Argentina Football Club

The national team of Argentina is made by a selection of the best footballers in Argentina under the guidance of the Asociacion del Fútbol Argentino. Argentina was ranked sixth by FIFA in July 2008.

The selection of Argentina is called the albiceleste (white and sky blue) after the color of their jersey and the national flag.

Argentina is the only selection in the world to have won all international competitions organised by FIFA: World Cup, Olympics, Conféderations Cup, Regional Cup (Copa America) and World Cup U21.

Argentina won its first international title in 1921: the Copa America. It is now the team most often victorious in this competition with Uruguay (14 victories).

Following the failure of 1934, Argentina decided not to participate in the three following World Cup(1938, 1950 and 1954). During these years Argentina was a great team with several players within the legendary team River Plate nicknamed La Máquina (9 championship titles between 1941 and 1957). Among them, Jose Manuel Moreno, Adolfo Pedernera and Angel Labruna.

The Argentina only played on their continent. They limited their International appearances to the Copa America, and they won it no fewer than six times between 1941 and 1957. They returned to the World Cup in 1958 in Sweden. They failed to go beyond the first round as they did four years later in Chile, despite a really good striker called striker Jose Francisco Sanfilippo.

At the 1966 World Cup, with players like Luis Artime, Ermindo Onega or Antonio Rattín, Argentina went through the first round (particularly after a very successful victory against Spain). In the quarterfinals they got beaten by the host, England, at Wembley 1-0. During this game the captain of Argentina Rattín was sent off because of his hard playing.Alongside these mixed performances in World Cup, Argentina also lost his Continental leadership (one Copa America in 1959 won at home).

After a bad World Cup in 1970 in Mexico (won by its rival Brazil), Argentina prepared the 1974 World Cup with young players like Mario Kempes or Rene Houseman surrended by more experienced players like Hector Yazalde and Roberto Perfumo.

Unfortunatly they lost in the quarterfinals against the Netherlands of Johan Cruyff (0-4). From then Argentina had 4 years to get ready for its very own World Cup at home…

The mission to win the title was assigned to a young coach, Cesar Luis Menotti (39 years old). This time he was reluctant to rely on a young player named Diego Maradona (18 years old). He finally didn’t select the prodigy and trusted players like Daniel Passarella, Oswaldo Ardiles, Daniel Bertoni and Mario Kempes.

Argentina finished second of his group behind Italy who beat them 1-0 in Buenos Aires and ahead of France and Hungary). In the second round they beat Poland (2-0), draw against Brazil (0-0) before scoring six goals to Peru. These goals helped Argentina to finish ahead of their rivals Brasil and qualify for the finals. Mario Kempes is the man of the final. He scored twice against the Netherlands and helped Argentina win its first World Cup. In 1982 despite playing with Diego Maradona, Argentina left the World Cup after 2 defeats in the second round.

Four years later Argentina won its second World Cup against RFA in Mexico.

The 1990 World Cup was the last World Cup where Argentina reached the Final (where they lost against RFA). They haven’t been able to go further than the quarterfinals since then.