Then came the final, replete with fouls, brawls on the pitch and the Argentine squad turning their backs when Spain received the World Cup trophy.
The New York Times called it a “tetchy, petulant and distasteful performance”.
Former Germany player Thomas Hitzlsperger wrote on X that the team were “disgusting sportsmen” and British television personality Piers Morgan said “they basically just went around whacking as many Spanish players as they could”.
Near Ezeiza Airport, where thousands of fans welcomed the players returning to Buenos Aires on Tuesday, Maximiliano Heredia, a 35-year-old construction worker, said: “We’ve always been criticised, we’re used to it. But we always give it our all”.
‘Our rebelliousness irritates them… we love it’
Many Argentines online wore the criticism as a badge of honour.
“There’s something about Argentine irreverence that they can’t tolerate. Our rebelliousness irritates them, enrages them… they call us cocky, cheaters, dirty. And we love it, it fills us with pride,” journalist Pedro Rosemblat wrote on his Instagram.
Sports journalist Ezequiel Fernandez Moores told AFP that some criticism was justified: “Sometimes we think we’re the centre of the universe, that God and our own navel are Argentine.”
He said local football codes of provocation, mockery and boasting did not translate to a global audience.
“We can’t expect the world to understand us, our way of being, feeling and expressing ourselves,” he said.
Nevertheless, the team turning their backs on Spain as they received the cup was “not right”, he said.
The lawyer Simone rejects the notion that physical play makes Argentina a violent team.
“Argentina is a team that fights hard, like almost all South American football, but Spain also resorted to tactical fouls,” he said.
“It’s football: if you don’t like being hit, play volleyball.”
For Evelio Rubio, a 47-year-old Venezuelan neurologist who has lived in Argentina for a decade, it is impossible to understand from outside how “football is experienced here”.
For a Venezuelan accustomed to his national team not winning titles, experiencing that passion from within “is spectacular”.
Racism accusations
Argentine fans and some players have also faced accusations of racism – such as a chant sung by the team in the past mocking the black players on the French team as not being really French.
There is also a long history of club-level fans throwing bananas on the field or making monkey gestures at Brazilian fans or black players.
During this World Cup, Fifa condemned racism in a statement after an Argentine supporter told a black US influencer known as IShowSpeed to go “cry at the zoo” during a livestream.
American actor Samuel L. Jackson stirred controversy when he urged black people in an Instagram story not to support Argentina, which he dubbed one of “the most racist countries in the world”.
Sociologist Ivan Schuliaquer of the National University of San Martin said people should not take racism related to football and apply it generally to Argentine society and history.
This racism exists and should not be denied, he said.
“But, in many cases, these labels come from colonising countries that have not yet fully resolved the issue of racism.”