Leo Messi, Jorge Sampaoli and Argentina's bittersweet symphony playing out all over again

They hired a coach for his style but what they need now is results - Argentinean football is once again stuck in an ideological hall of mirrors

Sampaoli has much to ponder ahead of a must-win game in Buenos Aires (AFP/Getty)

While the source is unknown, it is believed to have been a South American diplomat who first remarked that Argentines are “Italians, who speak Spanish, act French, and think they are British.”

And it is an almost perfect description, though fairly specific to Porteños from Buenos Aires.

These wonderful people are a frightfully particular breed and they are loud, they gesticulate wildly and love to complain. They love the things you’d expect – the fútbol, the steak, the wine – but also the things you might not expect.

Argentina is the biggest per-capita consumer of sweets in the entire world, but as much as Argentina loves those caramelos, it loves bitterness.

Fernet Branca is the nation’s alcoholic drink of choice, a dark, herbal aperitif mixed with coke to take the harsh edge off. Mate, the nation’s hot drink of choice and more of a ritual than a beverage, has made amargo (bitter) almost a byword for ‘good’.

It’s a curious juxtaposition and one that only becomes clear over time. Argentina is a country where everything appears to be divided by extremes like that, particularly in politics but most of all in the things that actually matter – like football.

Few countries have such a deeply-engrained ideological war over their football as Argentina does and this comes down to the two schools of Bilardismo and Menottismo.

It is a battle for the soul of Argentine football that is superbly broken down in Jonathan Wilson’s Angels with Dirty Faces (Orion, 2016) at far greater length than possible here, but fundamentally there is first the idea of Cesar Luis Menotti, a chain-smoking liberal thinker who believed in beautiful football and described his players as “privileged interpreters of the dreams and feelings” of the country. Under him Argentina won the 1978 World Cup.

Cesar Luis Menotti was all about style (Getty)

Then there is Carlos Bilardo’s school of football, perceived as winning at all costs at the expense of aesthetics – though with the considerable boost of having Diego Maradona in his team – and which won Argentina the 1986 World Cup.

Very roughly drawing a line, River Plate have tended to believe in the ‘right’ way of playing whereas working class rivals Boca Juniors have been a side more willing to rough it in order to win. The reality is that most teams have wavered from one to the other over time and the national team is included in that.

One of the great knocks on the last few Argentina coaches has been that they didn’t ‘play’ but they got results. And yet with their qualification hopes on a knife-edge Argentina are suddenly wondering about their wisdom.

Carlos Bilardo celebrates winning the 1986 World Cup (Getty)

Jorge Sampaoli is a blue-chip coach who has brought stylish play and success to both Chile and Sevilla in recent years, but his first few games in charge of his own national team haven’t quite gone to plan - and suddenly the country is once again consumed by the need to win, rather than seduce.

This means scheduling the crunch qualifier with Peru for La Bombonera, an intimidating ground that rarely sees international fixtures. It also means a peculiar-looking Argentina XI that Sampaoli is trusting to secure the most important result of his career.

Gabriel Mercado, Marcos Acuña, Leandro Paredes and Papu Gomez aren’t exactly household names around the world, as you’d expect for an Argentine XI, but they will start against the resurgent Peruvians. So too – ahead of Gonzalo Higuaín, Mauro Icardi, Paulo Dybala and the injured Sergio Aguero – will Dario Benedetto, a 27-year-old journeyman who has never played outside the Americas.

Dario Benedetto of Boca will start this huge game for Argentina (Getty)

Dybala caused controversy with his comments that “it is hard to play with Messi” but the words themselves are not why he has been dropped. The real reason is because what he said is completely true.

Messi is the most important player in this team and the superstar but some players, given only brief international breaks to work with the Barcelona man, have struggled to mesh with the five-time Ballon d’Or winner. Argentina has the lowest shot conversion rate in Conmebol Qualifying campaign, scoring only 16 of their 151 shots, which is astonishing given the have one of the best finishers of all time in their frontline. Benedetto and Messi, then, needs to be the combination that works.

Argentina put their future in the hands of Sampaoli, a coach that has strong ideas and a track record of brilliant football. He was a rare shock appointment in the international management game because he took a step down from a major European club to take over a national team but this was a dream and, after a career when he had been almost a journeyman manager around South America, an opportunity to go home and prove himself to his compatriots was priceless.

Victory with Chile was incredible but with Argentina? Nothing could be sweeter.

And yet, right now, they are peering over a cliff edge of the unimaginable. Poor results against Peru and in the lung-busting altitude of Ecuador could be the end for them and for Sampaoli after just a couple of months. Typically for Argentina - this complex, divided nation - what should have been the sweetest story could turn oh so bitter.