Back then, the coach was Carlos Bilardo, a former physician whose laborious and structured approach prioritized results, not the process that led to them.
“Soccer is played to win,” Bilardo is quoted as saying in Wilson’s book. “Shows are for the theater.”
In 1978, however, the only other time Argentina won the World Cup, the coach was César Luis Menotti. Menotti was Bilardo’s antithesis, a thinker and idealist who believed there was intrinsic value in aesthetics. He prized possession, nurtured artistry in offense and encouraged players to improvise.
“The essence of Argentine soccer is freedom,” Alberto Tarantini, a defender on the 1978 team, said in an interview. “If you fill players’ heads with tactical systems, you inhibit them.”
While intellectual struggles between pragmatism and purity have driven soccer narratives in many corners of the world, it is in Argentina, perhaps, that the dichotomy most shapes the battle for the soul of the game.
The schism is often traced to Argentina’s disastrous exit…
