Ugly Wins Still Count: 4 Takeaways From Argentina’s Latest Close Call vs. Switzerland

Another knockout game, another 120 minutes, another survival. Argentina beat Switzerland 3-1 in Kansas City on Saturday night, and the scoreline is lying to you — this was agony until the 112th minute, when Julián Álvarez decided to end it himself in stunning fashion. Here are my four takeaways from a quarterfinal that had everything, including a red card we’ll argue about for weeks: 1. Argentina Is The Cat With Nine Lives Let’s do the math on the champions’ knockout run: 120 minutes against Cape Verde, a miraculous comeback from 2-0 down against Egypt, and now 120 more against a Switzerland side that refused to die, even a man down. That’s three straight games where Argentina was thoroughly resistible — and three straight wins. Even Saturday’s early gift, Alexis Mac Allister heading in a Lionel Messi corner after 10 minutes, dissolved into an hour of sweating when Dan Ndoye equalized. Messi’s record scoring streak of nine straight World Cup games? Over. Argentina’s march? Not remotely. They’re unbeaten in 12 World Cup matches and headed to a seventh semifinal. At some point, you stop calling it luck and start calling it what it is: a team that simply refuses to be eliminated, no matter how hard it makes things for itself. 2. The Embolo Red: Harsh, Correct, or Absurd? Here’s the sequence, because you need the full absurdity. Breel Embolo went down theatrically, simulating contact that never came. The referee then booked … Leandro Paredes. Wrong decision as he never made contact with Embolo. That mistaken-identity card triggered the VAR review — and the review found the dive. Second yellow, off you go, Switzerland down to 10 for the final 50-plus minutes of their first quarterfinal since 1954. Was it technically correct? Yes. Embolo dived, and diving on a yellow is a self-inflicted wound that, by the letter of the law, warrants a yellow. But we understand the outrage, too: without the ref booking the wrong man, the simulation never gets reviewed. Right call, brutal path to it. Both things can be true. 3. Julián Álvarez, Finally. And What A Way To Announce It. We’ve spent three weeks asking where Julián Álvarez went. The Atlético Madrid striker flickered without igniting all tournament, while Messi carried the load, and the questions were getting louder by the game. Then came the 112th minute. Ten Swiss players camped behind the ball, Gregor Kobel having the game of his life, extra time slowly edging toward penalties. Álvarez collected it, opened his body, and curled an absolute painting into the top corner. No deflection, no rebound, no fortune — just a strike Kobel could only watch. It was the kind of goal you replay over and over in slow motion with your mouth agape (and comes in incredibly high in the top goals of the tournament.) If that’s the moment Álvarez wakes up, the timing is exquisite. Lautaro Martínez added the third on a breakaway in the 121st, but make no mistake: Álvarez won this game with one of the finishes of the tournament. 4. Wednesday’s Semifinal Will Be Won By Whoever Has Legs Left Pity these two semifinalists. England went to altitude at the Azteca to beat Mexico, then played 120 minutes against Norway in Miami with a heat index of 108 degrees — Jude Bellingham dragging them through with a brace, the winner off an Ørjan Nyland spill. Argentina has now played 240 minutes of extra time in three knockout games. Both teams finished Saturday looking like they’d run a marathon in a sauna, because essentially they had. The football gods have granted one mercy: Wednesday’s semifinal is in Atlanta, under a roof, with air conditioning. So the tactical question becomes brutally simple. Thomas Tuchel’s England is younger in key spots; Argentina has Messi and pedigree, but the older, heavier legs. Recovery, rotation and squad depth will decide this as much as anything drawn on a whiteboard. Whoever’s still sprinting in minute-85 goes to the final.