Argentina needed a response against Mexico on Saturday in their second World Cup group stage match after losing to Saudi Arabia in their opener. It came late, but they got it. In a game that was 0-0 at the break, second-half goals from Lionel Messi and young star Enzo Fernandez carried Lionel Scaloni’s team to a crucial 2-0 victory.
The win puts Argentina in position to advance to the round of 16 with a win against Poland, though a draw could be enough if the Mexico vs. Saudi Arabia game plays out in their favor.
It was a slow match that lacked attacking creativity, but Argentina got their winner from Messi out of nowhere, drilling home a pass from Angel Di Maria in the 64th minute past Memo Ochoa. Fernandez, who has come alive this season at Benfica, scored a spectacular second with a curling goal three minutes from time. It was his first career goal with the national team in what was his fifth appearance.
The result leaves Argentina on three points. Poland lead Group C with four, Saudi Arabia have three and Mexico have one. Argentina are in second place in the group thanks to goal differential.
Here are three takeaways from the match:
The result is good, but Argentina weren’t
If you didn’t see this game, yet you are looking at the score, you probably think this was a comprehensive win for Argentina. It was far from it. They had two shots on goal the entire game and five shots overall, and they lacked creativity for pretty much the entire game.
They certainly relied on their big names and hoped they could pull them out of what would have been a poor draw, and it happened as Di Maria played a fine ball across the top of the box to Messi, where he did this:
But with just five shots overall and a good hour of nothing in attack, there are still reasons to be concerned. While Messi looked lively, others did not step up enough. Lautaro Martinez’s performance was forgettable, Rodrigo de Paul and Guido Rodriguez were liabilities, and nobody commanded the attack and truly created.
That is going to have to change moving forward. After winning the Copa America against Brazil, beating Italy, looking so sharp in World Cup qualifying, this team has been almost the opposite in this tournament. It doesn’t all boil down to not having Gio Lo Celso, but Scaloni has some serious work to do in preparation for Poland.
Mexico played too cautiously
If Argentina have concerns, Mexico have bigger ones. Four total shots with their best opportunity coming on a free kick. They played with five at the back and no striker for about an hour. It was too cautious. It’s as if Tata Martino just wanted a draw against his birth nation despite a victory clearly being there for the taking. The defense was prepared to weather the storm, but the forecast was off for about 60 minutes. Perhaps they deserved a point from this game, but when your attack generates pretty much nothing, they can’t blame anybody else but themselves for their shortcomings.
Now things shift to a huge match against Saudi Arabia where Mexico could win and still be eliminated. Martino might just be coaching his last game for El Tri if things don’t go well. Lots of changes coming to their starting XI.
The changes for second game didn’t work Scaloni
Scaloni panicked after the first match and made five changes to his starting XI, and they played worse, really. Argentina looked threatening in the first half against Saudi Arabia, evident by three goals being called off for offside. In this match, the flow of the attack was much too slow, the passing wasn’t sharp and nobody had an idea of where to go with the ball.
Luckily for him, Messi stepped up and so did Fernandez, the latter certainly earning a start against Poland. His confidence level will be sky high, but I suspect we will see some of those players who were benched for this game reappear in the starting XI for Poland, especially Leandro Paredes for Rodriguez.
But the emergence of Fernandez comes at a great time. He’s been a stellar prospect who proved his chemistry with Messi on that corner kick leading to his goal. Out of all the midfielders, he has to be the one with the most confidence at the moment thanks to that cameo. A wrinkle is needed in the attacking third, and he may have proven to be that guy.
