Anytime your roster includes the names Lionel Messi, Angel Di Maria, Sergio Aguero, Gonzalo Higuain, Pablo Zabaletta, Javier Mascherano and Ezequiel Lavezzi, you are expected to be a top contender.

Thus were the expectations of Argentina heading into the 2014 World Cup. And while the team made a deep run all the way to the final -- and was just a goal away from taking the top prize -- the South American superpower failed to win the cup. Moreover, many felt that the team had not played in a manner deserving of a top crown.

This might not be completely accurate. But some context is necessary. With such major offensive superstars, people expected Argentina to score its way to the final. Many thought this would be necessary because the team's defense was seen as a weak point and was expected to implode against strong offenses.

But expectations were subverted. Argentina scored six times in the group round (against an admittedly easy group consisting of Iran, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Nigeria) with four of the tallies coming from Lionel Messi. However, once the knockout rounds arrived, the goals dried up in a big way. The team won 1-0 against a Swiss side that could have beaten them in regulation if not for some poor finishing. Then Argentina managed a 1-0 victory over a punchless Belgium before taking out the Dutch in a shootout after a scoreless 120 minutes.

While the goal scoring died away, Argentina's defense tightened up with Mascherano as the anchor in the middle of the midfield.

After that trek through the World Cup, Argentina's manager Alejandro Sabella decided to step down and made way for Gerardo Martino. And the Argentine's stint as the head coach of the national team could not have started off better than it did.

Argentina took on the Germans Thursday in Germany and ran out to a 4-0 lead before the hour mark had arrived. The team's shining beacon was Angel Di Maria, who set up three goals before making a fascinating run and chipping the ball of Roman Weidenfeller. It was an offensive display that had been completely absent in the World Cup tournament.

A lot of this has to do with Sabella and Martino. During qualifiers, Sabella seemed to let the offense do its thing without any restrictions. But when the big event came around, he turned cagey and conservative. He started his first group game with a 5-3-2 formation before reverting to a 4-3-3 in the second half of that same game. He kept tinkering with the formula throughout the tournament and never quite found the best way to get the most out of his players. He eventually settled on a 4-2-3-1, but his decision remained questionable throughout. Even in the final, his substitutions proved disastrous as he took out Lavezzi and Higuain despite the fact that they were the team's top players in the game.

Martino has always been about pressing high up the pitch and attacking. He is not one to worry too much about possession, but instead wants his players thinking about scoring with every chance they have. This is the kind of soccer he tried to institute (and failed to do so) at Barcelona in 2013-14 and it is the kind of soccer he had his team playing in its 4-2 triumph.

And the players clearly thrived in this environment. His 4-3-3 ensured that Di Maria played in his natural role as an attacker and gave him the necessary freedom to create. In the 4-2-3-1, Higuain was forced into being an isolated target man that was easy to smother. With the 4-3-3, the Germans were constantly overwhelmed by Aguero, Di Maria and Erik Lamela's interchanging runs.

The balance in the middle of the park remained but the creativity and speed of the play was more intense and successful for the Argentines. And all of this was without Messi.

The superstar heads into what will likely be his final major tournament in peak form when Argentina battles for the Copa America in Chile. When the World Cup rolls around in 2018 he will be 31 and probably a bit past his prime. He has never won a major tournament with the senior national side and the Copa America is his big chance to cement his international team legacy.

This system could surely play to his strength as he could play on the right side of Aguero interchanging with Di Maria. Furthermore, if both are healthy (neither was completely fit in the World Cup knockout rounds), then they will be a force to be reckoned with. With Martino's new system, Messi and company now look like contenders to win the tournament with their high scoring ways. Of the other major contenders, Colombia and Chile look the closest to being finished products. Brazil is undergoing a rebuild that could take some time to perfect while the other major nations (Venezuela and Ecuador for example) have never posed a major threat. Uruguay is unlikely to do much damage without Luis Suarez leading the way.

The main concern remains the defensive game, and that will be something Martino has to work on. Attacking constantly leaves a team susceptible at the back over the long run of 90 minutes. This happened at numerous intervals in the Germany game. The defending World Cup champs managed to get seven shots on target (two went in) and five missed the net. Of those five, a few were wasteful misses by Mario Gomez that would have been scored by a more capable player. And this was a German side that was arguably without some of its top players. Who knows how the Germans would have performed with a stronger group overall?

This means that while Martino may have found a way to get his Argentines finally firing offensively, he still needs to maintain the defensive balance that Sabella did manage to instill in his players.

For the latest sports news, follow Latin Post Sports on Twitter.

FOR MORE SOCCER NEWS AND SOCCER TRANSFER UPDATES, CLICK ON THIS LINK TO VISIT LATIN POST.COM'S SPORTS PAGE.

Want to Hear More from David? Like David Salazar's Page on Facebook

Related