Argentina's Coach Knows Way to Ultimate Prize
He is a man on a mission, so it is easy to forget that Daniel Passarella of Argentina has won two World Cups.
The first came at home in 1978, when Gen. Jorge Rafael Videla, head of the military junta that was responsible for the disappearances and deaths of tens of thousands of Passarella's countrymen, triumphantly handed him the trophy.
'If I'd known then what was happening, I wouldn't have played at all,' Passarella, the captain of that team, has said.
The second came in 1986, when he was on the Argentine roster, but because of an illness, only got to watch from the bench.
Today Passarella is the Argentine national technical director and coach. There is an eight-foot fence around Argentina's training base in L'Etrat. He has decided to keep distractions to a minimum as the team prepares for Tuesday's second-round match against England, in what is viewed as a grudge match. The English will never forget Diego Maradona's handball that became a goal in the 1986 quarterfinals.
'I didn't sleep for four days afterward,' said England's coach, Glenn Hoddle, who played in that match.
Argentina, a foreboding mix of polished veterans and gifted youngsters, is clearly the favorite against England. Argentina has not given up a goal in its last eight matches, and with the midfielder Juan Veron, who excels at organizing; the midfielder Ariel Ortega, who excels at creating, and the striker Gabriel Batistuta, who excels at scoring, its strengths are hardly on the back line alone.
'We are gathering strength,' Passarella said after his team defeated Croatia to win Group H.
Only two other men have won World Cups as players and coaches: Mario Zagallo of Brazil and Franz Beckenbauer of Germany, but Passarella already shares a continent with Zagallo and a nickname with Beckenbauer.
At home, the stylishly dressed Passarella is known as El Kaiser. At age 45, he is as focused and unflinching a coach as he was a central defender in a fine career that took him from the Argentine club River Plate to the Italian First Division.
He was a high-scoring defender, in part because he often took penalty kicks. But he is best remembered for his intensity, and it is telling that he received a red card in the club match intended to honor his career.
When he took over the national team in 1994, the squad had just been through a divisive experience at the World Cup in which it had started brilliantly and then self-destructed after Maradona tested positive for the ephedrine, a banned substance sometimes used as a stimulant, and was suspended from the tournament. Passarella, who had coached River Plate to three Argentine titles, took over with the intention of emphasizing rigor and professionalism. But what would become the biggest conversation piece at home and abroad was Passarella's decision to ban long hair.
Not everyone acquiesced. Fernando Redondo, one of the world's finest defensive midfielders, refused to cut his hair for the cause, and though Passarella has since ended the ban (just look at Batistuta now), he and Redondo have yet to reconcile.
Passarella did irritate Batistuta, Argentina's career leading scorer with 46 goals, by leaving him off the team for much of 1997 and choosing to rely on Hernan Crespo and other young players he had coached at River Plate and at the Olympics in 1996, where Argentina won the silver.
Dropping Batistuta ignited a thousand arguments in the streets and cafes of Argentina, but there was no arguing with the results. With its star striker, Argentina had only 10 points in seven matches and was in third place in the South American qualifying race. Without him, Batistuta would go on to defeat Colombia in Colombia and finish first.
But Passarella did not leave Batistuta off his World Cup team, and 'Batigol' has responded with four goals in three games in France.
WORLD CUP '98