The ball flies cheerfully from side to side. It is far from touching the neat grass of the main court of Complex 2 of the property of the AFA in Ezeiza. From Leo’s left boot to Rodri’s head and from there to Paredes’ chest and then from his instep back to Messi. Suddenly, the captain’s left foot gives him a devilish effect and when Gio Lo Celso tries to control it, it slips and hits the floor. The Betis player sees it coming, turns around and receives a few friendly kicks in the rear as a token. Whoever falls loses, they play Lionel Messi, Rodrigo De Paul, Leandro Paredes and Giovani Lo Celso to warm up in the last practice before facing Peru in the candy box.
Far from getting frustrated, Lo Celso picks up the ball and puts it back into orbit. And there it goes again. Because if Scaloneta is an expert at anything, it is trying again, a thousand times more. Therefore, beyond the fact that it may fall, the team he directs Lionel Scaloni He always wants to get up quickly so as not to lose the line and continue at his best, winning everything, leading everything. It is the hallmark of the world champion and two-time American champion team, which is facing the challenge of recovering after Thursday’s hard loss to Paraguay by 2 to 1, with the extra seasoning that this time will put the first place in the FIFA ranking at stake. who reigns since April 6, 2023.
If they do not beat Jorge Fossati’s Peru, Argentina will drop from first place after 601 days, starting with the next update that will happen on November 27. It is something that does not keep Scaloni up at night, although it would be an indicator of the ups and downs in the results of the last year. “I’m not worried any more than I was worried about being first. The statistics are there. The important thing is to win tomorrow (for this Tuesday),” said the coach when asked about the risk of giving up this throne.
At the moment, Argentina has 1,862.36 pointsjust three more than France (1859.79), which climbed after beating Italy on Sunday in the UEFA Nations League, while Spain (1,848.76) continues to rise after beating Denmark. La Scaloneta is obliged to beat Peru. A tie would make it fall to second place because it would have 1,854 units, so it would be surpassed by France. If they lose, they would fall to 1,842 points, so they would also be below Spain.
The scoring system that FIFA has used since 2018 depends on historical results, a ranking depending on the position in the ranking of rivals and also World Cup participations, among other items. Beyond Scaloni lowering the price, ranking is important why, at the time of the draw for each World Cupthe best placed are seeded and avoid more difficult rivals in the early stages.
The challenge is double for the National Team in its last presentation of the year. Recover and stay at the top. With a win you will kill two birds with one stone. In his favor he has that so far in this very successful cycle, he has always gotten up immediately after every setback. It happened to him in Qatar after the debut with a defeat. It happened to him when he lost to Bielsa’s Uruguay in these Qualifiers and then achieved a victory at the Maracaná. It happened to them when they lost in Barranquilla and then achieved a draw with Venezuela and a win with Bolivia.
“I prefer not to lose so I don’t have to regain my self-esteem. But there are ways and means to lose. Except for the defeat against Arabia, which we did not expect, most of the time the team gave a good feeling. Losing knowing that the opponent was superior is not the same as losing knowing that we did what we had to do. The defeat reinforces the message a little and the message is that the team has to follow this line. We have to know what can be lost. It is part of life and football to recover. Losing, from time to time it is good to see how the team reacts,” Scaloni reflected when asked by Clarín.
There goes the Scaloneta again to try to keep the ball from falling, to overcome it and continue flying at the top.