Or, Why Argentina Was Eliminated From the 2006 World Cup in Germany

After their 6-0 overwhelming victory in the first round of the World Cup, Argentina emerged as an early favorite to win the 2006 World Cup. They had plenty of great players, and teamwork that was the envy of any team. This was largely due to the impeccable work of Coach Jose' Pekerman, who had won three youth World Cups with Argentina as a coach. Yet Argentina's World Cup was not to be, largely due to the mistakes of, you guessed, Coach Pekerman. What is the source of this apparent contradiction?

Quite simply, Coach Pekerman was, like most soccer coaches, performing two very different jobs. Two jobs which can only rarely be filled by the same man. One, the tedious and patience-trying job of training players over four years, selecting a roster, and conforming a team out of them. This is a job that Pekerman excels at. The other, the adrenalin-pumping job of making tough on-the-spot calls on what team to field at the beginning of each match, when to make each of the three subs allowed by FIFA rules, and, all importantly, whom to sub for whom. The latter requires someone with a good pulse, more of a heart surgeon than a patient trainer, more of a sprint runner than a marathon one. This is a job that Pekerman is awful at, as he proved on multiple occasions in the 2006 World Cup, most notably when he decided to bench playmaker Juan Riquelme after gaining a 1-0 lead at the second half in the quarterfinals against the host country's team, and following it by unexpectedly substituting Hernan Crespo with Julio Cruz instead of fielding in strikers Javier Saviola or all-star Lionel Messi. These two jobs are so different that the very thoroughness and premeditation that make someone adept at one makes him too slow and ineffective for the other.

So next time around, my recommendation is clear: let Pekerman coach the players for the four years. But bring in someone else to make the unforgiving on-the-spot choices of substitutions.