It was a bad day to be a bald member of the Argentinian national team. The fury of a thousand tweets and memes fell upon goalkeeper Willy Caballero and coach Jorge Sampaoli, the first for an unbelievable blunder that gifted Croatia the first of three goals and the second for his incomprehensible tactics and squad selections that have left Argentina on the edge of being eliminated from the World Cup.
Caballero, who already had a costly mistake in the first game against Iceland, botched a clearance that ended in front of Ante Rebic, who only had to kick it to score.
Argentinian fans reacted in their own inimitable style: with elaborate, baroque insults that even Twitter’s new expanded character limit couldn’t contain.
https://twitter.com/AlbilEnJogging/status/1009882653032579072
The game ended 3-0 in favor of Croatia and left the Argentinians hoping for a tie between Nigeria and Iceland in the next game. Many assume they are out of the World Cup and have their coach to blame. Minutes after the game the hashtags #AndateSampaoli (Get out Sampaoli) and #AndateCaballero (Get out Caballero) trended on Argentinian social media. Besides the call, most memes and tweets focused on the lack of hair of both culprits.
The Argentinian coach had been in the center of controversy for his lineup choices. He picked Caballero, who is a substitute at Chelsea and didn’t play much over the season over River Plate’s Franco Armani, which sparked a social media campaign under the hashtag #PoneloaArmani. He also hasn’t given a single minute of play to promising star Giovani Lo Celso and only used fan favorites Ever Banega and Paulo Dybala as substitutes.
Argentina needs a miracle to advance, but if they do, the only way Sampaoli and Caballero would be able to redeem themselves would be by winning the trophy. But judging by what happened today, it’s more likely that they won’t be visiting Argentina anytime soon.
https://twitter.com/nrGloria/status/1009895787223011331
