Argentina 2018 Home
You can’t go far wrong with Argentina; their home template of the light blue and white stripes has been around for donkey’s years. Long term servants of Adidas, very little has changed here and very little needed to. Does feel a bit cheaper than I’d like and isn’t exactly innovative (even the black stripes on the shoulders first appeared in the early 2000’s) but it does what’s needed of it. At least, as a classic kit, it is more interesting than plain colour.
This is the World Cup 2018 kit, where Argentina fell in the knockout stages to eventual winners France. A topsy-turvy loss in the Round of 16 summed up their tournament nicely, with them being one of only 2 teams to advance with only 4 points. A draw with Iceland was followed by a 3-0 loss to Croatia, leaving them to reply on a late winner, by Marcus Rojo of all people, against Nigeria to barely advance. Defensive inadequacies and a surprisingly like of bite in the attack blunted them throughout.
Argentina need no introduction, having only failed in WCQ for the 1970 tournament (though they did not enter 1938, 1950 or 1954). They’ve twice won it and fallen at the final hurdle 3 times with them only failing to reach the knockout stages once since their failure to qualify in 1970. Despite a lack of Copa America titles since their 1993 triumph, they remain the second most successful team (though have lost more finals than anyone else too). In addition they have 3 medals from the Confederations Cup (1 title, 2 runners-up) and 7 titles (from 15 qualifications) from the Pan-American Games. They will remain one of the most successful teams in the world for some time, even if their performances start to slip.
Their women’s side has been less successful, but are still enviable. Champions of South America in 2006 and thrice runners-up, they’ve been to the World Cup 3 times, though never won a game. In the latest edition they had 2 draws, including a late comeback against Scotland and all their results were respectable. They’ve never emulated the men in their Pan American Games, but again a silver medal in 2019 isn’t anything to sniff at. The pattern continues in their youth sides with success remaining a theme throughout. On the men’s side there are 2 Olympic golds, 6 U20 World Cups and 3 U17 World bronzes along with numerous youth championships in South America (even down to the U15 level). The U20 women have 3 runners-up finishes in the continent and 3 group stage exist at World Cups while the U17s have two 4th place finishes to show continentally but no World Cup qualifications.
A string of medals also accompany their futsal side, though they often fall short against neighbours Brazil. 1 FIFA World Cup and two AMF titles, 2 Copa Americas (only once not won a medal in 12 attempts) as well as numerous medals across other competitions establish them as titans of the sport. Beach soccer, in contrast, is a little average. A 3rd pace in 2001 and a 4th in 1997 are the stand-out results but group stage exists are regular. They didn’t qualify for the 2017 or 2019 World Cups, though always being in the top 4 in South America isn’t exactly shameful.
Despite having not played any qualification games so far for 2022, they will be expected to qualify, no questions asked. 2018 was a struggle near the end and they did lose 6-1 to Bolivia in 2010 qualification but they’ve not fallen short in a long time.
Adam's National Shirt Collection 