Argentina Sacks Coach Jorge Sampaoli Over Poor Performance at World Cup

Jorge Sampaoli has paid the price for a poor World Cup, withWorld Cup, with
Argentina announcing his departure today. The Argentine Football
Association (AFA) has announced that Sampaoli will not continue as
national team head coach following a chaotic World Cup.

A 3-0 group stage defeat to Croatia following a 1-1 draw with
Iceland left Argentina on the brink of a humiliating exit in Russia,
before just about squeezing through to the knockout phase thanks to
a 2-1 triumph over Nigeria. That luck failed in the last 16 against
France, however, when they were beaten 4-3 by the eventual
tournament winners.
Sampaoli got the Argentina job after building a solid reputation in
charge of Universidad de Chile, Chile and Sevilla, leaving the
Spanish club at the end of the 2016-17 season after guiding them to
Champions League football. Given the regard many held Sampaoli in,
there was great optimism that he would end Argentina’s period of
underachievement and finally find the balance between getting the
best out of Lionel Messi and making the team a success.
But very little has gone well for Sampaoli and Argentina since he
took over in May 2017, with the coach’s continuous tactical tweaks
and strange selection choices baffling many. Throughout the World
Cup, Argentina’s deficiencies through the middle and at the back
continued to be exploited and France tore them apart at times,
taking full advantage of their lack of pace, but Sampaoli failed to
make alterations to address the problems.
An AFA statement released on Sunday read: “The Argentine Football
Association and Jorge Sampaoli reached a mutual agreement to
finish their cycle under the Argentine national team.”

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