After Argentina’s false start, Lionel Messi is in the crossfire of criticism. Should the title dream really burst in the preliminary round, his monument would be badly scratched.
From the top of his cloud, Diego Maradona could only watch as the world swooped down on Lionel Messi.
Even the son of Argentina’s football god, who died much too early, etched heavily against his heirs after the embarrassing false start of the World Cup.
“Unacceptable,” said Diego Jr., whether it’s comparing his father and Messi. Even more: “We are talking about two different planets.”
If Argentina loses, it has been known for years, Messi loses most of all. The great Mario Kempes also indicated this after the 1: 2 (1: 0) disgrace against the outsider Saudi Arabia: “The great personalities of Argentina have not shown themselves,” judged the world champion of 1978. And there is a bigger one than Messi it doesn’t.
Argentina after embarrassment in the obligation to deliver
The captain himself made the journalists wait 90 minutes after the opening defeat and then tried to de-escalate in a calm voice. “It’s the moment to show that we’re really strong,” said the 35-year-old: “It’s been a long time since we went through such a situation and were in debt.”
This time everything should be different. By Tuesday, Argentina had not lost 36 times in a row and won the Copa America, among other things, in 2021 – the previous dry spell on the title, the failed Copa finals in 2015 and 2016 and all the criticism of Messi, who was unable to tear anything in the national jersey, were forgotten . Until now.
If it was only a matter of whether Messi would finally become world champion like Maradona in 1986 at his fifth and last World Cup, the euphoria has now evaporated. Without the golden trophy, Messi also knows that there will always be an asterisk next to his name in the history books in Argentina. If the Albiceleste fails in the preliminary round for the first time in 20 years, it would scratch his monument properly.
Doubts about Lionel Messi’s fitness
In the difficult group C, victories against Mexico and four days later against Poland are needed on Saturday (8 p.m. CET/ARD and MagentaTV) to win the round of 16 ticket, whereby Messi plays into the cards that the two opponents at the 0:0 took away the points. “Better to lose now than later in the tournament. We now have two finals ahead of us,” said goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez.
Messi’s performance against the Saudis – after his penalty goal for a 1-0 lead (10th) there was not much more, especially in the second half – reminded again of the man who had struggled so hard for Argentina for years.
And she raised doubts about his fitness at home. “He didn’t lack self-confidence to ask for the ball and to try,” wrote “La Nacion”: “But physically it’s very difficult.”
Before the opening game, rumors of an ankle injury had spread. That will now come back to the table, although Messi has said he feels ‘good’. “Messi showed almost nothing of what he did at Paris St. Germain in the first three months of the season: is he doing as well as he said at the press conference or does he have a physical problem?” wrote La Nacion. And if Lionel Messi has a problem, Argentina has a problem.