ESPN’s Taylor Twellman on Argentina’s “Sore Loser” Behavior in WC Loss to Spain

Seven cards for Argentina. Zero for Spain. And according to Taylor Twellman, the last nine cards of the entire World Cup went to one team.

That is where the conversation started, and it is the statistical fingerprint of a side that lost the game long before the final whistle.

Rich set the table with the numbers. Not much disparity in fouls committed, which makes the card count all the more telling. "They got in their grill, they got in their skulls, they got in their head," he said of Spain.

The desperation showed up in small ways first. At one point Messi tried to get Cucurella sent off by claiming he had covered his mouth, which Rich noted was clearly not what happened.

"That's how desperate they were, Rich," Twellman said. "They were desperate to get anyone out."

Then came the part Twellman actually wanted to talk about.

"What a disgrace the end of the game was," he said.

His verdict was immediate and unhedged. "It's a sore loser mentality. I hate it."

Two things set him off. The first was something he did not even know while he was texting Rich during the match: apparently not a single Argentina player was made available to the media in the scrum afterward. The second was the medal ceremony, and Twellman told viewers who missed it to go look it up themselves. Spain were collecting their medals. Argentina's players turned their backs.

Twellman knows how this sounds coming from a former player, and he got ahead of it.

"Maybe I'm old school," he said. "Maybe this is a part of my life where now I'm the old guy getting off my lawn."

But he also has standing that most critics do not. Twellman lost plenty of finals. He is one of four or five players in MLS history to lose four MLS Cups, three of them in a row. He knows precisely what that walk feels like, and he never once considered skipping the handshake.

"You still shake the hand of the opposition," he said.

He pulled a second example that had nothing to do with soccer. When he lost the American Century Championship to Joe Pavelski, who made eagle on 18 to beat him, Twellman still took his cap off.

"I'm not saying you need to go over and hug them and kiss them and all that," he said. "No."

And then the specific name, because there was one player who took it well past the line.

"After the game, Paredes, what are you doing, dude?" Twellman said. "It's a loser mentality to me. I struggle resonating with it."

What makes it sting is the contrast, and Twellman was careful to draw it. This same Argentina side had been genuinely captivating for a month. Extra time goals. Heroics that kept Messi's run alive. A second consecutive World Cup final.

All of that, and this is the image left behind.

"That's the picture I got to deal with," Twellman said. "If that was my teammate, if that was my team, I'd have a tough one standing by that. It really bothers me."