Global Courant
Lionel Scaloni continues to make history as coach of the National Team. With the four consecutive victories in friendlies this year, he placed himself at the top of the coaches with the highest percentage of points obtained in history, with 75.4%, equaling the line of Guillermo Stábile, who achieved them at the time when which a win was worth two points. And next September, at the start of the 2006 World Cup Qualifiers against Ecuador at the Monumental, he can continue to improve his record.
It is not easy to compare the effectiveness of coaches at different times. Because until the 1994 World Cup, two points were awarded for victories, while after that each win began to be worth three. The temptation of many in the 21st century, especially in social networks, is to compare equally, that is, everything for three. But the historical value of the moment is left aside and, in general, most technicians lose percentage points. It is an injustice to history.
For this reason, data by itself is often misleading. It is necessary to explain the context. No one has doubts about the merit of the current Argentine national team. Under his leadership, Argentina won the Copa América again after 28 years, and the World Cup after 36. In addition, they won a one-on-one with European champions Italy at Wembley. He demolished the myth that you had to compete with Europeans to have international contact and win the World Cup. Of the 61 matches played so far, only 7 have been against Europeans. Afterwards, the majority are South Americans (36), Central Americans (10), Asians (5), Oceanic (2) and Africans (1).
Scaloni with the World Cup. Photo: EFE/ Cati Cladera
After the failure in the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Argentina won 41 games, drew 15 and barely lost 5, twice with Brazil, once with Colombia, another with Venezuela and, the last time, against Saudi Arabia in the World Cup in Qatar. That fateful November 22, in addition, broke the undefeated streak that the Scaloneta had of 36 games. It was one away from the record achieved by Italy between 2018 and 2021.
Argentina’s next match will be in September against Ecuador at the start of the Qualifiers. If there is a victory, the ERA will rise to 75.8 and he will be on top of everything alone. Instead, with a tie, the percentage will drop to 74.3% and then it will move to third place. With a loss, it will drop even further, to 74.1%. It will be like this until the end of the cycle, probably after the World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada. We will see.
Guillermo Stábile was the first great coach of Argentine soccer and he stayed for two decades, he started in 1939 and his first cycle ended in 1958, after The Disaster in Sweden. In total, there were 122 games, with 82 wins, 20 draws and 20 losses. He achieved 75.4% of the points in play. If the statistics are taken with current parameters, the effectiveness drops to 72.6%. Of the 122 matches, 103 were with South Americans, 13 with Europeans and 6 with Central Americans.
Guillermo Stábile, the most successful technical director in the history of the Copa América.
Two details of his tenure in office. At first, they called him up for a specific event, Copa Roca with the Brazilians, Lipton and Newton with the Uruguayans or Copa América. In addition, he directed clubs. For example, between 1949-51 he was a three-time champion with Racing. But in 1953, the AFA named him the permanent coach of the team. Thus, he was able to travel to observe the World Cup in Switzerland in 1954 because that was his only job. After the failure in Sweden, he was appointed two years later to lead the team that played in the 1960 Pan American Games (at that time the seniors were there) and was champion. Before he had won 6 South American Cups, although the Copa América was at stake only between him.
Another detail for comparison: the coaches who played at least 20 games were taken. For this reason, Diego Maradona appears in third place with 24 matches, of which he won 18 and lost just 6. There were 8 South American rivals, 7 Europeans, 6 Central Americans, 2 Africans and one Asian. Of the six falls, two were very hard: the 1-6 with Bolivia in La Paz and the 0-4 in the World Cup in South Africa against Germany in the quarterfinals.
Diego Maradona finished his cycle in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Photo: EFE/EPA/OLIVER WEIKEN
In fourth place is José María Minella, with a 73.8% effectiveness rate in just 21 games. It had two stages, between 1964-65 and 1968, winning 11, drawing 9 and losing 2. His greatest achievement was his debut, in the Nations Cup held in Brazil in 1964 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the CBD, a home run with Portugal (2-0), Brazil (3-0) and England (1-0). Meanwhile, Gerardo Martino completed 29 games between 2015 and 2016 (he won 19, drew 7, lost 3, with 73.5%), lost two Copa América finals and resigned due to the meanness of the clubs to assign players to the sub team. 23 for the Rio Olympics.
José María Minella played for River in the 1930s.
Between the sixth and tenth place are technicians who were in charge of the National Team in more than 40 games. In other words, if the cut were made here, in the ranking it would be Scaloni, Stábile, Sabella, Bielsa, Menotti, Passarella and Basile. There is a simple equation that must also be taken into account: the more games, the more difficult it is to sustain the effectiveness of points. For this reason, for this comparison, cycles with less than 20 games were not taken into account.
Menotti with a young Maradona.
After Stábile, Carlos Bilardo (79) and César Luis Menotti (78) are the coaches with the most caps for the national team. But the doctor, is not listed in the top 10. It is that he won 26, drew 30 and lost 23, achieving just 51% of the points at stake. Even so, he played two world finals and won one. The fourth in question is Alfio Basile, who in his first cycle added two (69.9% effectiveness) and in the second three (59.5%). Respecting the percentage of points obtained, Coco rounded off 65% efficiency.
Carlos Salvador Bilardo, two disputed finals.
The fifth with the most games is Marcelo Bielsa, who interrupted his second cycle in 2004, with 68 games and a 69.6% effectiveness. Both Menotti (a draw) and Loco (a victory) do not add the games directed by their field assistants when they were in another competition, Flaco in the Under 19 World Cup and the current Uruguay coach in the Olympic Games from Athens.
With 19 more games, Scaloni will remain as the second coach with the most games in history. According to the FIFA dates already established by FIFA, Argentina will play 10 games before the Copa América 2024, 6 Qualifiers (September, October and November 2023) and four friendlies (March and June 2024). Then, you can add a maximum of 6 other matches. So in October 2024 he will surpass Menotti and Bilardo, the other world champions. And will continue to make history.
