A tale of two Martinez(s)
Both winners but their contributions are very different.
As the curtain closes on yet another World Cup, the final spotlight is aimed firmly at Lionel Messi.
Qatar have gotten what they wanted, a sporting moment so iconic that it almost (I say almost because the issues are still there and we see you), washes out all the issues that made this World Cup so problematic.
At the age of 35 and in his final game for the Argentinian national team, he has finally added the trophy to his cabinet and cemented his already resolute legacy.
Enough will be written about Messi, one of, if not the greatest player of all time, so I want to focus on some of the other players in this historic Argentina team; two in particular.
A pair that had the most significant effect on Argentina’s path to the final, a duo that influenced the team’s ebb and flow for better or for worse. They made the journey just as exciting as the conclusion.
And both of them are called Martinez.
Now as Carl Anka stated on Twitter, Argentina have too many Martinezs in their ranks. This makes writing an article like this quite difficult given the usual convention is to just use their last name after the first mention.
So to make this whole ordeal easier, I’m going to refer to them by their first names for the rest of this piece, Lautaro and Emiliano.
I would love to include Lisandro as well, but I don’t think he played enough to be listed alongside his name-mates. I will however take this opportunity to give an honourable mention to his block against Australia that saved Argentina’s blushes.
But let’s not delay any longer and start with the Martinez that didn’t paint himself in glory in Qatar.
Lautaro - Let’s just skip to the end
History will be kind to Lautaro.
The trophy lifted above Messi’s head, his (strangely) overwhelming presence in every team photo and the winner’s medal around his neck will be all that matters in 20-30 years when the player has retired and the discourse around Qatar 2022 (on the pitch) has been streamlined, but in terms of his reputation in the current day, I believe the striker has done irreparable damage.
Representing your team on the world stage can be the greatest honour bestowed on a footballer, but it can also be a curse when you find out that there is nowhere to hide.
Many fans of Serie A commented before the tournament about Lautaro’s penchant for only scoring in low-pressure scenarios, but by the time the whistle blew for full-time in the final, every single fan on earth was well aware of the footballer’s incredible ability to waste even the highest quality chances.
Argentina’s World Cup journey had its shaky points, especially their shock defeat to Saudi Arabia in their opener, and a lot of this came down to whether Lautaro was on the pitch.
In their game against Herve Renard’s side, it seemed like the 25-year-old had never learnt the offside rule as he wasted several opportunities for Argentina by going way too early.
At this point (if you weren’t already well aware of how he operated), you could have argued he was unlucky, and that the Saudi offside trap was just working to perfection.
But as the tournament rolled on, chance after chance dropped to his feet and inexplicably didn’t find their way into the net. Questions began to be asked:
‘How’s he not even hit the target from there?’
‘Why’s he hitting that straight at the keeper?’
‘How many more chances do you need Lautaro?’
So deep into extra-time against France when Lautaro was able to meet a cross in the air unchallenged, not a single person was surprised that he wasn’t even able to get it on target, not even the player himself.
His stock is well and truly in the gutter… six games, zero goals, zero assists, and numerous big chances missed. But every cloud has a silver lining (for Argentina anyway).
If Lautaro had been fine, for example scoring one or two goals, linking up well with his teammates and doing Messi’s pressing for him, then I doubt Lionel Scaloni would have dropped him from the starting lineup.
He would have then likely continued in his role before showing his true self against the Netherlands or Croatia when the stakes were so much higher.
But because he was truly awful, this paved the way for Julian Alvarez to usurp him as a starter and four goals later, including a crucial brace against Croatia, it seems like this was the right decision.
If Argentina had missed out on the trophy, Lautaro would have never been able to show his face on the streets of Buenos Aires (or anywhere else in the country for that matter) ever again.
Gonzalo Higuain was never able to live down his disastrous run in Brazil during the 2014 World Cup, and he at least scored and assisted a goal. Now retired, he was probably praying that no one would have to go through the torrent of abuse that nearly made him quit the sport again.
But luckily for Lautaro, while he was making things a lot harder for Argentina going forward, the Martinez at the other end of the pitch was having the tournament of his life.
Emiliano - Argentina’s Insurance Policy
If Messi was carrying Argentina on his shoulders, Emiliano was the man who stood right beside him gently pushing them back upright every time they looked like they were on the brink of falling off.
I’ve already waxed lyrical on Twitter about Emiliano’s exploits in the penalty shootout which delivered Argentina’s third World Cup. He may have only saved one but his mere presence affected the outcome.
And I also feel like his performance earlier in the tournament in a penalty shootout against the Netherlands is enough to convince fans of his pedigree.
His unfaltering confidence is carefully curated to make his opponent blink and second-guess their options.
But I think to just focus on the penalty shoot-out is disingenuous to how crucial Emiliano has been throughout this tournament. Whenever it looked like Argentina were about to finally falter and fall, he appeared alongside Messi and said ‘Need a hand?’
There are many instances of this happening, but two notable examples that I will point to are:
Round of 16 - In the final minutes, Argentina misjudge a cross and the ball finds 18-year-old Garang Kuol in the box, the forward turns brilliantly while controlling the ball but Emiliano notices the danger and rushes out panicking the attacker. The Australian tries to lash a shot near-post but the shot-stopper saves well. Argentina goes through without extra time.
Final - Again in the last minutes (this time in extra-time), Randal Kolo Muani breaks through clean on goal. His teammates are certain that he will score and some of the substitutes edge onto the field before he even takes the shot. Emiliano rushes out and makes himself as wide as possible and does the impossible; he saves it. The game goes to penalties and you know the rest.
If Lautaro wilts when you put him in the pressure cooker, Emiliano toughens up and becomes ever harder to overcome.
Football is a game of momentum and when your keeper is a madman who runs around claiming every cross and then distributing it as fast as possible for a counter-attack, your tempo stays incredibly high.
And when those chances come for your opposition to shift the momentum dramatically and change the flow of the game in their favour, there is nothing more inspiring than a goalkeeper that stops it from happening.
As Will Ferrell once said ‘it’s provocative, it gets the people going.’ The roar of the crowd combined with the sudden relief provides a rush of adrenaline like nothing else.
Emiliano may not be everyone’s cup of tea. His exaggerated cocky bravado combined with his tendency to wind opponents up can get on the wrong side of some fans (especially when he’s against you, as I found when Bruno Fernandes missed a penalty against him), but he is undeniably an *ahem* unique goalkeeper.
He’s not a truly exceptional talent and he can be on the wrong end of some truly eye-watering scorelines but in a high-pressure scenario, his temperament makes him invaluable.
And it is likely that for his performances in Qatar at the World Cup, he will go down in history as an Argentinian hero.
So that’s the end of the 2022 World Cup.
It’s been hard to figure out how to approach talking about this competition for many reasons. Firstly, it took a while to get going on the pitch which I think dismisses it from the greatest of all-time debate.
Secondly, this is my first World Cup as a journalist and a writer, so thank you all for following along with my coverage and supporting Played on Paper along the way.
But thirdly, as you probably expected, it’s hard to get excited about the World Cup with all that occurred behind the scenes to make it happen.
The first World Cup in the Middle East should have been a historic occasion for a global tournament, but its legacy has been marred by corruption, death and controversy.
It didn’t need to happen this way, but unfortunately, it did. And it feels disingenuous to just not mention it even after we have seen one of the greatest finals in the history of the competition (or any competition) because then Qatar succeeded in their attempts at sports washing.
So congrats to Argentina, to Lionel Messi and all the Martinezs, but let’s not forget the thousands of migrant workers who died to make this happen and the countless others who suffered along the way.
I’m going to take a couple of weeks off now for Christmas, but Played on Paper should be back in the new year with more coverage of all that’s happening in the world of football (aka I’ve not decided on what subjects I want to talk about yet).
See you all soon.
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I was very sad when Emiliano left Arsenal. I’m very happy for his success at international level!