Marcelo Bielsa, Greece and Redemption
The Olympic Stadium in Athens holds a very special place in Marcelo Bielsa's heart as it was the setting where the Argentinian manager found redemption. Bielsa had traveled from pillar to post with the Argentina international team and failed to achieve any great success, despite their ability to play breathtaking football. However, when he arrived in the heart of what was formerly Ancient Greece in 2004 for the Olympic games, years of exhausting hard work paid off and Bielsa's dreams came to life.
In the present day, thanks to the likes of Lionel Messi who has represented Argentina since 2005 on the world stage, the international squad are regarded as strong contenders within tournaments like the World Cup. For example, already, Argentina are 11/1 in the football odds to be declared the World Cup winners for 2022. However, at the Olympic games of 2004, there was a mixed outlook on the final. Despite the bookmakers' confidence in the idea of Argentina absolutely dominating Paraguay, Bielsa had overseen far too many unexpected defeats during his time as manager and felt there could be no such guarantees for this match either. That's just the nature of the football that Bielsa demands from his players: it can cause unforeseen heartbreak but it can also result in euphoric celebration.
Luckily it all paid off and under the shadow of the Acropolis, Bielsa would win a gold medal, finally having something more to show for a life that had been solely dedicated to football.
🥇 | On this day in 2004, Marcelo Bielsa's @Argentina won Gold at the Athens Olympics, defeating neighbours Paraguay 1-0 in the final match, with a goal from Carlos Tévez. pic.twitter.com/1m3itFl9SR
— Newell's Old Boys - English (@Newells_en) August 28, 2020
The 1-0 scoreline would suggest that it wasn't a final to write home about but in fact, the opposite is true. It was a final that lives long in the memory and perhaps that's the case because of the unusual time that the final was played. After all, it's very uncommon for a football match to kick off at 10 o'clock in the morning. There was a somewhat eerie feeling that filled the Olympic Stadium during the national anthems.
Even though it was a late August morning and a mere 48 hours from the beginning of September, the Greek sun shone down with malice on the players. Every now and then a cooling breeze off the Aegean Sea would blow through the stadium and the pace of play would pick up. Eventually, it would be Carlos Teves that scored the goal that would send Argentina into pandemonium. Keep in mind, Buenos Aires is six hours behind Athens but you can be certain that nobody went to bed on the night before the final, and just as sure that the celebrations lasted long into the evening.
Whilst there may have been raucous celebrations half the word away, it was a different story for Bielsa who upon the final whistle, looked briefly upwards into a blue Athens sky before going over to shake the hand of Carlos Jara Saguier, the Paraguayan head coach. Indeed, there was no grand outpouring of emotion and before you knew it, the Argentine has slipped down the tunnel and out of the limelight.
Looking back now, the football summer of 2004 was truly astonishing with Greece playing a huge part in making it so. Yes, it was the country where Bielsa found redemption after years of failure, however, it was also Greece that shocked the world just a month prior by winning the Euros against Portugal. Indeed, the world owes Greece much gratitude for their role in reminding everyone of the extraordinary power of the beautiful game.
Rewind to Greece winning Euro 2004 with THIS goal 🤤pic.twitter.com/R2ad0FyV0Y
— Goal (@goal) February 11, 2021
And as for Bielsa and what happened to him after the 2004 final?
In true Bielsa style, he walked into Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport a few days after to board a plane back to Argentina. When he arrived back home, he would stun the world by resigning as manager of the national team. For the next three months, no one heard from him after he entered a convent with just a bag of books.
