\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t Argentine men\u2019s national football team head coach Lionel Scaloni spoke about his team\u2019s mentality after securing the ticket to the 2026 World Cup final, and he was adamant they \u201cdon\u2019t feel the burden of responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Albiceleste came back from behind to beat England 2-1 in the semifinals, reaching its second consecutive World Cup final, a result Scaloni is thrilled to share with the fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope they can enjoy it,\u201d he said. \u201cFans ought to thank these players, because this is a team that is hard to explain with words.\u201d<\/p>\n
The head coach said the performance against England was a \u201cshow of camaraderie, brotherhood and determination to fight \u2018til the end,\u201d one that he admits makes him emotional at times.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we\u2019re against the odds, they play their best. And when that happens, and the rival hesitates, they smell blood and go all in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Scaloni said it\u2019s hard for him to compare this result to the win in the 1986 World Cup quarters, where Argentina beat England 2-1 with two goals by Diego Maradona, the infamous \u201chand of god\u201d and the \u201cgoal of the century.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was too young back then,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we thought what we did against Egypt was impossible to repeat, and this has outdone it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trusting the players The Albiceleste head coach admitted it has been a tough World Cup, but insisted that everything is easier when the ball is rolling.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe worst moment was before confirming the squad,\u201d he said.\u201dWe had to trust the players that they\u2019d recover physically, and once we did that, that was the turning point.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scaloni is adamant that, having asked the coaching staff to trust them, players like Cristian Cuti Romero, Juli\u00e1n \u00c1lvarez, and others who arrived at the tournament with nagging injuries go out thinking they \u201ccan\u2019t let their teammates down\u201d after asking to be part of the squad.<\/p>\n
\u2018It made us stronger as a team,\u201d said the coach. \u201cWe knew we were who we were and we were going to go all in.\u201d<\/p>\n
The head coach insisted that his players don\u2019t feel the pressure and the \u201cweight of responsibility\u201d for representing Argentina in such high-stakes moments as a World Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know them, and I know they\u2019re wild people, in the best sense of the word,\u201d he said. \u201cThey grew up in places where they weren\u2019t scared of anything, where they were always the best around, and where they had heavy expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scaloni says his team has understood that they have to \u201cgive it all while the match is being played, because after the final whistle you can\u2019t do anything about it,\u201d and that it makes him proud.<\/p>\n
Asked about his relationship with Luis de la Fuente, the Spanish head coach who\u2019ll be his opposite number in the final \u2014 under whom he studied to become a coach \u2014\u00a0 the Albiceleste coach said they have a \u201cgood relationship\u201d because he admires the Spaniard\u2019s coaching style.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s done a brilliant job leading his team, and I\u2019m happy for him,\u201d he said. \u201cOn Sunday \u2014 I\u2019m sorry \u2014 we\u2019re going to try to beat them, but I have the utmost respect for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cover image: Selecci\u00f3n Argentina twitter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Argentine men\u2019s national football team head coach Lionel Scaloni spoke about his team\u2019s mentality after securing the ticket to the 2026 World Cup final, and he was adamant they \u201cdon\u2019t feel the burden of responsibility.\u201d The Albiceleste came back from behind to beat England 2-1 in the semifinals, reaching its second consecutive World Cup final, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":90968,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5063,69,66,5309,67,339],"tags":[5307,6040,1368,5308,1369,3576],"class_list":["post-90967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-2026-world-cup","category-argentina-mens-national-football-team","category-football","category-lionel-scaloni","category-sports","category-world-cup-2026","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-argentina-mens-national-football-team","tag-football","tag-lionel-scaloni","tag-sports","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}