Argentina (National Football)

Argentina's hopes of qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup received a significant boost on Thursday when they beat Chile 2-1 in Santiago.

The win moves them level on points with Paraguay in third place of the South American qualifying group, but it was a win attained without a significant contribution from star man Lionel Messi.

The Barcelona superstar failed to have a single shot in the game, ending a run of 117 matches in which he had at least taken a shot, on target or otherwise.

With three valuable points in the bag, it's a stat that's unlikely to worry head coach Gerardo Martino, but Argentina will be hoping for more from Messi in the coming rounds.

[Twitter]

Angel Di Maria's redemption among the footballing public continued on Thursday night as his goal inspired a 2-1 comeback victory for Argentina.

Trailing 1-0 to Chile in 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying, the Paris Saint-Germain man scored this great goal after 19 minutes, before Gabriel Mercado grabbed what turned out to be the winner five minutes later.

El gol de Gabriel Mercado (@GabeMadryn) para poner el #Argentina 2-1 #Chile @PasionSeleccion. pic.twitter.com/bB1A9iOfVd

— Sintonía de Gol (@SintoniaDeGol16) March 25, 2016

The result pushes Argentina into fourth in CONMEBOL qualifying, though Brazil could overtake them with victory over Uruguay on Friday.

[h/t Talking Baws]

You know you're a hard man to get hold of when even the president of the United States can't arrange a meeting.

President Barack Obama was in Argentina this week with his teenage daughters, Malia and Sasha. And while they were able to meet one famous individual, another eluded them.

"I also wanted to bring my daughters here so they could see the beauty and the vibrancy of [Buenos Aires]," Obama said, per Oliver Platt of Goal.com. "They've already met one famous [Argentinian]—His Holiness Pope Francis. Now they want to meet [Lionel] Messi, but I could not arrange that."

The Barcelona superstar is with the Argentina squad ahead of a World Cup qualifier in Chile on Thursday. The team then return home to host Bolivia on Tuesday.

If only the president could have made the trip a week later!

[h/t Goal]

The first four rounds of World Cup qualifying were not kind to Argentina. With just one win and five points, the Albiceleste started on the back foot in the race to reach Russia 2018.

No need to panic, though. Lionel Messi is back.

Messi, the iconic, free-scoring superstar striker for Barcelona, is set to return to Argentina's lineup after eight months away. His last appearance for his country came in July 2015, before a knee injury sidelined him for much of last fall. Now that he's back, Argentina will be hoping to kick-start their flagging qualification campaign.

While Barcelona survived—even thrived—in his absence, Argentina toiled. Matchday 1 saw the Albiceleste slip to a surprising 2-0 defeat at home to Ecuador, and a scoreless draw at Paraguay followed five days later.

After playing to a creditable 1-1 stalemate with Brazil, Gerardo Martino's men won by a single goal at Colombia on Matchday 4, with Lucas Biglia's first-half strike enough to claim all three points.

One doesn't have to be an expert in advanced statistics to recognize a pattern. With just two goals scored in four qualifiers, Argentina are struggling in the attacking third.

Enter Messi, who's enjoying a typically stellar season at Barcelona. Despite missing significant time with that knee injury, the 28-year-old has tallied 37 goals in 38 games in all competitions for the Blaugrana. In addition, he's dished out 18 assists, making him directly responsible for 55 goals in one way or another (stats via TransferMarkt.com).

For Argentina, then, relief comes in flea-sized doses.

"It's a relief that Leo is with us," Sergio Aguero told Ole (h/t beIN Sports). "It's always great to play with him. We consider him a crucial player."

After so many years of Messi weaving his magic, that much is obvious. But if you need a reminder, consider La Pulga's recent form. In his last five Liga matches, Messi has notched seven goals and four assists. And in the UEFA Champions League, he netted three times over two legs against Arsenal in the round of 16, helping Barca knock out the Gunners comfortably on aggregate.

That kind of production is a big reason—though Uruguay's Luis Suarez and Brazil's Neymar are two others—why Barcelona are in position to replicate their three-trophy haul from last season. At international level, though, the situation is quite different for Messi.

After losing to Chile on penalties in last year's Copa America final, Argentina have struggled. Points and goals are at a premium, and Messi will have to be at his best to put the Albiceleste back in position to qualify.

Aguero added: "It's a tough situation because Argentina is accustomed to being at the top, but each time it's more difficult because there are many countries that are improving."

Clearly. Ecuador are the surprise leaders atop the CONMEBOL table with a 100 percent record through four matches. Traditional powers like Argentina and Colombia, meanwhile, are mired in the bottom half.

The top four teams qualify automatically, with the fifth-placed team advancing to an inter-confederation play-off to determine another berth. As it stands, just four points separate fifth place from ninth.

Fortunately for Argentina, CONMEBOL qualifying is a marathon rather than a sprint. Fully 14 matches remain on the fixture list, meaning Martino's men have plenty of time to right the ship.

The first item on the agenda is Thursday night's match in Santiago, where hosts Chile will be hoping to kick-start their own campaign. La Roja are currently fifth, five points off the top of the table, and a win over a big-name opponent like Argentina would give new coach Juan Antonio Pizzi a solid foundation on which to build his tenure.

Argentina, meanwhile, will be aiming for a breakout offensive performance with Messi back in the lineup. Although the team's production has been poor lately, the roster hardly lacks for talent. In addition to Messi and Aguero, Martino has at his disposal star attackers like Napoli's Gonzalo Higuain, Paris Saint-Germain's Angel Di Maria and Juventus' Paulo Dybala.

But it's Messi's presence that will be most critical. With a single touch, the five-time Ballon d'Or winner can change any game at any moment. Now, Argentina will be hoping he'll show it.

It's the season for new kit launches.

And Argentina have become the latest team to unveil their new shirt by revealing a classy new number by Adidas, which will be worn at the Copa America Centenario this summer.

The understated new kit was modelled below by Lucas Biglia, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Angel Di Maria and Angel Correa, alongside Barcelona superstar and five-time Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi.

The group are in training for the nation's upcoming friendlies against Chile and Bolivia over the next eight days.

La nueva camiseta se la Selección @Argentina. ¡VAMOS ARGENTINA! pic.twitter.com/5ANZcspoNI

— Team Lionel Messi (@teamLionelmessi) March 22, 2016

Argentina will kick off their Centenario campaign against the 2015 Champions, Chile, on June 7.

[h/t Footy Headlines]

This will make Barcelona and Lionel Messi fans nervous and indeed supporters of any teams with a top Argentine player. 

Argentina take on Bolivia at the Mario Kempes Stadium in Cordoba on 29 March, and the pitch, to put it mildly, does not look great. 

Goal.com's Oliver Platt explained why the surface is in such a state: 

The venue was selected for the 2018 World Cup qualifier in February but has since hosted an Iron Maiden concert, with predictable consequences for the state of the pitch.

Despite the damage done, two domestic matches - the first of which, between Talleres and Instituto, took place just two days after the concert - have also taken place at the stadium in the lead-up to the international break.

With league titles and the Champions League still up for grabs, the likes of Messi, Sergio Aguero and Angel Di Maria will all be hoping they don't get injured while on international duty. 

[Twitter, Goal.com]

Video: Messi pancake #fcblive [@lobshots via @messiquote] pic.twitter.com/D9NJ6DdqdG

— barcastuff (@barcastuff) February 12, 2016

A treat depicting Barcelona's Lionel Messi has gone viral following Pancake Day on Tuesday .

Brady Phelps, who describes himself on Twitter as a "storyteller [and] pancake artist," has created pancakes of some of the world's best athletes, a catalogue of which can be viewed on his Instagram account.

But the Messi creation by Phelps, whose efforts have also helped raise over $50,000 for charity, did the rounds recently thanks to being a brilliantly accurate edible depiction of the five-time Ballon d'Or winner wearing the blue and white of Argentina.

Anybody else hungry?

[Brady Phelps: Twitter, Instagram]

There is still a long way to go. Argentina have 15 games to put right their World Cup qualifying campaign, but three games in, they lie second bottom of the CONMEBOL standings with just two points and one goal.

They have Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, Carlos Tevez, Pablo Zabaleta and Ezequiel Garay all to return—although not before Tuesday’s game against Colombia—so there is reason to believe that things will improve, but equally it’s only natural that there should be a level of concern. And that means that pressure is mounting on the coach, Gerardo Martino.

Argentina were the better side in Friday’s 1-1 draw against Brazil at El Monumental, but as so often in the recent past, they paid for a lack of incisiveness.

In another context, the draw could be written off as one of those things, but after a home defeat to Ecuador—who, surprisingly, lead qualifying with three wins from three games—and a draw in Paraguay, it represents a significant missed opportunity.

A defiant Martino said at his post-match press conference:

The draw against Brazil gives us a positive outlook for the future, but we can’t fail to see that we have two points out of nine.

Colombia at home won’t play the same game as Brazil. Yes, we will try to control the game but I understand that this is going to be a team that attacks us much more.

In the dressing room, the boys know what kind of game they played, that our opponent attacked once and achieved the draw. We didn’t get the result we deserved. We know the way to what we’re searching for and the league table doesn’t change our vision.

The oddity is that it feels that, generally speaking, Argentina are in a far healthier position than Brazil, whose football since Dunga took charge after the World Cup has been largely joyless.

Neymar, around whom the World Cup side was built, was noticeably quiet on Friday on his return after a four-game ban for his red card and subsequent protests in the Copa America group game against Colombia.

Brazil were dreadful in that tournament, squeaking through to the quarter-final, where they were largely outplayed by Paraguay before losing on penalties. There’s no great evidence of any improvement since then, even if circumstance has at least begun to reduce the over-reliance on Neymar.

Argentina, meanwhile, after a scruffy start in Chile, caught light in the quarter-final with a penalty shoot-out win over Colombia that did little justice to how well they’d played, before a 6-1 demolition of Paraguay.

The lack of cutting edge that has been such a problem for so long—and a mystifying one given the attacking resources available to them—came back to haunt them in the final, a 0-0 draw against Chile and penalty shoot-out defeat. It’s the potential of the forward line that Martino must unlock.

The one major positive of qualifying so far has been the form of Everton’s Ramiro Funes Mori, who has played the last two matches and looked excellent. Garay’s absence may, in that sense, have been an unexpected bonus.

However, the problem still is turning possession into chances, finding a way of unleashing a forward line that, even with the injuries, remains formidable.

Gonzalo Higuain has been in fine form for Napoli this season, scoring nine goals in 12 games, but his international performances always seem haunted by the major chance he missed in the World Cup final—something confounded by an even worse miss in the Copa America final and his subsequent failure from the penalty spot.

Ezequiel Lavezzi, who scored the goal against Brazil, always works hard although not necessarily with great focus. And there’s always a sense with Angel Di Maria that he may be better playing deeper with the national team so he can burst into space ahead of him.

Perhaps the biggest criticism of Martino, though, is how rarely his substitutions make a positive contribution to the game, something that was apparent during the Copa America.

In both the draws against Paraguay and Brazil, he brought on Erik Lamela, Paulo Dybala and Nicolas Gaitan. On neither occasion did it make much difference, and the repetition suggested these might perhaps be pre-programmed moves rather than responses to the way the game was going.

Martino has spoken of having to win in Colombia, but that is more a matter of perception and holding off his critics than a necessity in terms of qualification. Argentina may be ninth, but they’re only two points behind Brazil in fourth.

Here, perhaps, the order of fixtures plays a part.

Previously, the fixtures in CONMEBOL qualifying had followed a set order, and as Sergio Levinsky argued in Issue 18 of The Blizzard, the feeling was that that favoured the big three of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.

The decision to randomise the order this time round is a sign of the rising power of the rest, Chile and Colombia in particular. To be asked to play Brazil at home and then Colombia away in the space of five days—or, as it turned out because of the 24-hour postponement of last week’s game, four days—is tough. (Then again, if Argentina hadn’t messed up the ostensibly easier pair of Ecuador at home and Paraguay away, it wouldn’t matter so much).

Luis Segura, the president of the Argentinian Football Association, has issued a half-hearted statement of support for Martino, but that could change with a poor result in Barranquilla.

AFA’s presidential elections are scheduled for December, and the last thing Segura will want is to be burdened by association with a failing coach. Significantly, Segura’s rival in that election, the television host and producer Marcelo Tinelli, has made no statement at all about the coaching position.

Four years ago, Argentina also faced Colombia in Barranquilla in their fourth game after a stuttering start to qualifying. Then, they won 2-1 to restore morale and set Argentina on their way to topping the group. Now, they must do the same.

The difference is that this time they’ll have to do it without the two goalscorers that day, Messi and Aguero.

Striker Carlos Tevez has been ruled out of Argentina's crucial World Cup qualifier against Brazil on Thursday because of a knee injury.

Continue for updates.

Tevez Adds to Argentina Injury Woes 

Wednesday, Nov. 11

The Argentina FA (via ESPN FC) provided further detail on the Boca Juniors star's condition, also confirming that he would miss the Albiceleste's clash with Colombia on Nov. 17:

The forward is carrying a muscle strain and a sprain in his left knee and as a result will not start in either of the two next qualifiers. Carlitos, who was present yesterday in training but did not carry out any activities, was once more at the Julio Humberto Grondona complex but again did not participate in exercises. He left the squad to continue recovery in his club, Boca.

He joined a growing list of key players absent for the two vital qualifiers, with attacking duo Sergio Aguero and Lionel Messi also set to be absent.

Having picked up just one point from the opening two matches of their qualifying campaign for World Cup 2018, Argentina desperately need a decent return against two of their toughest competitors in CONMEBOL. 

Tevez's absence will be a big blow for coach Gerardo Martino, but the likes of Gonzalo Higuain, Paulo Dybala and Ezequiel Lavezzi can all provide decent cover.

The 31-year-old Tevez recently won the Argentine Primera Division with Boca, scoring five goals in 12 appearances after returning to his boyhood club from Juventus in June, per WhoScored.com.