The Argentina national football team is the national football team of Argentina and is controlled by the Asociación del Fútbol Argentino (AFA).
Argentina is one of the most successful national football teams in the world, and currently #1 in FIFA ranking, having won 2 World Cups in 1978 and 1986. Argentina has been runners up twice in both the 1930 World Cup and 1990 World Cup. Argentina has also won the Copa América a record 14 times, tied with Uruguay. Moreover, Argentina has also won the Confederations Cup and the gold medal at the Olympic football tournament in 2004. Prior to that occasion Argentina had obtained two silver medals in the 1928 and 1996 editions. On other levels of international competition Argentina has won the FIFA U-20 World Cup a record six times. The FIFA U-17 World Cup is the only FIFA international competition yet to be obtained.
History
La Selección, also known as the Albicelestes (Light blue and whites), has appeared in four World Cup finals, including the first final in 1930, which they lost 4-2 to Uruguay. Argentina won in their next final in 1978, beating the Netherlands 3-1. Argentina, led by Diego Maradona won again in 1986, a 3-2 victory over West Germany. Their most recent World Cup final was in 1990, which they lost 1-0 to Germany by a much disputed penalty.
Argentina has been very successful in the Copa América, winning it fourteen times and also winning the 'extra' South American Championships in 1941, 1945 and 1946.
Argentina also won six of the fourteen football competitions at the Pan American Games, winning in 1951, 1955, 1959, 1971, 1995 and 2003.
Argentina also won the FIFA Confederations Cup and the Kirin Cup, both in 1992. Argentina also won the Olympics football gold medal in Athens 2004.[1]
In March 2007, Argentina reached the top of the FIFA World Rankings for the first time.[2]
Facts
1964 line-up for the Nations' Cup
1964 line-up for the Nations' Cup
* Argentina and Uruguay hold the record for the most international matches played between two countries.[citations needed] The two teams have faced each other 161 times since 1901. The first match against Uruguay was the first official international match to be played outside Britain.[3]
* Marcelo Trobbiani was a member of the Argentina world cup squad in 1986, but he only managed two minutes of play in the entire tournament, he came on in the 88th minute of the World Cup Final against West Germany. This two minutes of football equalled the world record for the shortest World Cup career set by Tunisia's Khemais Labidi in 1978.
* In the 2006 World Cup Leandro Cufré was given a red card and sent off after the end of the Quarter Final game with Germany for his part in the brawl after the match, even though he was a substitute and had not participated in the game itself. It is the only occasion of a player being sent off in a FIFA World Cup match after the final whistle. Four years earlier, in the 2002 World Cup Claudio Caniggia was sent off for swearing at a match official from the substitute bench.
