The Japan Times - Loyalty could be fatal to Argentina's World Cup title defence, says Bertoni

Argentina will once again be led by their talisman Lionel Messi with 16 other players from the 2022 vintage in their squad for the tournament being co-hosted by the US, Mexico and Canada.

"I think Argentina is a candidate (for the title), given our record of reaching the final six times and winning three of them," said 71-year-old Bertoni.

"But if we believe we will be champions again due to our name, and on what we have accomplished (in the past), that is a mistake.

"The thing that can really kill Argentina, is the coach relying too much on the players who won them the crown four years ago."

Bertoni, who scored in Argentina's 3-1 win over the Netherlands in the 1978 World Cup final in Buenos Aires and was part of the squad four years later that exited in the second round, is also worried about Messi's fitness.

He has been named captain with the expectation he will have recovered from the hamstring issue that sparked his request to leave the pitch last Sunday during his side Inter Miami's Major League Soccer match with Philadelphia.

"He is still a pivotal player," said Bertoni.

"But he is close to 40 years old (he will be 39 on June 24) and you have to see how he is physically when he turns up.

"He is no longer playing at the top level club-wise and also he will miss (Angel) Di Maria, who after Messi, was crucial at the 2022 World Cup."

- 'Passage of time' -

Bertoni, who played in Europe following the 1978 triumph for clubs including Sevilla and Napoli, said being defending champions brings its own pressures, as he well knows from 1982.

"It is a huge pressure," he said.

"Everything depends on the state of the squad, and the ability of the coach to bring together two realities: to impress on the players they are world champions, but that it is imperative they go out there and put up a serious defence of it.

"At the 1982 World Cup we thought because we were world champions we could win it again with (Diego) Maradona and other new players.

"However, it is always tough, everyone wants to win it."

The triumph of Bertoni and his team-mates -- including Daniel Passarella, Mario Kempes and Osvaldo Ardiles -- on home soil took place under the gaze of military dictator General Jorge Videla who had seized power from Eva Peron in 1976.

The junta's human rights abuses -- torturing and disappearing of political prisoners -- tarnished for some the victory.

There have been concerns expressed over this year's edition due to some of the policies of the Trump administration.

Bertoni though says the US squad will only have one thing on their mind, just as he and his team-mates had in 1978.

"At the time we did not really know what was going on in the country," he said.

"We knew there was a military government that was detrimental to the nation, that a kind of guerrilla war was going on, but we did not know about the disappeared, we learned about that later with the passage of time.

"I think players go to a World Cup to play, and to show what they know how to do.

"We are athletes, and in that capacity we are only responsible for what we do on the pitch."

K.Yoshida--JT