Towards a more cynical, tougher game: History of Argentina football (Part 3)

In the 1940s, Argentina won four of the six editions of the Campeonato Sudamericano (in 1949, AFA didn’t send a team), and they would continue to be one of the best performing sides on the continent the following decade. One of the best tournament performances by an Argentine national side came in the 1957 Campeonato Sudamericano. They went undefeated through the tournament until they lose in the last game – against the rest of the continent (i.e. Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay) they achieved a combined score of 26-6.

Re-organization

After the 1958 meltdown in Sweden a new coaching staff and with Victorio Spinetto as head coach were installed, and almost an entirely new player squad was constructed. Once again, Argentina performed at top when they played in on home soil in Campeonato Sudamericano – they finished first, one point ahead of Brazil.

Although blamed by some for adopting anti-fútbol, Victorio Spinetto, gave the team a new tactical direction. When Argentina played the next world cup, Spinneto, had however, already been replaced by Juan Carlos Lorenzo, also him associated with pragmatic and defensive play.

Jonathan Wilson writes in Angels with Dirty Faces that “in the 1960s Argentinian soccer became tougher and more cynical, the outlook more defensive”, and here also referring to the national club football.

Argentina did qualify to the 1962 World Cup in Chile.  Brazil would win the tournament whereas Argentina failed to progress from the group with a very small margin to England.

For years later, Argentina did qualify together with three other Comnebol members to participate in 1966 World Cup in England. The preparations had been disturbed by the military coup that happened just a month before the final tournament and by the fact that a new coach, Juan Carlos Lorenzo, suddenly had been appointed. The players didn’t get along with Lorenzo concerning the playing system which was further damaging. Also, the players were surprised by discovering that the ball to be used in the tournament was not the same as the model they had been used in the training.