JOHANNESBURG

Dear Diego: It is high time that we critics say sorry, and thank you.

We misjudged your appointment as coach. We believed that Julio Grondona, the 78-year-old president of Argentina’s soccer federation, had lost all sense of reason in asking you, a fading icon without a coaching badge, to pick up a broken national team and lead it through this World Cup.

Well, so much for so-called expertise.

Whatever happens between Argentina and Germany in Cape Town on Saturday, your team has been the joy of this tournament.

You have breathed life into an overly cautious era in the sport. Your players — Lionel Messi, of course, and Carlos Tévez, Gonzalo Higuaín and others — have blown away inhibition.

The talent is obvious, even to us failed know-it-alls. The group of players you inherited was clearly unbalanced. You have more forwards than you need, and too few defenders of real quality.