The footballing idea: Argentina vs Sweden, World Cup 2002
At the airport back in Argentina, a group of Newell's fans handed Bielsa a letter of praise.
Pep Guardiola said that the "footballing idea" that most appealed to him at the 2002 World Cup was that of Marcelo Bielsa's Argentina. We heard an echo of that summer in Leeds United's defeat to Wigan Athletic.
Argentina's qualifying campaign for that tournament is one of Bielsa's best achievements; they won a ten team league by losing only once, scoring 42 goals — more than 2.3 per game — and conceding just 15. Hernán Crespo was the competition's leading scorer with nine, Gabriel Batistuta, Juan Sebastián Verón and Claudio López each scored five; fifteen players scored at least once. As if that wasn't enough, Bielsa took Claudio Caniggia to Japan and South Korea, who was playing for Glasgow Rangers after moving from Dundee.
Argentina opened Group F with a 1-0 win over Nigeria, but were caught out by England; folklore demanded its revenge story after 1998, and Mauricio Pochettino has still not forgiven Michael Owen for the dive that let David Beckham exorcise his demons from the penalty spot. Sven-Goran Eriksson's team included Danny Mills, Emile Heskey and, after Owen Hargreaves went off injured inside twenty minutes, Trevor Sinclair; they won 1-0, and as Sweden had beaten Nigeria after drawing with England in their first game, Argentina were down to 3rd in the group.
They had to beat Sweden, who hadn't lost in eleven competitive games; reader, they didn't. Pep Guardiola's favourite footballing idea at the World Cup went out in the first round, leaving players in tears on the pitch and at the team hotel, pushing Bielsa to the edge of quitting.
Argentina started with Batistuta, Lopez, Ortega and Pablo Aimar as the front three and enganche in a classic Bielsa 3-3-1-3; they brought on Crespo, Verón and Kily González. The results might sound familiar. Thirteen corners to Sweden's three. Both teams had four shots on target; Argentina had eleven more off target to Sweden's three. I don't have a final stat for crosses, but on the German language highlights I found, the numbers of 'flanken' is shown on screen with ten minutes left: Sweden five, Argentina 34.