The tango leaders

Six teams at the World Cup are managed by Argentine coaches, and as Lionel Scaloni looks to script unprecedented glory for the national team, the man blocking his way could be the most influential Argentine coach of all time

- BY KARTHIK RAVINDRANATH

On a cold night in 1985 in Murphy, a small town in Argentina’s Santa Fe province, two men, one just over 50 and the other 30, knocked on a farmer’s door. When the farmer and his wife answered, they made a strange request—they were there to look at the couple’s teenage son’s legs. They were delighted and ushered the two men in. They crept along to the 13-year-old boy’s room and pulled back the covers.

Mauricio Pochettino woke with a start. He looks like a footballer, said the younger of the two men, Marcelo Bielsa. Years later, he told Pochettino’s son that far from looking like a footballer, his dad actually looked a little chubby. However, the lie was necessary. Bielsa and his companion, Jorge Griffa, worked for Newell's Old Boys, the historic club that would later nourish Lionel Messi. They were there to sign Pochettino. “He had to make my parents dream,” as Pochettino put it.

Pochettino played under Bielsa for the senior team before the manager left in 1992. Bielsa never returned to Newell's, but, his presence at the club is eternal: their home ground is the Estadio Marcelo Bielsa. The impact Bielsa made as a manager has reverberated across Argentine football and is now on full display at the World Cup—of 48 teams, six are managed by Argentine coaches.

On June 12, Pochettino, now 54, led the US to a 4-1 win against Paraguay in the first game of their World Cup campaign. On the face of it, it seems straightforward. The US are ranked 17, Paraguay, 41. However, once a World Cup starts, rankings are often inconsequential, as Cape Verde showed against Spain on June 15. Moreover, Paraguay had been billed a team to fear. Indeed, the team were reborn under Argentine manager Gustavo Alfaro.