Man, 2014. It still feels like yesterday, even though it was forever ago. That World Cup Final against Germany. We were so close. So incredibly close. If you’re anything like me, that game still pops into your head every once in a while, and that familiar, nagging pain of the miss, the near-win, just washes over you again. It’s the one that got away, the one that almost wrote history for a generation.
I’ve been watching a lot of old football clips lately, just trying to scratch that nostalgic itch. A few weeks back, a replay of the Argentina-Netherlands semi-final popped up in my feed. I watched the whole thing, the tension, the penalties, the euphoria. But then I started thinking about the Final itself and the guys who were actually on the field that day. I realized something embarrassing: my memory was totally shot. I could name the big five, sure, but the full 23-man roster? The guys sitting on the bench, watching their dreams crumble? I couldn’t do it. And that just felt wrong.
It’s a historic squad, a squad that was one goal away from immortality, and I felt like I was disrespecting the guys who weren’t the global superstars by letting their names fade. So, I made a decision. I wasn’t just going to look up the starting 11 for the final; I was going to map out the entire 23-man traveling party, the official squad that went to Brazil and made that incredible run. I wanted to know every single name, every backup striker, every third-string keeper. This wasn’t just research; it was a personal history project.
I kicked off the whole thing by pulling up old news archives. I started broad, looking for any official announcement from the AFA (Argentine Football Association) from back in early June 2014. That was a messy process. You know how old forum posts and news sites are—half the links are broken, and the other half just talk about Messi and Di María. I quickly realized I needed to hone in on official FIFA tournament documents, the stuff that was concrete and reliable. I spent the better part of a Saturday morning just trawling through pdfs that looked like they were typed on a dusty old computer in 2005.
The process quickly turned into a serious exercise in data entry and cross-referencing. My first step was simply gathering the full list of 23 names. Then, I began assigning them their positions and their actual shirt numbers. That was crucial for locking the memory in. It wasn’t enough to just have the name; I needed to know that Demichelis was number 15 and that Palacio was number 18.
The Digging Process: Roster vs. Final Lineup
The real fun started when I began sifting through the match reports, specifically for the Final, to identify the starting XI and the three official substitutes. This is where most casual fans get it wrong, and frankly, where my buddy, Marco, got it wrong last week. Marco was bragging over coffee that he remembered the whole team. He was yapping on about how some guys must have started because they were huge names. I bet him a full dinner that he couldn’t name the actual 11 starters and the exact three subs in the Final. That little wager fueled the last leg of my research.
I pulled up the official FIFA match sheet. Seeing the names written down side-by-side with the guys who didn’t even make the bench for that game was a powerful reminder of the depth and the pressure. For example, looking at the bench reminded me that Enzo Pérez was on the field for the Final, and guys who were massive earlier in the tournament, like Gago, started on the bench.
Finally, I constructed my definitive, two-part list. This list is what I achieved after piecing everything together and it serves as my personal reference guide. It memorializes every guy who wore the Albiceleste shirt in that phenomenal, heart-breaking run. It showed me the full scope of the commitment, not just the names that made the headlines.
Here’s what I ended up with after all that digging. I finally nailed down the full squad that was one game away from pure glory.
- The Starting XI in the Final: These guys started the last match.
- The Substitutes: The three brave souls who came on to try and change the course of history.
- The 23-Man History Makers: The full list including the guys who warmed the bench or didn’t get minutes in the Final but were part of the journey.
I felt a sense of completion when I finished writing the names down. It wasn’t just a list; it was a record of an emotional roller coaster. Even the players who saw zero minutes—they lived every moment of that tournament just as intensely. This squad truly changed the narrative around the national team, even if they had to wait eight more years for the ultimate prize. Now I can pull out this knowledge anytime and remind people of how close we were. And yeah, Marco owes me dinner. Totally worth the effort of building this definitive record.
