Argentina out of the football World cup. Messi magic fails against Croatia

After Argentina losing at a score of 0-3 to Croatia in their second group game, Argentina is out of the football World Cup. The statistics captured a part of the story. Not since 1958 they have suffered such a big loss in the group stage in terms of the margin of defeat, and it is 48 years since they failed to win at least one of their opening two games.

The mystifying failure of their talismanic player Lionel Messi has overwhelmed discussions. For over a year, Argentina as a team has just been falling apart even when faced lower ranked countries. It was a Messi hat-trick in a do-or-die match which helped them qualify for the World Cup. Since then, their performance as a team has been terrible. The coach Jorge Sampaoli and Messi will have to shoulder most of the responsibility for this disappointment.

Argentina’s youth squads hardly qualify for the tournaments they have often won; the football federation is messed and the country is once again in the midst of an economic crisis which will therefore have its  impact on the domestic football economy. The shambolic performance against Croatia created a larger problem with Argentina’s football.