From bench press to signpost: The eternally underestimated Angel Di Maria is a surprising leading actor for Argentina in the World Cup final against France. The winger’s line-up caught Didier Deschamps and his Équipe Tricolore completely wrong-footed.
Angel Di Maria formed a heart with his hands, spread his arms and dropped to his knees. When his teammates jumped at the surprising signpost to the world title, tears welled up in his eyes. The 34-year-old had just shot Argentina on the path to their third World Cup triumph with a dream goal – suddenly someone played the leading role who actually seemed to have been sorted out.
“A masterpiece,” enthused the newspaper “Clarin” of the 2-0 win in the 36th minute against defending champions France, which superstar Lionel Messi had initiated with an outside instep pass on the center line. And Di Maria of all people, who lost his regular place after the preliminary round and was only on the field for eight minutes in the knockout games before the final (2:1), pushed the ball into the goal. When it later became dramatic, he sat stunned on the bench and ran onto the pitch after the redeeming winning goal in the penalty shootout.
Coach Lionel Scaloni unexpectedly called up the 2014 Champions League winner again as a left winger in the final, surprising his French colleague Didier Deschamps. There had been reports that he had previously been ailing. These were not confirmed. But now he was back and Messi and Co. kept trying to stop Di Maria, who eluded ex-Dortmund Ousmane Dembélé before the 1-0 lead, whom he repeatedly forced into the unloved defensive work, and only to be stopped by a foul was. At 2-0 he completed the combination of Messi, Julian Alvarez and Alexis Mac Allister himself.
When Di Maria was substituted after a remarkable hour, almost the entire 88,966 crowd in the packed Lusail Stadium stood up and gave him a thunderous applause. All teammates hugged him on the bench. Then the long suffering began. His crew was suddenly missing a weapon. As much as his inclusion in the starting XI was a brilliant move, his substitution shook the construct. Scaloni had not changed the system, only the interpretation of the player’s role. A Josep Guardiola can only learn from it, too often he throws successful plans in finals overboard and is severely punished for it.
In the end it was a satisfaction for Di Maria, who had already considered retiring from the Albiceleste after the criticism had become louder and louder. In the 2014 final, he missed the 1-0 draw with Germany through injury when he actually wanted to play, but his club Real Madrid vetoed it at the time. He was also injured in the 2015 and 2016 Copa America final defeats by Chile.
If he scores in the final, Argentina wins: he scored alongside Messi in the 1-0 win over Nigeria at the 2008 Olympic Games, as well as last year’s Copa America, when the Albiceleste ended 28 years without a title, Di marked Maria, who was somehow underestimated in his career despite stations like Paris St. Germain, Real Madrid, Manchester United or Juventus Turin and was always overshadowed by the great legends of the game, the 1-0 in the final against Brazil.