A thousand matches and 9 goals at the World Cup, more than Maradona. And Matthäus points. “Playing every three days is crazy, but the people’s contribution is really impressive”
December 4th
– Doha (Qatar)
It may be a gamble, but the impression is clear: we have never seen Messi so happy, especially wearing the albiceleste shirt. Leo’s smile at the end of the game, while he sings with his teammates in front of the only real curve of this World Cup, is full of light. He looks for the family, he greets, he is satisfied. Leo seems sincerely happy, and watch out because according to maestro Johann Cruijff this is the first commandment to respect on the pitch: “Salid y disfrutad”, the Dutchman said in Catalonia: go and have fun. Yesterday Messi evidently did it, and he brought the world with him. Let’s leave Bangladesh alone, where it has millions of adepts who go crazy for him at every game, Leo made the neutrals stand up because until the seventh minute of added time of a game still open, with his fragile teammates on the verge of a crisis of nerves, he dribbled, ran, assisted, guided, fully deserving of the award for best player of the evening. Vintage Messi slalom, with feints, accelerations, pauses and opponents left in the lurch. “The support of the people is impressive, really. They give us an enormous boost – he said after the match -. Playing every three days is crazy, but we wanted to be here for what it feels like with these people. We must continue like this united, Now comes the hard part.”
Switch to red
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It would have been sensational to leave the World Cup on the day of the thousandth match. No, the story between Messi and international football could not end like this. It has to go on, and Leo has made sure that it does. In a game up to that point still, ugly, without creativity, he invented a goal with his “pase a la red” on which he should put the copyright. The passage to the net, literally, that billiard shot with the inside of the left foot that sends the ball with grace and care wherever he wants, usually an undefended corner of the opponent’s goal. There is no need for immeasurable force, for violence. The ball must be treated well and that’s what Leo has been doing on a professional level since 16 October 2004, when he played his first official match with Barça in a derby against Espanyol. He was 17 years old.
symbolic goal
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Today he is 35 and is at the center of his fourth and last World Cup. He finally has the nation at his side, and at his service a national team and a coach who know they can only win thanks to him, like a year ago in the Brazilian Copa America. Messi’s goal is doubly symbolic. It served him to overtake Diego Maradona in the number of goals scored in the World Cup, 9 to 8 with Batistuta leading the Argentine group to 10, but above all he shattered a taboo that weighed oppressively on Messi’s extraordinary curriculum. That against Australia is Leo’s first goal in a knockout match at a World Cup.
The best in history
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Messi reached 23 matches in the World Cup yesterday, joining Paolo Maldini on the podium. Miro Klose will grab against the Netherlands on Friday. If he wins, he will become the player with the most matches in the history of the World Cup: Lothar Matthäus stopped at 25 and the semifinal guarantees another match, for first or third place. Leo would therefore reach 26. For Messi and his companions, the crescendo is creepy: Australia, Holland, in the case of Brazil. “La Pulce, or Leo depending on how you want to call him, is the number one in the history of football” said Luis Enrique on Twitch last night as Argentina challenged Australia. The Spain coach answered a question about Leo and Diego: “But why do we always have to make comparisons? It’s different times, different teams, different people. Maradona showed us that it was possible to win a World Cup alone, but Leo is the best of all”. And also the happiest, it seems.
December 4 – 09:36
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