Lionel Messi’s title in Qatar set to encourage Argentina at Women’s World Cup

BUENOS AIRES (AP) – Argentina’s workforce will draw inspiration from Lionel Messi’s achievement in Qatar in its quest to advance to the knockout stage of the Women’s World Cup for the primary time.

Argentina has a protracted and proud historical past within the males’s event, together with the run to final 12 months’s title six months in the past, however has by no means received a match in three earlier journeys to the Women’s World Cup.

Breaking that drought might imply a spot within the spherical of 16 within the event being co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, and that will be trigger for celebration.

“It is a big inspiration, but the expectation is not the same,” striker Paulina Gramaglia instructed The Associated Press, evaluating the targets of Argentina’s males’s and ladies’s groups. “We don’t have the same foundation that they have, we are not seeking to win the trophy. We have our own goals and our context.”

Argentina is in Group G with Sweden, which received the bronze medal on the 2019 World Cup and is third within the FIFA rankings, Italy and South Africa.

They’ll begin the event in opposition to Italy on July 24 in Auckland, journey to New Zealand’s South Island to tackle South Africa 4 days later and return north to shut the group stage in opposition to four-time semifinalist Sweden in Hamilton on Aug. 2.

The 4 years main into the World Cup have coincided with a dramatic change within the Argentine soccer affiliation’s philosophy after many years of neglecting the ladies’s recreation. The nationwide ladies’s league went skilled in 2019 and there was extra assist for youth groups, which incorporates infrastructure, uniforms and worldwide competitors.

Those enhancements have allowed the Argentine nationwide workforce to rise in contrast with its performances on the 2019 World Cup in France, the place it secured its first competitors factors with attracts in opposition to Japan and Scotland.

“Argentina’s league has grown a lot in recent years, the infrastructure and the opportunities at the clubs are improving. That is also improving the teams’ fitness a lot, and that improves the overall level,” Gramaglia mentioned. “We are still falling short in comparison with other countries of the region, but this is a good path.”

Argentina positioned third in final 12 months’s Women’s Copa America behind Brazil and Colombia. That was the primary event the workforce performed beneath coach Germán Portanova, who took over from José Carlos Borriello.

Borriello, who led the Argentines within the 2003, 2007 and 2019 Women’s World Cups, was changed in 2021 after the gamers rebelled in opposition to his teaching strategies.

“The first thing they told me right after I arrived was that there was a match against Brazil. I said ‘Let’s do it.’ We lost 3-1 and 4-1, but we played well in many moments,” Portanova mentioned. “I would always take on Brazil, with no fear of losing. We will be a little closer (after) competing against them.”

Portanova’s problem is to seek out a great lineup in a squad full of veteran gamers resembling goalkeeper Vanina Correa, who will flip 40 in August, and 32-year-old midfielder Estefanía Banini, who is taken into account Argentina’s greatest ever feminine participant.

The Argentine squad will even be relying on children like Sophia Braun, a defender who was born within the United States however selected to symbolize her mom’s nation.

“All of us here are aware of the things that have been achieved until this moment and of the things we can still achieve,” mentioned Gramaglia, a 20-year-old ahead. “It is not too little that one of the objectives is to win for the first time in a women’s World Cup. We will fight for that.”

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AP video journalist Yesica Brumec contributed to this report.

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