that curled past goalkeeper Gregor Kobel in the 112th minute<\/a>. They couldn\u2019t fully relax until a few minutes later, when Lautaro Mart\u00ednez cleaned up the rebound in stoppage time and made it 3-1.<\/p>\nBefore then, it seemed Messi was the only one keeping a wobbly team stable. His historic nine-match World Cup scoring streak ended Saturday, but he was solid for the entire 120 minutes. His deft corner-kick assist allowed Alexis Mac Allister to score the game\u2019s opening goal. During tense moments, Messi was Argentina\u2019s release valve, always cool and opportunistic.<\/p>\n
Most of the time, you couldn\u2019t tell if Messi was playing in the biggest tournament on earth or going to get the mail. He sauntered. He fake-jogged. He stood as world-class athletes sprinted past him. For long stretches, the best player alive made the World Cup seem like his bus stop. Then the ball would find him, as if it had a tracker on Messi, and he would show that he controls the game at all times.<\/p>\n
At 39, the genius of Messi isn\u2019t evident in the way he moves. It\u2019s in his stillness. He economizes motion as only a master can, so still he borders on invisibility even though all eyes are on him. Lose him for the briefest period, the tiniest fraction of a second, and that stillness breaks to produce an assist, a half-yard of space, an unguardable angle, a shot that arrives before you realize it\u2019s coming. His skills wow like magic tricks. His slower pace now makes it all the more mesmerizing.<\/p>\n
Before that corner kick to Mac Allister, Messi walked so casually that you would\u2019ve figured he was headed down the driveway to get the morning newspaper. (Yes, he\u2019s old enough to remember the custom.) Then, all of a sudden, he changed the game\u2019s energy. Whether scoring or not, he is in constant command. It\u2019s like when Michael Jordan traded his aerial theatrics for a fadeaway jumper. It\u2019s an inspiring sight.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will do everything to make sure Messi wins the World Cup again,\u201d Alvarez said.<\/p>\n
The players yelled as much to their captain, and they hugged and bounced together following the triumph. But if this is indeed Messi\u2019s final World Cup, they won\u2019t be giving him a retirement gift as much as accepting one last blessing from a superstar.<\/p>\n
Inside Lionel Messi’s biggest career moments<\/p>\n
This is an ordinary team, until Messi conjures the extraordinary. His fingerprints are all over Argentina\u2019s spacing, the pressure they can apply, the exhausted panic he puts into a defense by simply deciding where to position himself. His gravity doesn\u2019t just draw the opponent; the deficiencies of his own team get absorbed too.<\/p>\n
Messi is the main attraction, and for large portions of the game, he is the spectator with the best seat in the house. Sometimes it feels like he\u2019s watching with us, but the thing is, he sees a different game. And he still has the greatness to take advantage of that vision.<\/p>\n
He is unhurried, unconcerned, refusing to do anything unnecessary. Time is not a concern, and suffering is not an impediment. Messi seems determined to walk at his own pace. You can only assume that also applies to his World Cup exit.<\/p>\n
His team isn\u2019t winning style points. Nevertheless, Argentina will meet England in the semifinal on Wednesday. The Argentines have had the least impressive run of the final four teams. They stumble and swear they\u2019re walking straight.<\/p>\n
But it doesn\u2019t matter. They\u2019re still Argentina. Most of all, Messi is still Messi. So they will head to Atlanta to play England, toting their mayhem and their good fortune with them. They\u2019re hoping to win another one for Messi, or to delight in Messi winning one for them. They won\u2019t nitpick survival because, at some point, all the drama doesn\u2019t complicate the mission. It is the mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KANSAS CITY, Mo. \u2014 In celebration, Lionel Messi was the first to rip off his jersey, the old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[1680,3350,31646,27399,3828,2019,17],"class_list":["post-102899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-switzerland","tag-argentina","tag-england","tag-fifa-mens-world-cup","tag-international-football","tag-opinion","tag-soccer","tag-switzerland"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116914410518506715","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Lionel](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2285711566-scaled.jpg\")
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