Argentina may make the worst ever start in its World Cup qualifying group. It does not mean that it will fail to qualify for the next World Cup in Russia in 2018, but from now on it may be an uphill fight.
From its opening games against Ecuador and Paraguay, the national team only got one point out of six. In the next few days, Argentina faces two usually tough rivals in Brazil at home and Colombia away. But coach Gerardo Martino has had bad luck with injuries. A few star players were missing, or were injured against Ecuador and Paraguay. Already out for the next matches are Messi, Agüero, Zabaleta and Garay with diverse injuries. Now Tevez, who, as mentioned previously, has played too much while needing a rest, finally broke down with a knee injury, while Pastore returned from Europe with recurrence of an injury and does not know if he will be ready to play. With almost half the top team unavailable and with reserves not of the same standard, the next two matches are going to be harder.
After the last series of matches, many people said they should copy the Pumas, who reached the semifinals of the World Rugby Cup showing fighting spirit and giving their all, even against superior rivals. But one can not compare. The Pumas trained hard for these matches for days, while most soccer players arrive from abroad a couple of days before the match and the coach can not really do anything with them, apart from which they are tired. Martino should have problems specially in attack without Messi, Tevez and Agüero.
But Martino has had other problems and the general opinion is that club officials and even the Argentine Football Association (AFA) are sabotaging the national team. The AFA has also played league games during international windows set aside by FIFA for international games. Although this does not affect Argentina too much as nearly all players of its national team play abroad, it did affect Martino for friendly games as he wanted to try out local players and left out those due to play in international club cups. Another problem is that the AFA and its agents are poor in arranging rivals for international games. The recent friendly against Bolivia, where players were striking at the time, was of no use at all and there were previous such cases.
Now if Argentina does badly again, fans will clamour for Martino’s sacking, but that will not be the solution.