Argentina's World Cup Journey: Balancing Continuity and Change

Argentina arrive in Kansas City looking much the same as they did in Qatar, but the calendar tells a different story.

Seventeen of the 26 players who delivered the World Cup three-and-a-half years ago are back together at their new base in the American Midwest. Ten of the XI who started the final against France remain on the books; only Ángel Di María, now retired from international duty after bowing out as Player of the Match in the 2024 Copa America final, is missing from that group.

It is the kind of continuity most national coaches can only dream about. For Lionel Scaloni, it has been the foundation of an era.

A golden core… and a ticking clock

Sixteen players from Argentina’s 2021 Copa America triumph are still here. Brazil, by comparison, have retained just 11 from their squad of five years ago in North America, three of them goalkeepers. England, runners-up at Euro 2020, have kept only nine.

Argentina, then, are the outlier: a national team that has barely changed while the rest of the elite have churned and refreshed. That stability has forged what players and staff routinely describe as a brotherhood. It has also created an unavoidable question.

Has this group got one more run in it?

Nine members of Scaloni’s squad are now on the “wrong” side of 30. That list includes pillars such as Emiliano Martínez, Rodrigo De Paul and, of course, Lionel Messi, who will turn 39 during what will be a record sixth World Cup.

At the other end of the age spectrum, the future is present but thin. Only Giuliano Simeone, Valentín Barco and Nico Paz are under 25. High-profile youngsters such as Franco Mastantuono and Alejandro Garnacho have been left at home. The squad’s average age has climbed beyond 29, and the miles in those legs tell their own tale.

Three seasons without a breather

The trophies have piled up. So have the minutes.

On top of Copa America 2024, 11 members of this Argentina group also played at last summer’s Club World Cup. For some, that means three straight seasons of football with barely a pause.

Since the start of the 2024-25 campaign, Enzo Fernández and Julián Álvarez have each played 121 matches for club and country. It is an extraordinary workload. Álvarez had to be carefully managed through the final weeks of Atlético Madrid’s season due to an ankle issue. Fernández, at 25, still looks in prime physical condition, but no midfielder runs that much without eventually paying a price.

Alexis Mac Allister offers a warning. The Liverpool man skipped the Club World Cup, yet he has still racked up 119 appearances over the past two seasons. His form has dipped sharply. He is expected to start Argentina’s opener against Algeria at Arrowhead Stadium on Tuesday, but his domestic performances over the last nine months suggest Scaloni may not be able to indulge a slow start.

During Liverpool’s defeat to Manchester City in February, former winger Jermaine Pennant voiced what many fans had started to feel. Speaking to TalkSport after criticising Mac Allister on social media, he said: “After your injury in pre-season, you’ve come back a shadow of what you are; it seems like your legs have gone. In that [City] game, he was literally a bystander, he didn’t really get into it at all and that’s what I touched on, it was an observation.”

The numbers, and the eye test, point in the same direction: this is a squad that has been pushed to the limit.

Scaloni stays loyal

Scaloni, though, is not blinking.

Seven of the starters from Lusail are expected to be in the XI again against Algeria. That figure might have reached 10 had Álvarez, Nicolás Tagliafico and Nahuel Molina not arrived with minor injuries.

Cristian Romero, Nicolás Otamendi, Fernández, De Paul, Mac Allister and Messi are all set to reprise their roles. Lautaro Martínez, fresh from winning the Golden Boot at Copa America 2024, will step in for Álvarez up front.

It is the core that has delivered everything: Copa America, Finalissima, World Cup, another Copa. This is a team that knows how to suffer, how to close, how to win. The doubt is not about their character. It is about whether Scaloni can afford to keep rolling the same dice.

Does he dare to break up a winning band to give Argentina a better chance of going deep again?

You can see his instincts in one selection decision at left-back. With Tagliafico sidelined, the natural assumption would be that Barco, who has impressed in recent friendlies, steps in.

The Strasbourg left-sider, widely expected to join Chelsea this summer, has scored in two of Argentina’s last three games, often operating slightly higher up the pitch. By trade he is a left-back, and at 21 he offers the kind of energy and thrust that could jolt an ageing side into a higher tempo down that flank.

Scaloni is leaning the other way. Lisandro Martínez is set to get the nod to deal with Algeria’s veteran talisman Riyad Mahrez. The Manchester United defender is more secure defensively than Barco, but his centre-back instincts mean he is unlikely to surge forward with the same abandon.

On the right, youth is being used out of necessity rather than design. Simeone is expected to start at right-back, a role that is far from natural to him, while Molina and Gonzalo Montiel continue their recoveries. Simeone will hold the fort until one or both are ready for more than cameo minutes.

Nico Paz, the live wire waiting on the bench

The most intriguing fault line between old and new runs through the centre of the pitch, and through Nico Paz.

The 21-year-old has lit up Serie A over the past two seasons with Como, learning under Cesc Fàbregas and driving a remarkable rise. This past campaign he scored 13 goals and supplied seven assists, propelling Como to a fourth-place finish and Champions League qualification just a year after promotion in 2024. The league named him Best Midfielder at its end-of-season awards. Real Madrid are widely expected to activate a buy-back clause in his contract this summer.

Paz plays with a different rhythm. He sees passes early, takes risks in possession, carries the ball into dangerous spaces. His fearless, attacking profile stands in stark contrast to the more laboured, conservative displays Mac Allister has produced of late.

He is likely to start this World Cup on the bench, partly because of a minor knee issue he has been managing. But if Argentina’s midfield looks heavy or predictable, Scaloni will face a familiar crossroads.

He has been here before. In Qatar, he turned to a then-21-year-old Fernández midway through the group stage, a bold change that altered the course of the tournament. His loyalty to the players who have delivered for him is understandable, even admirable. To make it four trophies from four major tournaments, though, he may need to be ruthless.

The path will not be kind.

A brutal road and one last dance?

If Argentina top Group J ahead of Algeria, Austria and Jordan, they will face the runners-up from Group H in the round of 32 – potentially Spain, more likely Uruguay. Win that, and a last-16 tie against the runners-up from either Group D (currently Australia) or Group G (likely one of Belgium, Egypt or Iran) should be manageable on paper.

From the quarter-finals onwards, the picture changes.

Portugal are the current favourites to emerge on the opposite side of that bracket, raising the prospect of a Messi vs Cristiano Ronaldo showdown in the last eight, almost certainly their final World Cup meeting.

By then, Scaloni will need to know exactly what his best team looks like – not the side that won in 2022, but the one that can win in 2026. That may mean trusting Barco’s legs over a veteran’s nous. It may mean unleashing Paz to shake up a tired midfield. It may mean telling one or two of his World Cup heroes that their roles have changed.

Messi’s farewell deserves a stage worthy of his career. Whether it is lit by the same old faces, or by a new generation stepping into the light around him, will depend on how brave Scaloni is willing to be in the weeks ahead.