Many of Argentina's top players came through the ranks of the youth teams, including Sergio Agüero, Pablo Aimar, Nicolás Burdisso, Esteban Cambiasso, Ángel Di María, Ramón Díaz, Fernando Gago, Diego Maradona, Jorge Burruchaga, Javier Mascherano, Lionel Messi, Juan Román Riquelme, Oscar Ruggeri, Gabriel Calderón, Sergio Goycochea, Sergio Romero, Maxi Rodríguez, Luis Islas, Luciano Galletti, Juan Pablo Sorín, Franco Costanzo, Walter Samuel, Javier Saviola, Jorge Borelli, Leonardo Biagini, Diego Simeone, Carlos Tevez, Erik Lamela, Éver Banega, Manuel Lanzini, and Pablo Piatti.

The team, coached by César Luis Menotti with the help of Ernesto Duchini (who had previously chosen the players and working with them),[1] won the tournament, showing a fine style of play consisting of high possession of the ball, diverse kinds of passes, dribbling, a solid defense and a powerful offensive line that scored a total of 20 goals in the tournament.

After his frustration of 1978, Maradona made the most of his performances during the tournament, being the best player of the team due to his passing moves, dribblings to rivals, his accuracy to shot free kicks and the six goals he scored.

Before every match, Diego played with the ball, putting it on his neck or his shoulders while the Japanese people couldn't stop applauding him.

In the quarter-finals, Argentina defeated Netherlands 2–1 (after Marco van Basten had opened the scored for the Oranje) and Poland 1–0 in the semi-finals.

[6] Some of the players that took part of that team were goalkeeper Leonardo Díaz, defenders Diego Cocca, Mauricio Pochettino and Pellegrino; midfielders París, Walter Paz Hugo Morales and Christian Bassedas; and forwards Marcelo Delgado and Esnáider.

In the first stage, Argentina defeated the Netherlands 1–0, then lost to Portugal 1–0 followed by a 4–2 win over Honduras, securing a second-place finish and progression to the quarter-finals, where they thrashed Cameroon by 4–0.

In semi-finals, Argentina beat Spain 3–0 then defeated Brazil 2–0 in the final, exacting revenge from the 1983 tournament where the Brazilians won.

Argentina showed the talent of notable players such as Leonardo Franco, Fabián Cubero, Leandro Cufré, Walter Samuel, Diego Placente, Esteban Cambiasso, Pablo Aimar, Juan Román Riquelme and Bernardo Romeo, many of them with already many matched played in the Primera División when the tournament began.

Argentina debuted in the José Amalfitani Stadium (the venue where the team played all its games in Buenos Aires) defeating Finland 1–0.

The next game Argentina thrashed Egypt 7–1 (with three goals by Javier Saviola), and closed its participation in Group A by smashing Jamaica by 5–1.

In the knockout round, Argentina successively eliminated China (2–1), France (3–1) and Paraguay (5–0), winning the tournament with a convincing 3–0 over Ghana at the final, played on 8 July at Vélez Sársfield.

Apart from the multi-awarded Saviola, the national squad had a powerful team with most of its players being experienced playing at the domestic first division, notably Nicolás Burdisso, Leonardo Ponzio, Julio Arca, Leandro Romagnoli, Mauro Rosales, Andrés D'Alessandro and Maxi Rodríguez.

[10][11] The 2001 championship was the last title won with Pékerman as coach, closing a brilliant era that brought back the prestige to Argentine football.

From the round of 16 to the semi-finals, Argentina successively eliminated Colombia (2–1), Spain (3–1) and Brazil (2–1) reaching the finals for the sixth time.

Other notable players for Argentina in that year were goalkeeper Oscar Ustari; defenders Ezequiel Garay and Julio Barroso, midfielders Pablo Zabaleta, Fernando Gago and Lucas Biglia and forwards Sergio Agüero and Neri Cardozo.

After a 0–0 draw in the debut with the Czech Republic, Argentina smashed Panama 6–0 and defeated North Korea[16] 1–0 to secure qualification to the second round.

Other notable players on the squad were goalkeeper Sergio Romero, midfielders Éver Banega and Maxi Moralez and forwards Ángel Di María, Mauro Zárate and Pablo Piatti.