One Step From World Cup Final, Argentina Channels Di Stéfano

When Alfredo Di Stéfano died at 88 on Monday, one of the last ties to a golden age of Latin American soccer was cut.

The 1940s belonged to Argentine soccer. And for the first half of the decade, Argentine soccer was dominated by one of the greatest teams to have graced a field. Now mostly forgotten outside the continent, River Plate played precision total football. Little wonder the team became known as la Máquina (the Machine).

When Di Stéfano, who started at River Plate before becoming Real Madrid’s most famous player, was asked who the five greatest players were, he came up with La Máquina’s five forwards: Juan Carlos Muñoz, José Manuel Moreno, Ángel Labruna, Adolfo Pedernera and Félix Loustau.

Moreno was not only the team’s best player but also its most charismatic. He might have surpassed Diego Maradona as a player had he looked after himself. But the call of the tango hall and beautiful women proved too distracting. Moreno was unapologetic: “Yes, I like the night life. So what? I never missed a training session.Don’t come telling me to drink milk: The time I drank milk, I played badly.”

It was with Moreno that Di Stéfano played when he joined River Plate. Early on, Di Stéfano was known as el Alemán (the German) for his size and blond hair, though the nickname Saeta Rubia (Blond Arrow) eventually stuck.

Even though the best soccer was being played in Argentina, the relationship between club and player remained feudal. Strikes in 1948 paved the way for an exodus of Argentina’s best players to an unsanctioned pirate league in Colombia. Years later, Di Stéfano remained irate. “They exploited us in an intolerable way,” he said. “Signing for a club meant submitting to its discretion for an unlimited time.”

It was in Spain that Di Stéfano would make his mark. He paved the way for generations of Latin Americans to make their names in Europe. His greatness lay not just in his skill but also in his speed.

“In every era, one can apply Einstein’s theory of relativity to its best players,” said Oscar Barnade. of the Argentine newspaper Clarín. “There’s nothing faster than light. At the end of the 1940s, during a time of much slower-paced soccer, Di Stéfano revolutionized the attack of River.

“Speed and precision in ball control; physical and mental speed. He ran the length and breadth of the pitch. There was no one like him.”

Pelé, Johan Cruyff and Maradona all followed suit and confirmed the theory that the greatest players have had speed in addition to talent.

In Lionel Messi, Argentina has found its new messiah. Like Di Stéfano, he plies his trade outside the continent of his birth, but he remains in the best tradition of Latin American football.

It is now Messi’s World Cup for the taking, though Argentina’s dream of meeting (and beating) Brazil in the final will not be.

Argentina may be in mourning for one of its greatest players, but Brazil will not mourn this World Cup team after a 7-1 demolition by a professional but unspectacular German team.

For the Brazilian writer Nelson Rodrigues, Brazil’s 1950 World Cup defeat highlighted a sense of inferiority about the country’s place in the world.

Not this time, though. This World Cup humiliation reflects what this tournament has failed to achieve for the country; it has merely managed to paper over the cracks in Brazilian society.

The defeat may be the wake-up call the country needs.

For Messi, however, history awaits. If he leads Argentina into the final against Germany, he will take his place alongside Di Stéfano as the greatest the continent has to offer.