Argentina don’t do it the easy way but if their defence of their World Cup is increasingly unconvincing, it goes on and on. Kansas City ended up bouncing like Buenos Aires, part of the Midwest resembling an Argentina home game, but euphoric scenes and a glorious goal stood in stark contrast to an utterly uninspired display.
They may not care. Not when they have a grudge match against England to concentrate the minds and a spectacular strike from Julian Alvarez to savour, arrowed into the top corner at the Arrowhead Stadium. Just when it seemed Argentina were hopelessly over-reliant on Lionel Messi, someone else delivered a moment of extreme quality. Then another Argentina centre-forward, Lautaro Martinez, gave the scoreline a flattering sheen in the 121st minute.
