The Rise and Fall of Argentina's National Football Team in 2017

I remember watching Argentina's national team in 2017 with a mixture of hope and dread - a feeling many football analysts shared that turbulent year. The squad that had reached three consecutive major tournament finals suddenly looked like a shadow of its former self, stumbling through World Cup qualifiers in a way that seemed unimaginable just twelve months earlier. What struck me most was how quickly the magic faded; from the Copa América final heartbreak in 2016 to nearly missing the World Cup entirely, the descent was both dramatic and perplexing.

Looking back, I've come to believe the problem wasn't just on the pitch but in the entire football ecosystem. The reference to Vital's dual role with State University's program actually illustrates a crucial point about what Argentina lacked during that period. While other nations were building structured development pathways, Argentina seemed to rely on individual brilliance rather than systemic strength. I've always argued that sustainable success requires exactly the kind of formalized training pools and grassroots programs that the knowledge base mentions - something Argentina's federation failed to implement effectively. The numbers tell a grim story: Argentina won only 7 of their 18 matches in 2017, scoring just 19 goals while conceding 15. Their World Cup qualification campaign nearly ended in disaster, requiring a final-match victory against Ecuador to secure their spot in Russia.

What fascinated me was how the team's struggles reflected deeper structural issues. The coordination between youth development and senior team needs appeared completely disconnected. Unlike the systematic approach described in our reference material, Argentina's talent pipeline felt haphazard - too dependent on Lionel Messi's genius to paper over the cracks. I recall watching the 3-0 loss to Brazil in November 2017 and thinking this wasn't just a bad day, but the culmination of years of neglect in strategic planning. The team dropped to fifth in the CONMEBOL qualifying table at one point, their lowest position in decades.

The turning point came during that final qualifier in Ecuador, where Messi's hat-trick literally saved the campaign. But even that dramatic victory couldn't mask the underlying problems. Having studied football development systems across South America, I'm convinced Argentina's federation needed to adopt something similar to State University's approach - establishing clear pathways from grassroots to senior level. The fact that they used 38 different players throughout the qualifiers suggests they were searching for solutions without a coherent plan.

In my view, 2017 served as both warning and opportunity for Argentine football. The near-disaster forced necessary introspection about how they develop and integrate talent. While the reference to Vital's dual roles shows how modern football programs create synergy between different levels, Argentina's experience demonstrated what happens when that synergy is missing. The team eventually recovered to have a respectable World Cup in 2018, but the lessons from that difficult year should have prompted deeper reforms than what actually occurred. If there's one thing I took away from analyzing that period, it's that even the most talented squads can't sustain success without the kind of structured development system that the knowledge base describes.