Albiceleste win big – and learn little – in final pre-World Cup home friendlies

The latest international break is over for the defending World Cup champions. It brought two fresh victories to cheer and... anything else? It feels like barely two months away from the start of the party itself, these games should be useful for something other than beating up on the teams small and silly enough not to send Claudio ‘Chiqui’ Tapia's phone calls straight to voicemail, but as it is we are none the wiser over Argentina's chances of defending the title when they head up north in June.

It should be pointed out that this is not (all) Argentina's fault. Tapia was sent scrambling when geopolitical mayhem put the kibosh on the Finalissima against Spain – who would have been a worthy warm-up opponent. Though once again, the Argentine Football Association (AFA) did not exactly shine in the diplomatic field when it came to arranging an alternative venue.

With that game off the table, it was a case of finding the first country who would be prepared to fly to Buenos Aires on a couple of weeks' notice. 

Enter Mauretania, ranked 115th in the world and who finished fifth in their CAF World Cup qualification group, nestled between noted heavyweights Togo and Sudan and well out of the running. Unheralded stars like Jordan Lefort, Maata Magassa and Mamadou Diallo enjoyed the night of our lives in La Bombonera and came embarrassingly close to getting something from the game against an uninspired Albiceleste who looked to be going through the motions after a one-sided first half.

“It was really pretty bad. It was one of the worst friendlies we've played,” goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez, who let in a late goal from Lefort in Argentina's 2-1 win, lamented after the final whistle. “We lacked intensity, play, speed. We won, we didn't know much about the opponent and they played out of their skin. We need to show a little more heart.”

Martínez's withering comments did seem to galvanise his team when they came back out on Tuesday. Another African non-qualifier, this time Zambia (91st in the FIFA rankings) was up next in La Boca and Argentina were much more efficient in coming away with a 5-0 win. Julián Álvarez and Lionel Messi ended the game as a contest with goals in the first half and three more came after the break, via a surprise penalty from Nicolás Otamendi – a gift to mark his last game on Argentine soil – Valentín Barco and a Zambia own goal.

Two huge capacity Bombonera crowds got the chance to watch the world champions in action, and that was about it. Argentina had five games scheduled between the end of the World Cup qualifiers last year and the finals themselves and not one came against a potential opponent in the US, Mexico and Canada.

It cannot help but jar with those of us keen to see them go as far as possible in the tournament, even more so when you consider Uruguay's preparations included a friendly against England at Wembley last week and Brazil were put through their paces by France and Croatia, two of the four semi-finalists from the 2022 World Cup. 

Generally, you cannot fault the Albiceleste players, who continue to beat whomever is placed in front of them; it would just be nice to see AFA's fixture schedulers show the same ability and intelligence as the likes of Messi, Dibu and the rest of the reigning champions.