poor form, coupled with a reliance on a top-heavy, limited squad.
It found itself at the centre of an Israel-Palestinian spat over the cancellation of a World Cup warm-up match following an unconvincing qualifying campaign. The game against Israel, planned to take place in Jerusalem, was called off after a campaign by the Palestinians following its relocation from the northern city of Haifa.
It meant it arrived in Russia with a 4-0 win against 104th-ranked Haiti in May as their only outing since an ominous 6-1 loss to Spain in March.
Argentina almost failed to qualify for the World Cup in the first place. They were on the brink of missing out on the finals for the first time since 1970 before Messi's hat-trick against Ecuador dragged them over the line.
The team have been undermined by a broader crisis afflicting the Argentine game, tangled up with politics and a power struggle in the AFA (Argentine Football Association) management that broke out in 2014.
The AFA was placed under administrative supervision in 2016, days before the Copa America Centenario final, after being hit by corruption allegations and rows over TV rights.
Former AFA head Luis Segura quit after he and six other AFA directors were indicted on suspicion of embezzlement over the distribution of broadcasting revenues.
Worse was to come as Messi abruptly announced his international retirement following a penalty shootout loss to Chile, Argentina's second Copa America final defeat in two years, citing frustration at the way the game was run in the country.
Former Barcelona boss Gerardo Martino promptly resigned as coach, blaming power squabbles with the AFA, an organisation branded a "mafia" by Diego Maradona, who pointed the finger at its late president, Julio Grondona.
Messi's future became practically an affair of state when Argentina's President Mauricio Macri called on him to stay.
"Lionel Messi is the greatest thing we have in Argentina and we must take care of him," Macri said shortly after the player's bombshell announcement.
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