Argentina will once again resume their quest to end a nearly three-decade-long major international trophy drought in the 2019 Copa America.
Despite having so much talent at their disposal — not to mention arguably the greatest player of all-time in Lionel Messi for the past decade plus — the Albiceleste have still not won a major competition since the 1993 Copa America.
Granted, Argentina have come agonizingly close on several occasions. They were losing finalists in the 2014 World Cup, as well as in four of the last five Copa Americas — three of which have come on penalties.
But despite those past disappointments, Argentina are still one of the major tournament favourites according to the Copa America 2019 betting odds.
Can this finally be the year Messi leads his country to international glory? Here are the three key factors that will make or break the Albiceleste’s chances at this year’s Copa America.
The other Lionel
Argentina made quite a splashy managerial appointment by bringing in Jorge Sampaoli in 2017. The diminutive Argentine was renowned for his tactical brilliance, particularly on the international scene. He famously masterminded Chile’s defeat of Argentina back in the 2015 Copa America final.
However, his tenure with Argentina turned out to be quite a disastrous one. Despite consistently shuffling systems, he couldn’t find one that could get the best out of his squad — especially Lionel Messi — as Argentina crashed out in the World Cup round of 16.
But those failures weren’t unique to Sampaoli as his predecessors were also unable to find the answers to fully replicate Messi’s brilliance for Barcelona to his national team.
That heavy burden now lies on another Lionel — new Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni. The 41-year-old has been thrown to the deep end as he takes over the Argentina job with virtually no managerial experience.
He was an assistant to Sampaoli for three years in Sevilla and Argentina and was in charge for six games as caretaker when Sampaoli was sacked before getting the job permanently.
But despite having a first-time manager in charge, SBOBET odds still have Argentina priced at 5.00 to win the tournament, second only to hosts Brazil.
After far more experienced managers before him failed, can the unseasoned Scaloni somehow find the answers that have eluded Argentina all these years?
New faces in defence and midfield
One of the big pieces of Copa America 2019 news last week was the release of Scaloni’s 23-man squad, which certainly raised one or two eyebrows.
While Scaloni included a handful of household names — Messi, Sergio Aguero, Angel Di Maria, Paolo Dybala — he also brought in a good number of new faces, particularly in defence and midfield.
Nicolas Otamendi, who lost his starting place at Manchester City, will now play a very important role as the most experienced player in Argentina’s defence.
There will also be a notable lack of a proven midfield general at the heart of the line-up after Ever Banega was not included. The likes of Leandro Paredes and Giovani Lo Celso will now have to take on the task of helping them control the middle of the park.
Perhaps this shake-up is just what the team needed after seeing how much of the squad underachieved last year in Russia.
However, this lack of experienced performers also puts more pressure on Scaloni to put his players in a position to succeed. But with his limited track record, it remains to be seen if he can successfully get the best out of this relatively untested defence and midfield.
Messi in the middle of it all
Much like Neymar in Brazil, the narrative that Messi has failed his home country simply because of the lack of trophies he’s won is just ludicrous. Messi has consistently been a huge reason for Argentina reaching a handful of major finals since he became a regular in the squad.
Had it not been for bad luck in penalty shoot-outs, Argentina would’ve won at least one of the last two Copa America finals.
However, it is a fair critique that Messi has not quite been maximized for Argentina as he has been in Barcelona. Their last World Cup campaign, in particular, made that very clear.
Again, the big question surrounding this team will be whether Scaloni can build a system that can best suit Messi — and to a lesser extent Aguero.
Even if Scaloni can’t quite manage that difficult task, though, Messi has proven that he is still good enough to get the team all the way to the final of this competition.
But if Argentina can somehow find a way to build an ideal system around their main man, this might just be the year they get over that final hump in this competition.
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