Argentina’s insanity is spreading at this loco World Cup

There was a famous study by the World Health Organisation a decade ago. The city of Buenos Aires, it found, had a disproportionately high number of therapists; 222 of them per 100,000 people. The United States, in comparison, had 30.

When you watch Argentina play, you can understand why. After every game, you need to talk to someone. You have to share what you’ve been through. “Am I losing my mind? Is this normal? How do I cope?”

One minute, you’re on the floor. Down and depressed. The next, you’re in heaven. Euphoric. The adrenaline. The dopamine. It’s a natural psychedelic. It’s no surprise Argentinians follow their national team everywhere. This is more than patriotism. It’s an addiction. Everyone tells you it’s not healthy. You know you should stop. But nothing has made you feel this way before, and you crave that feeling again and again and again.

The feeling hit hard in Atlanta on Tuesday.

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The world champions looked out. Another shock at this World Cup was on the cards. After Cape Verde took Argentina to extra time in the previous round, Egypt left them contemplating a last-16 exit. Two-nil down as late as the 79th minute, Opta’s win probability model gave Argentina just a 0.6 per cent chance of pulling off a comeback. They needed a miracle. Another one.

La Scaloneta, as head coach Lionel Scaloni’s tenure is known, appeared over. Requiems were being written for Lionel Messi’s World Cup career.

It had been one of those days for Argentina. The kind when nothing goes your way.

After they fell behind, Messi missed a penalty. Egypt’s goalkeeper Mostafa Shobeir made one save, then another, including a point-blank header from Alexis MacAllister. He looked unbeatable.

When Scaloni tried to change things, replacing Rodrigo De Paul and Nicolas Tagliafico with Lautaro Martinez and Nico Gonzalez, Egypt, almost instantly, found a second goal on a sweeping breakaway. Fortunately for Argentina, referee Francois Letexier was called over for an on-field review and disallowed it for a foul on Lisandro Martinez. To their credit, this didn’t discourage Egypt. They sensed vulnerability in Argentina’s hysteria and scored a second anyway.

Immediately afterwards, Messi looked to the sky (well, the Mercedes-Benz Stadium’s closed roof) and grimaced. When Lautaro missed a chance he created at the near post, Messi fell, chest down, on the grass. Crestfallen. After playing 120 minutes only four days ago, and scraping past Cape Verde via an own goal, you would have been forgiven for thinking this team had nothing left.

Wrong. Argentina are loco. Just when you think they are out, they pull themselves back in.

It was like this as they won the previous World Cup in Qatar four years ago. Games played on a knife-edge. Knockout ties going to the death. Shootouts to decide the quarter-final against the Netherlands and the final against France. It can all drive you insane. But in the midst of this madness is a genius.

Argentina famously came back. It was so out there, Tom Brady even posted on X: “So that might top 28-3” in the Super Bowl nine years ago, when he led the New England Patriots to another NFL title by beating Atlanta’s Falcons having trailed by that record third-quarter deficit.

On this occasion, there were only 10 minutes left. First, Messi crossed for Cristian Romero to nod past Shobeir. Then Messi smashed the equaliser in off the crossbar. The destiny of this game had been set. But Messi, as all the greats do, bent it to his will.

Remarkably, Egypt could have won it at the end.

Leandro Paredes made an outstanding last-ditch tackle in a one-v-one situation to prevent his team conceding again and going out. The game, at that stage, seemed bound for extra time. It didn’t get that far. Deep in stoppage time, Lautaro crossed for Enzo Fernandez and the Argentinians were delirious. Scaloni covered his face in shock. They’d done it again.

“The feelings you get, the emotions you get off a football match, especially for us Argentinians,” Scaloni said later, “is comparable to nothing else. That we are recreating these emotions is something unbelievable. I am a coach for moments like this. We are not yet in a final or anything, but the calibre of what we saw today is comparable to many things that we’ve experienced.”

Not for the first time, he shed a tear.

“I am always emotional,” Scaloni admitted. “Sometimes when you saw some tears, apparently in some footage they call me the cry-baby, but it’s fine.”

Messi also broke down, bursting into tears after the full-time whistle. When he dried his eyes, he said: “It was crazy what this group did in this knockout round.”

Upon reflection, you have to say this has been the World Cup of crazy. It’s a “one normal day of Barclays” meme adapted for the greatest tournament of all. We can’t get enough. We want more experiences like England at the Azteca or Belgium being 2-0 down with five minutes to go against Senegal and winning, not to mention Paraguay eliminating Germany. We want less about visas being revoked, kick-offs being changed only to be kept the same, and red cards overturned.

The mind can only be blown so many times in six weeks.

Argentina incarnate this way of living. They channel it. Embrace it. Now everyone else is catching it.

We all may need a lie down. Anybody got a number for one of those therapists in Buenos Aires?

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