Argentina’s Dominance The Last 5 Years Can’t Be Overlooked – Yahoo Sports

Argentina’s dominance from 2021 to the present day is unprecedented. They have won nearly every major trophy imaginable in that time span. Let’s look back at this historic run, which is likely coming to an end.

Argentina’s Dominance: Every Title

The first title in this run came in 2021 when Lionel Messi and Argentina beat Brazil 1-0 in the Copa America final. That victory broke a 28-year major trophy drought. It was the victory that took the pressure off Messi, and it showed in his ensuing performances.

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In 2022, the team took on Italy in the Finalissima. The Finalissima is an intercontinental football match that features the winners of the Copa América and UEFA Euro. That year, it was Italy and Argentina.

Argentina ended up dominating Italy 3-0. This Argentine squad was peaking at the right time, with the 2022 World Cup just five months away. We all know what happened in Qatar.

Argentina, after losing their opening match, rattled off six straight victories, including the World Cup Final. They beat France in penalties after the match was knotted at 3-3 after 120 minutes. Messi had finally captured the elusive trophy that was missing from his collection.

Argentina’s dominance didn’t end there. Two years later, they were in the Copa America Final facing off against Colombia. They won 1-0 and officially became one of the greatest teams soccer had ever seen.

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The white and blue were on the verge of history in the 2026 World Cup. They almost became the first team to win two Copas and two WC titles back to back. Their streak, unfortunately, came to an end when they lost 1-0 to Spain in the World Cup final, ending their run at the final hurdle.

Lionel Scaloni’s Impact

Argentina’s dominance cannot be described without their manager, Lionel Scaloni. He took over a reeling Argentina squad that had their worst World Cup performance in the Messi era. They were knocked out in the Round of 16 in 2018, and Scaloni was hired in 2019.

From that moment on, it was nothing but success. Argentina won third place in the 2019 Copa tournament in Scaloni’s first year as manager. After that, it was nothing but success until the 2026 World Cup Final, as mentioned above.

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What Scaloni also deserves credit for is how Messi performed under his regime. In the four World Cups prior to Scaloni, Messi played in 19 matches and had just six goals.

In the two World Cups with Scaloni, the little magic man totaled 15 goals in 14 matches. What changed? An ESPN article written by Dharnish Iqbal highlights the dichotomy.

The article states that in the earlier tournaments, Messi relied solely on creating chances for himself and his teammates. Key statistics noted in the written piece were that he was responsible for 11.9% of his team’s progressive passes and 15.3% of the team’s progressive carries into the final third.

Those numbers dropped to 10.4% and 12.3%, respectively, in the 2026 World Cup. Under Scaloni, it was clear that they put less of the burden on Messi to generate everything on offense. That, as a result, has allowed him to get more touches in the box per game.

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In 2014 and 2018, Messi had 4.42 and 5.25 touches, respectively, per 90 min in the box. Those numbers jumped to 5.87 and 6.28 in 2022 and 2026. He didn’t have to work as hard to be in favorable scoring positions and, as a result, thrived in his later 30s.

It’s likely that Scaloni steps down from the job. He had an emotional press conference after the 1-0 defeat to Spain, talking about how difficult it will be to rebuild a team as he had from ’21 to ’26. If this is it for him, his tenure will be looked back on fondly.

End Of Argentina’s Dominance Rant

Argentina’s dominance from 2021-2026 is historic. It’s rare to see teams win a Copa, then win a World Cup and then win a Copa again. Their resume would have been untouchable with a second WC win, but it never happened. Even without the second one, no one can deny their greatness.

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Manager Scaloni came in 2019 and did as good a job as anyone could have done. He cleaned up the mess left behind by former manager Jorge Sampaoli and created a dynasty. He got the best out of Messi and deserves a lot of credit for the legend being able to produce as he did in his late 30s.

Sunday was likely the last time the world saw Argentina in their current form. From Messi likely stepping away from international football to Scaloni stepping down as manager, major changes seem to be coming soon.

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