Argentina’s quest to join Italy and Brazil as the only teams to win back-to-back World Cup titles begins on Tuesday when they square off against Algeria in Kansas City. The Albiceleste are in Group J for the quadrennial extravaganza, with Austria and Jordan as the two teams in the group apart from Les Fennecs.
Lionel Scaloni has had a pretty chequered career as Argentina manager, guiding them to twin Copa America titles in 2021 and 2024 and the World Cup four years ago in Qatar against France. Adding a second World Cup crown would catapult him to legendary status- Italy (1934, 1938) and Brazil (1958, 1962) are the only teams to have won consecutive world crowns and no team has managed to achieve the feat in the modern era.
Scaloni is still heavily dependent on the core that won the WC- 17 of the 26-man squad named here were present in Qatar as well. There are some very promising younger talents coming through- the likes of Valentin Barco and Nico Paz to name a couple, but whether they’ll be trusted to start at a tournament of this magnitude remains to be seen.
Argentina topped CONMEBOL qualifying with 38 points from 18 games, nine ahead of second placed Ecuador. They scored the most goals (31) and had the second-best defensive record after the Ecuadoreans.
Despite being on the wrong side of 30, Lionel Messi still remains a talismanic figure for this Argentine side. Messi scored 43 goals across all competitions for Inter Miami last season, and helped them win their maiden MLS Cup title. Even at 38, the diminutive Argentine draws massive crowds and is still one the faces of world footy, and it’s no surprise that his shirts are still among the highest in demand among the Walkouts signed soccer jerseys collection.
Their opponents Algeria also had a strong qualifying campaign, finishing top of their group with a 8-1-1 record. Since their AFCON quarterfinal loss to Nigeria earlier this year, Les Fennecs have gone on to beat Guatemala, Netherlands and Bolivia and drawn with Uruguay, all without conceding a single goal. That win over the Dutch in Rotterdam in particular would’ve been a huge morale booster for Vladimir Petkovic’s side coming into this tournament.
Algeria will have the legendary Zinedine Zidane’s son Luca in goal, and the elder Zidane is expected to be in attendance for this clash. They also have the likes of Rayan Ait Nouri, Nabil Bentaleb, veteran Riyad Mahrez and the hugely exciting Ibrahim Maza in their ranks, and Argentina will underestimate Vladimir Petkovic’s men at their own peril.
Established teams aren’t having it all their way at this World Cup. European champions Spain were held to a 0-0 draw by debutants Cape Verde and both Brazil & Belgium had to settle for 1-1 draws against African opposition in the form of Morocco and Egypt respectively.
Argentina can be slow starters- they lost to Saudi Arabia in their opening game four years ago. They’d certainly prefer not to have a repeat, but even a point for Algeria could be a massive one for Les Fennecs given that the other two teams in the group- Jordan and Austria, are more beatable on paper.