Emiliano Martinez warned his teammates they were guilty of adopting cowardly tactics in their World Cup final defeat against Spain.
Argentina’s run to a second successive final had been characterised by a never say die attitude and a front-footed, full throttle style of football with captain Lionel Messi the team’s driving force.
Lionel Scaloni’s men were, however, a pale imitation of themselves on Sunday evening and were comfortably outmaneuvered by a Spain side that eventually scored the decisive goal their dominance merited in extra time.
The writing had been on the wall in the opening period, during which Argentina failed to register a solitary shot on Unai Simon’s goal.
Things hardly got better after the break with the Spanish No.1 remaining untested, even after Martinez pointedly told his teammates they had adopted an approach that had been playing into Spanish hands.
‘Come on, with heart, boys, hey,’ said the Aston Villa goalkeeper in a speech made during the interval.
‘Playing with heart means driving forward, not going backwards, forward. Forward, forward, forward, forward.
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‘Cowards play backwards, let’s move forward. Three passes and we find Leo, let me see us build it from the back too.’
Messi, too, attempted to rally his troops adding: ‘Come on, boys, character, everyone, character. We’ve always had it, aren’t we going to show it now?
‘Come on, hey. Character to play, let’s play our football, let’s play, come on.’
Unfortunately, for Argentina those words fell on deaf ears as their campaign ended in ignominy and disgrace.
Leandro Paredes and assistant coach Roberto Ayala were both guilty of throwing punches at Spanish players, while the entire squad turned their backs on the newly crowned world champions during their trophy lift.
There has been little sign of remorse, however, with Paredes particularly unrepentant.
He wrote on Instagram: ‘THANK YOU, ARGENTINA!!! I LOVE YOU, TODAY AND ALWAYS 💙
Today, I write with a heavy heart, having been unable to bring our country the joy it so richly deserves 😔—but with a chest full of pride for having given everything we had and for flying our flag at the very top once again! 💪🏽
‘Thank you to everyone who was part of this national team—to this group of players who gave their all to represent this jersey, fighting for it until the very last second of every match! 💪🏽
‘It was an honour to be part of the best Argentine national team in history.’