LUSAIL, Qatar – He’s 35 now, no longer quite the quicksilver dribbling phenomenon he once was, torturing opposing defenses, dominating some of the highest-level matches of the 21st century. He’s a more mercurial presence, drifting, watching, walking for long stretches as he waits for the optimal moments to expend his energy to change games, just as apt to do so with a pass as a shot.But Lionel Messi is still Lionel Messi. And he can still hoist a nation of 47 million soccer-obsessed people onto his back and carry them forward on the stage they love the most.Somewhere around 88,000 souls had the privilege of witnessing his latest such act in person at glittering, pulsating Lusail Stadium on Saturday night. That’s where Messi delivered Argentina — both the national team and the nation — from the collective agony they’ve been suffering since the shock 2-1 upset loss at the hands of Saudi Arabia.After more than an hour of tense, fraught and frankly ugly play, due in no small part to Mexico’s defensive tactics, Messi popped up in a fleeting pocket of space in Zone 14 to clip a daisy-cutting strike past Memo Ochoa to break the deadlock and spark euphoria, or perhaps something stronger and more haunting than that, among the legions of sky blue and white-clad supporters.“The days were very long, that’s how they felt, and we were eager to have a chance to turn the situation around. It was a critical game,” said Messi in Spanish in the postgame press conference, alluding to the opportunity to “start again” after this victory. “We knew that if we won today, we’d have another chance … It was a weight off our shoulders and peace of mind.”How much weight? On the Argentina bench, retired legend turned assistant coach Pablo Aimar wept next to manager Lionel Scaloni, visibly wracked with emotion as the tension broke. Afterwards manager Scaloni was asked about the moment.
Few sights demonstrate the pressure being heaped on this Argentina team like the site of assistant manager Pablo Aimar breaking into tears after today's vital Messi goal to help Argentina rebound from their opening game loss to Saudi Arabia. 🇦🇷 pic.twitter.com/JejuXfMQ4u
— Men in Blazers (@MenInBlazers) November 26, 2022
“It’s what you live when you are here,” he said. “The feeling that you are playing something more than a football match, that’s not nice, and that is what I was feeling … the feeling we all had was relief, and of course it is difficult to make people understand that tomorrow the sun will shine whether we win or lose.”This truly was a group-stage match with the jitters and the zero-sum vibe of a knockout match. Mexico’s Argentine manager Gerardo “Tata” Martino, said to be a favorite of Messi’s, who coached him on both the national team and FC Barcelona, went defensive with his lineup and shape, a 5-3-2 formation intended to stymie Messi & Co., and it just about worked.“The idea was to stop their midfield and then counterattack very quickly, finding spaces. We did achieve that in some ways, but we missed the final pass,” said the former Atlanta United coach, who now faces a steep road to reach the knockout stages and the withering public criticism that inevitably comes with that.Though it was a far cry from the vibrant, proactive El Tri sides of the past, much less Martino’s own high-octane philsophical identity, it seemed to frustrate Scaloni’s team and the mounting tension in this lavish bowl was palpable. Could Messi’s fifth World Cup really end in the group phase?It took a formation change to a 3-5-2 by the Albiceleste and some trademark Messi magic to provide the answer they sought.“Tata’s groups predominantly have the ball, get lots of numbers into the box, push the wingers high – it was quite the opposite, thus it was quite a closed game,” said Argentine midfielder Rodrigo De Paul. “But I think we had patience.”
Many had predicted this would be Argentina’s tournament. It’s Messi’s last dance (most likely) and quite possibly the apex of a group of players who with last year’s Copa America title finally cured their habit of losing finals. Losing to the unfancied Saudis right out of the gate had thrown all that into question, and a country with more psychologists per capita than anywhere on earth is expert at fretting over their team.“This brings us more calmness. After the loss I was very anxious, and wanted to reverse the situation. I really wanted the win,” said Messi, who surprised reporters by taking questions in the postgame mixed zone in addition to his role in the press conference as man of the match.“We have confidence in our group, our team. We haven’t lost much and we can’t reverse that because of just one loss, but it wasn’t easy to come and play against Mexico, which has a great national team, one that plays well, that runs a lot. It was a unique situation because we knew that one loss would make it very hard, and for many this was the second game in a World Cup, and all of that adds up.”
Messi and Argentina may well mount the march to the final that so many expected them to make; their next chance to display their championship credentials arrives on Wednesday versus Poland. This night’s drama suggests we’ll be on the edge of our seats whatever the outcome.“The feelings of joy and happiness that we won, of course they are there and they enjoy that in the dressing room. But that’s it, tomorrow we will prepare for the next game,” said Scaloni, whose team celebrated raucously in their Lusail locker room long after the final whistle. “We need to find that emotional balance when we win, when we lose.“On top of having great players,” he added, “we have Leo.”
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