A Love Letter to La Scaloneta

Another final. One last chance for glory. I’m as surprised as anyone else—I thought the Argentine national team was finished when Lionel Messi lifted the World Cup trophy in Qatar 2022. That was the culmination of years of hard work and suffering. From the 2014 World Cup with a lone German goal in the final minutes of extra time to see the cup go to Deutschland through consecutive heartbreak in the Copa America finals in ‘15 and ‘16, penalty shootout losses to Chile both goddamn times. A passionate but misguided run at the 2018 World Cup in Russia that ended in the Round of 16 at the hands of the French who of course would go on to win the whole thing. And then it always feels extra shitty to get knocked out by your greatest rival, this time the Brazilians in the semifinals of the 2019 edition of the Copa America.

But then there was a change. Lionel Scaloni took charge of the team and a new generation of players that worshiped Messi joined the squad. A squad built around true teamwork and doing everything they could to feed the ball to the greatest player of all time. And it worked. It worked beautifully. Argentina won the 2021 Copa America, a 1-0 victory over Brazil in Brazil! Halfway through 2022 they faced Italy, then-European champions, and won 3-0. The biggest test was coming up: the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Messi’s final hurrah. The last chance to get that cup he had been chasing all his life. The most beautiful cup in the world.

The tournament started off great. And by great, I mean it was a fucking disaster. Argentina lost 2-1 to Saudi Arabia. I remember waking up at 2:30 am for the game and when it finished I passed out, hoping it was just a nightmare. I would wake up and realize La Albiceleste had dismantled the Saudis. Nope. I woke up and the result was still 2-1. Another tournament and another case of heartbreak surely.

No, no, I told myself. This squad was different. Something felt different. Messi looked confident. The team was clicking. La Scaloneta. And the team started winning. They reached the final where they played France, then-current world champions. I don’t need to recap that match—it’s now widely regarded as the greatest World Cup final of all time. I agree. But boy did we suffer to get it.

Argentina picked up another Copa America cup in the summer of 2024 and fast forward a couple years later and here we are in 2026, the day of the final. Spain versus Argentina. Has all the makings to be another classic match. Like I said earlier, I was not expecting Argentina to make it this far; I was content with a quarterfinal showing. I guess that makes me a fake fan, but hear me out. I didn’t count on Messi playing in this tournament. I thought he should have retired after lifting the cup in Qatar. He reached the pinnacle and he should go out on top, I said. What was the point of him playing another World Cup—what was he going to do, win it again? No one has won back-to-back cups since 1962, when Brazil won it after 1958. But alas, I do not have the heart of a champion. My fighting spirit is not as strong as his. To be fair to myself, no one is like Messi. He is the rarest of breeds. Imagine at 39 years of age, he’s as good as he’s even been. His World Cup track record has improved with every tournament he’s played in. That doesn’t even make sense. A force of nature. But let’s get back to the team as a whole.

Sport pundits and frustrated men on Reddit have been criticising and dismissing this squad the whole tournament. They have played seven games, about to play their eighth, and people are still dismissing them as lucky to have gotten this far. My brothers in Christ, you don’t coast on luck for a whole tournament and for as long as this tournament has. You do need some luck—yes, this is true. You need luck in life as well, by the way. I know business gurus and self-made millionaires will preach about how your success in life just comes down to hard work, but I can almost promise you, luck plays a big part in success—the hard work aspect is just a basic requirement.

But maybe it’s not luck that Argentina made it this far. They were always going to make it to the final—it was rigged! Of course. It was rigged in 2022 if memory serves me well. The final with France was always going to be in Argentina’s favor to give Messi the coveted World Cup. It was all part of the plan when Kylian Mbappé scored two goals in the last ten minutes of the game to tie it up and go into extra time. It was all a big scheme when both teams scored in extra time to take it to penalties. It was agreed from the get-go that Kolo Muani would fire that shot—a shot that nine out of ten times would result in a goal—in the dying minutes of extra time and have it blocked by Emiliano Martinez to force the game to penalties. And of course, everyone understood the script that France would miss some of their penalties and Argentina would make all of theirs to win the cup. Of course it was rigged.

And it makes perfect sense that this cup would be rigged for Argentina as well. I mean, look at their path to the final. After the group stage, they should have faced their rivals Uruguay who had a terrible tournament and crashed out. So La Albiceleste ended up facing Cabo Verde—the only team that Spain failed to beat or score on, mind you. Argentina narrowly beat them to face Egypt, one of the strongest teams in Africa and the most successful country when it comes to the Africa Cup of Nations—their equivalent of the Euro Cup and Copa America. But that doesn’t matter because it’s Africa and they lack class like the Europeans, while South Americans’ tactics have been referred to as dirty throughout the tournament by the professional pundits.

So Argentina beat Egypt. Excuse me—they robbed Egypt of victory when the Egyptians allowed a 2-0 lead to slip away in the final ten minutes of the game. Then the Argentines went on to face Switzerland in the quarterfinals. Switzerland—possibly the most boring national team. A team that thrives on defense and ending matches 0-0. The game went to extra time and Argentina eliminated them 3-1. And then they faced the English. I guess no claims of rigging in that one—the whole world saw England fumble at the finish line and allowed the Argentines to snatch victory away from them. The English media insisted Argentina didn’t win the match, no. England lost the match. Of course, because Argentina has been coasting their way to the final. Oh well, they are in it and England are not. If it’s any consolation for the English, the Falkland islands are still theirs.

Argentina weren’t tested like the French were, a side who was and in my opinion still is the best team in this tournament. You see, the French had to face an awful Swedish side in the Round of 32, where they clocked them 3-0. Then they went on to face the mighty Paraguay side that beat Germany in one of the biggest flukes of all time and beat the South Americans 1-0. Morocco was next. A worthy opponent—the dark horses of 2022. But as history proves time and time again, dark horses rarely shine in the following World Cup. I am not saying Morocco is a bad team, but they had a horrible tournament and their exit match was one of the worst of the cup. And then they faced the Spaniards. A classic in the making; a proper rival. And they lost! Out, just like that. The French didn’t have a good game and were missing a little of that luck you need in these games. C’est la vie, mon freres. Also, credit to Spain. They have been excellent.

Conspiracies everywhere. The cup was rigged for the number one ranked team in the world (Argentina) to play the number two ranked team (Spain). The winner of the South American cup against the winner of the European cup. You mean to tell me the two highest ranked teams in the world made it to the World Cup final and will now face each other? Yes, it was rigged for sure.

All sarcasm aside, the reality is the world has changed since Pele and Platini and Maradona and even David Beckham played. We live in an international world where anyone can be anywhere within a day. Europe is still the place to go if you want to be a serious soccer player. This is true. And I don’t think that will ever change. Their soccer institutions are too embedded with history and capital and success. But who plays for these European clubs? Well, Europeans of course. But also South Americans, Africans, Asians and Middle Easterns. Look at any major club and read the names on the roster. I will bet you a small minority will actually come from the team’s nationality, be it English, French or Spanish. So there’s a lot of talent out there. Obviously this will translate onto the national stage as well. So no team is easy, especially in a competition where all it takes is one bad match and a single goal to potentially knock you out. Again, for my money, France was the best team on paper and I was sure they were going to win this World Cup. But lucky for me, matches aren’t played on paper, they’re played on the field.

I don’t think this Argentina squad has been the best team in this tournament. I don’t even think they were the second best. The 2022 squad was stronger than this one. But you know what this team has? Experience. Grit. A fighting spirit. And they don’t give up whether they are 1-0 down to England or 2-0 down to Egypt in the 78th minute. This team fights back and wins. They are warriors and they are being led by the greatest player the world has seen. And in case we’ve forgotten, they are the current world champions. In Argentina, they say: respeten los rangos. Respect the ranks. I concur. This team deserves respect. They have fought their way to this final and they deserve to be there as much as Spain does. Their games have been among the most exciting and emotional matches of the tournament. Their semifinal match against England was a classic. And today is poised to be a classic as well.

Spain should win this final. They are more organized, have only conceded one goal the entire cup and have a younger squad—not to mention they’ve had an extra day of rest. But I’m not going to write off La Scaloneta. I’m not going to dismiss this band of brothers that have united for a common cause: to lift that beautiful World Cup again and bring glory to their country. Anything can happen with this team. They could crash and burn and go out in a blaze of glory. Or they could win the whole thing after coming from behind. They’ve been doing it the whole tournament. I don’t know what’s going to happen today. But I do know this: Argentina is not going down without a fight. And in the end, they may pull off the seemingly impossible. They may be back-to-back world champions. They are already champions and have fulfilled one of my dreams in this life, which was to see Argentina lift the World Cup. I witnessed that four years ago in Qatar, and it is a memory which will live with me forever. Anything else they win going forward is icing on the cake. So thank you Scaloneta. Thank you for the joy you have brought after decades of heartbreak. Thank you Messi for having been born Argentine and having chosen to play for La Albiceleste and not Spain. Thank you, you band of warriors for bringing us to another World Cup final.

Vamos carajo.