After Argentina defeated Brazil 1-0 in the Copa América final at the Maracanã, the Argentine Football Association director praised the work of the Argentine coaching staff.
César Luis Menotti, world champion coach in 1978 and currently in the position of director of AFA National Teams, spoke on TNT Sports Argentina (via AS) about the performance of coach Lionel Scaloni, responding to criticism about his appointment and his work.
The AFA director spoke about the victory against Brazil and discusses that this trophy is for those Argentine players who have suited up for the national team but haven’t been able to lift a trophy since 1993.
“The title is the end of a search. You have to see how you get it. You get a title by chance. There were titles that did not even serve to go to the corner and others that were not titles and were very important for Argentine football. So many mistakes were made that they weren’t even intentional, but because of disorganization within the project.”
Menotti touched on that having Lionel Messi in the starting eleven wasn’t enough on previous attempts, and it takes a collective group effort to secure an international trophy.
“Messi can help a lot to improve the quality, but many times it is a collective effort. Football is like an orchestra, like tango: four bandoneons, four violins … As (Osvaldo) Pugliese said, the only secret of music is the rehearsal,” Menotti said.
“They rehearsed four hours a day. You have to find and generate days and hours of rehearsal; you don’t build a team with only good players. Messi is as important as a good goalkeeper; if your goalkeeper lacks his hands, you’re lost.”
Argentina will hope to take this momentum into their FIFA World Cup qualifying fixtures and hope it results in a deep run in Qatar next year.
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