England v Argentina in a World Cup semi
Argentina has advanced to the World Cup semi-finals after a chaotic match against Switzerland. Despite being described as a flawed team, they continue to find ways to win, setting up a high-stakes semi-final clash against England.
Why it matters
The article highlights the unpredictable nature of elite international football and the 'name on the trophy' momentum often seen in major tournaments.
Julian Alvarez celebrates his late winner Argentina, uh, find a way.
You do have to admire a team that really do now just refuse to get knocked out of major tournaments. They are on a run that has delivered back-to-back Copa America titles and they are now a mere two games away from becoming just the third men’s team to win back-to-back world titles.
But, and this does feel like it should be more important than it obviously is, they are deeply flawed and at times really quite strikingly bad.
And yet, it never, ever matters. They cannot be stopped by conventional methods.
Gary Lineker’s infamous assertion about football being a simply game where 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win applies more now to Argentina than it ever did to Germany.
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