Argentina returned home from the World Cup with their tails between their legs and without a coach after their quarter-final exit to Germany prompted Jose Pekerman to announce he was quitting.
If the penalty shootout loss and Pekerman's exit was the effect then the resulting search for the cause suggests the two-time champions lacked a touch of magic to turn a draw and an ensuing lottery from the penalty spot into what would have been a famous victory.
In short, the Albiceleste lacked a Diego Maradona.
PHOTO: EPA
Yet in reality, there were was one on the sidelines, while the other failed to even make it into Berlin's Olympic Stadium.
Maradona himself had attended all his country's matches but refused to attend the Germany game after FIFA refused to give a member of his entourage a ticket because the person in question had behaved "aggressively."
Even slimmed down these days after winning his battle with cocaine, Maradona can no longer answer Argentina's prayers as they seek to fill his mythical number 10 shirt.
But the 19-year-old Lionel Messi, described by the great man as the "new Maradona," sat on the sidelines as Pekerman inexplicably left his precocious talents on the Argentine bench throughout the Berlin battle.
Pekerman's excuse was that a goalkeeping substitution forced on his men after Roberto Abbondanzieri had to go off with a hip injury meant he was running out of permutations.
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