‘Messi remains box office’
Ahead of his final World Cup, Lionel Messi still attracts a crowd just to watch him train
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And now, the end is near, and so he faces the finals curtain. How fitting that in his last hurrah, as a glorious career comes towards its conclusion in his sixth World Cup finals, Lionel Messi targets the stadium seven miles from Frank Sinatra’s Hoboken birthplace. MetLife Stadium, setting for the World Cup final of July 19, is his aim. My way or the highway. At 38, time is against Messi, the ageing process undeniable, but the obsession with Argentina’s No 10 endures. Will the last dance be another triumphant tango?
Attending the world champions’ training in Kansas City yesterday felt almost a pilgrimage. Long drive to a parking lot on the edge of town, security check, shuttle bus (one of those yellow school vehicles crammed with excited media folk) to a heavily secured training complex. Then a further security check followed by a 200-yard walk in the searing afternoon heat to the pitches at the space-age home of MLS side Sporting Kansas City, temporary home of Argentina.
The facilities ranged from five pristine pitches to a neuro-psychology office, hyperbaric chambers and cryotherapy lab. But the focus was all on one human whose talent was innate not developed. Messi is ageing, slowing, far from the irresistible talent of old, but he’s still Messi, still a legend, still challenging Pele, Diego Maradona and Cristiano Ronaldo for the title of the game’s greatest.
Even a fading force, and slipping away down sunset boulevard, Messi remains box office. Two hundred or more media personnel gathered pitchside to watch Messi walk out. It was a privilege to be present, watching history made flesh, but also a sadness.
This World Cup is billed as the last dance for the Argentinian but the fear is that has already happened. That was four years ago in Qatar where Messi lifted the World Cup. He now plays, almost in semi-retirement compared to his glory years, for Inter Miami in MLS. Have Argentina quite moved on from him? Probably not. He is still their talisman, their record-breaker and defence dismantler. Wednesday’s game against Algeria in Kansas City provides the opportunity for his 200th cap and 118th international goal. There is plenty of talent in this team, including Julian Alvarez, Enzo Fernandez and Alexis Mac Allister. But Messi is still capable of magic.
Little could be told from training, a largely one-paced affair, certainly in the section that the media was permitted to film. Messi padded around in a rondo with Nicolas Otamendi and Cristian Romero, applying a flick here, a finish there into a small goal, unerringly accurate. But half-paced. But maybe that is how Messi works at 38: in moments, some inspired enough to win a game.
Even in a team of talents, Messi’s left foot stood out. In a team full of inked limbs, Messi’s left leg certainly stood out. One tattoo was of his hand on the World Cup, another was of the Barcelona crest. The dates of his children’s birthdays adorned his right leg.
Most of the camera lenses were trained on him to celebrate the genius and perhaps capture a moment of sublime skill, and also to record the moment for posterity. Time is running out, so let’s enjoy Messi while we can..
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Tournaments need hosts doing well. It can kill the vibe if a host goes out. So a strong start for Mexico, a recovery to take a point for Canada, and then a thumping victory for USMNT last night was important.
Some doubts had surrounded Mauricio Pochettino and his team. Not now. They were expected to be fit and full of effort. They were not expected to be as ruthless in transition and as technical. Christian Pulisic destroyed Paraguay’s right flank. Folarin Balogun plundered two goals down the middle in USMNT’s 4-1 win. It’s tempting to view those two through an English prism. It’s natural to wonder why Pulisic didn’t make it at Chelsea. The talent was there but at times he looked physically and mentally lost in the fray of the English game.
A product of Arsenal’s Hale End academy, and prolific in their youth teams, Balogun just didn’t click in the first team, partly because Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was in the way. He needed game time, and found it most at Reims and now Monaco. Going to France has been the making of Balogun, now 24. USMNT has plenty of talent, and now the charismatic Pochettino has made them believe.
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I don’t quite see why a skinny forward with short hair in a blue shirt should be mixed up with a tall defender with a pony-tail and red-and-white wavy top. But if “mistaken identity” gets used for punishing diving, and a VAR review permitted, then who cares? Simulation is a scourge on the game, guaranteed to alienate supporters. Stop the flop, as the Americans might say.
The Paraguayan attacker Miguel Almiron took a tumble when challenged by Tim Ream, the USMNT centre-back, in LA. There was no contact, VAR intervened, the referee Danny Makkelie reversed his decision, booked Almiron and rescinded Ream’s card. Justice done. There was nothing mistaken about the identity of those involved. The only mistaken element was an experienced referee being conned by Almiron.
VAR’s role has expanded to allow a review for “a player wrongly being shown a red or yellow card when the offence was committed by another player of either team”. Ream would have been on a booking and at risk of expulsion for a second caution. It is re-refereeing however much FIFA might argue it is within VAR’s original remit over mistaken identity. So what? If it gives officials an extra weapon in the fight against simulation then it has to be good.
The only element that felt wrong about the incident was the sight of MAKKELIE on the back of his shirt. Officials are not the stars of the show, even if the temptation was to applaud their zero tolerance for simulation.
Catch up on the rest of Henry Winter’s World Cup Diary here
