Messi, Aguero, Di Maria Follow Footsteps of Argentina's Angels with Dirty Faces

It has admittedly taken some time for Argentina to explode into action. But once the fuse was lit, the result was quite spectacular. Paraguay bore the brunt of a scintillating attacking display from trident Sergio Aguero, Angel Di Maria and Lionel Messi, backed up ably by Javier Pastore from midfield. 

The Guarani were blown away 6-1 with Di Maria netting twice and Aguero scoring a late header. Only Messi's goal was missing from the equation, but after one of his best performances to date in the Argentina shirt that included three assists and involvement in every single goal he has every right to be delighted. 

The verve and bare-faced effrontery showed by the trio (or perhaps quartet, to not diminish Pastore's hefty contribution) did more than just secure Argentina's place in the Copa America final. It brought to mind a golden era of Argentinian football, a time when even among heavy hits and non-existent referee's protection the forward ruled supreme. 

When the likes of Oreste Omar Corbatta, Humberto Maschio and Antonio Angelillo took the field, it was necessary not just to beat the opposite number with the ball but evade him entirely to avoid physical retribution. Despite this, the trio formed what was arguably the Albiceleste's greatest attacking line in history.

The names which stunned South American football in 1957 still roll straight off the tongue for fans of a certain age: Corbatta, Maschio, Angelillo, Omar Sivori and Osvaldo Cruz—the Angels with Dirty Faces. That forward line fired the nation to perhaps their best-ever performance in the South American Championship or Copa America, as it became known after 1975.

All but one of the 25 goals smashed home in just six matches came from a member of that quintet. Maschio, Racing Club's 23-year-old striker, gave a glimpse of what was to come in Argentina's opening match in Peru, played at Lima's Estadio Nacional. Bocha smashed a hat-trick, including two from the penalty spot, as Colombia were blown away 8-2, and the young star would finish top scorer with nine as five straight wins clinched the title. 

Angelillo was not far behind, netting eight. Both of those stars gave their farewell to the Seleccion in that tournament. The pair, alongside the immense Sivori, whose name adorns one of River Plate's stands to this day in tribute to his talent, were tempted by the lure of the Lira and left South America for Italy.

All three went on to have sparkling careers in Serie A; Angelillo finished as Capocannoniere for Inter in 1958/9, while Sivori formed a memorable partnership with the Gentle Giant, Welshman John Charles, which established Juventus as the best team in the country. That success did not come without its consequences; Angelillo, Terra recalls (in Spanish), was banned by the military dictatorship from returning to his country as his move coincided with national service, and the forward spent 20 years in exile. 

There are plenty of observers, however, who will swear that the best of the bunch was the man who elected to stay behind. 

Right winger Corbatta, known universally as El Loco, was perhaps the finest winger ever to come off the Argentinian production line. Born into grinding poverty, the Daireaux native turned up at Racing Club with nothing more than the shirt on his back as a wiry 19-year-old but soon became a fixture both at La Academia and in the national team. 

His dribbling skills led him to earn the nickname the Argentinian Garrincha. When in possession it was almost impossible to rob Corbatta of the ball, a fact that infuriated defenders. Uruguay's hardman Jose Sasias was one victim in a 1956 friendly, recalls Sam Kelly of Hasta el Gol Siempre: So incensed was he by the star's frequent humiliations that once he finally got hold of his tormentor, he administered a right-hander straight in his face, knocking out his front teeth. 

In the same year as the Angels with Dirty Faces won the South American Championship Corbatta wrote his name into history against Chile. Later in 1957 the wizard dribbled past no less than six markers and netted in the World Cup qualifier, in a goal that iconic U.S. magazine Life later immortalised in a photographic sequence. But Corbatta was tormented by personal demons. 

Illiterate and alcoholic, his career began to fade in a similar fashion to contemporary Garrincha's. By the late 1960s, he was playing in the Argentinian lower leagues and would eventually pass away in 1991 from alcohol-related illnesses aged just 55. His name now adorns a street in Avellaneda close to Racing's home ground, a fitting tribute for the legend. 

From that sparkling start to the competition, the results kept coming. Ecuador were dispatched 4-0 before archrivals Uruguay suffered a painful 3-0 reverse thanks to another double from Maschio. Chile were the next side to suffer the Argentinian wrath: The Roja were blown away 6-2, downed by a blitz of goals after half-time. Sivori opened the scoring before Maschio and Angelillo added two each, and a late penalty from Corbatta added insult to injury for the team that will battle for a first-ever Copa America title on Saturday. 

The title was sealed in style. A 3-0 drubbing of Brazil, who the very next year would go on to wow the world on the way to World Cup success in Sweden, gave Argentina an unassailable lead in the league structure that at the time decided the victor. Yes, it is a great team! was the title in Argentinian magazine Grafica, highlighting the contributions of Maschio, Angelillo and midfield rock Nestor "Pipo" Rossi in taking the glory. 

That title proved to be the golden farewell to Argentina's La Nuestra age, where beautiful football and non-stop attack were the be-all and end-all. 1957 saw the exodus of those aforementioned stars to Italy, and Sweden 1958 was a catastrophe on par with 1966 for Brazilian football as the Albiceleste were sent home in the first round. Long-term coach Guillermo Stabile was the first victim; the second was Argentina itself as an age of pragmatism, gamesmanship and safety-first play began. 

There is a world of distance between the world of 1957 and 2015, nowhere more so than in football. The likes of Corbatta would barely recognise the hyper-commercialised game of today, where players are rich beyond their wildest dreams and subject to a 24-hour media siege. But watching Messi and his partners run riot in Concepcion was a throwback to that more innocent age. 

La Pulga, Aguero and Di Maria were on fire against Paraguay, and if the trio and Pastore can recreate that same intensity and sustained skill in the Copa America final, they will more than deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as the mythical Angels with Dirty Faces of more than half a century past.