Just six years after facing each other in the World Cup final, there are barely any remnants of that match in the Argentinian and German teams, who will test the state of their respective rebuilding processes this Wednesday in Dortmund.
Argentinian coach Lionel Scaloni, once confirmed in his position for the World Cup qualifiers, has the opportunity to continue building credit for his project against a Germany team that has accumulated several absences.
"I spent my Sunday on the phone and I only received bad news," said German coach Joachim Löw upon arriving in Dortmund on Monday.
From Löw's initial list to face Argentina (and Estonia four days later in a Euro 2020 qualifier), Tony Kroos, Ilkay Gündogan, Jonas Hector, Matthias Ginter, and Timo Werner have all dropped out due to injuries.
These join the already known absences, also due to physical problems, of Julian Draxler, Thilo Kehrer, and Leroy Sané, who in turn join players like Mats Hummels, Thomas Müller, and Jerome Boateng, whom Löw has already written off in the Mannschaft.
In the face of this wave of absences, the Germany team that will face Argentina will be a young team, full of relatively unknown players; some of them haven't even debuted (Suat Serdar, Robin Koch, Nadiem Amiri, Luca Waldschmidt, and Niklas Stark) and others have only played a handful of international matches (Jonathan Tah, Lukas Klostermann, Kai Havertz, and Marcel Halstenberg).
Intrigue in the German goal
"This offers an opportunity to the others, to the young players," said Löw, the only survivor from the 2014 Brazil title, along with captain Manuel Neuer.
Indeed, one of the points of interest in the German camp is the competition between Neuer and Marc André Ter Stegen to see who deserves to be the starting goalkeeper after the Barcelona goalkeeper claimed more playing time.
Löw has already announced that Ter Stegen will occupy the position against Argentina and Neuer will do so in the official match against Estonia.
In this generational change process, Argentina seems to be a step ahead, despite not being able to count on their star Lionel Messi yet, who is suspended until November 3 for his harsh criticism of CONMEBOL in the last Copa America, in which Scaloni started as an interim coach and came out confirmed as the coach for the qualifying process for Qatar 2022.
"He has a clear vision and knows how to convey it. He is easy to understand, good at his job, and knows how to handle players. They did well to give him the position permanently," Messi recently said of the coach, giving his approval to the AFA's decision.
For the matches against Germany and Ecuador (on October 13 in Elche, eastern Spain), Scaloni has lost one of the promises of the new generation, midfielder Matías Zaracho (Racing), due to injury.
Only one player from the Argentine Superliga
Scaloni will also be without the players from River Plate and Boca Juniors, clubs engaged in the Copa Libertadores semifinals.
From the available squad, he only has one player from the Argentine Superliga, midfielder Nicolás Domínguez (Vélez), another rising star.
Among the new faces are midfielder Nicolás González (Stuttgart, Germany). Another one is Matías 'Monito' Vargas (Espanyol, Barcelona). It could also be a good opportunity to 'discover' Leonardo Balerdi, the young 20-year-old center-back trained in Boca Juniors who plays for Borussia Dortmund.
These players join the ones called to lead the Albiceleste along with Messi and the 'survivors' of the old generation (Marcos Rojo and Nicolás Otamendi): Lautaro Martínez (scorer of three goals in the 4-0 victory over Mexico in September), Nicolás Tagliafico, Leandro Paredes, Rodrigo de Paul, Marcos Acuña, Germán Pezzella, Renzo Saravia, Juan Foyth, and Paulo Dybala, if the Juventus midfielder is finally able to explode with the Albiceleste.
"We will see if these kids are capable of playing such an important match. It is important that they have this opportunity," Scaloni said on Tuesday.
All of them were already in the last Copa America and some even have the experience of the 2018 World Cup.
The match in Dortmund will also be a good opportunity for Agustín Marchesín, the goalkeeper who is doing very well with Porto, to show that he can be an alternative to Franco Armani, who is absent due to commitments with River Plate.
A good result in Dortmund would add credit to this new Albiceleste team. And despite Germany's absences, Scaloni emphasized the rivalry between both teams: "They are a historic rival." (D)