How do you play a football game after an emotion as strong as you enjoyed Leo Messi, Dibu Martinez and all the world champions reuniting on a field with their people, with the Argentines, after the victory in Qatar? Is it possible to lucidly run after the ball after the massive welcome to the renewed River Monument, collapsed about 85 thousand people? Can they face 90 minutes after singing the song with their children and shed tears, perhaps reviewing each moment of conquest for memory? You have to see the faces of 10 (sensitized to the extreme), the archer-hero (closed all the time), the coach scaloniin tears…
Exactly another Lionel, the coach, started in the same eleven that started in the World Cup final against France. Up front is Panama, a more modest Central American team that arrives without its coach and without most of its figures as it heads up a crucial match against Costa Rica for the Concacaf Nations League.
Goals are made to wait
In the middle of this ultra-emotional climate, beyond the shocking difference in ranking with the opponent, beyond the white-and-blue monologue, Argentina and Messi struggled to find the goal. Longer than expected. The goal of the National Team lasted 77 minutes and the captain 88!
For Messi It was a special day not only because it was his country’s first match as world champion. Also because as a hook it has the possibility to get to 800 career goals if he converted one and 100 in Selection if he got two. And Leo tried it by being the best of the night, purely competitive, offering a crack version to those who saw him for the first time from the stands after paying VIP prices for tickets.
He looked for him and Messi looked for him. He had three free throws: one hit the post and the other two ended up saving shots by José Guerra, that goalkeeper who seems obsessed with being the villain of the party. Also, on another occasion, Leo stacked the rivals, but the last shot went over the top. Also on top of the crossbar the captain nodded in solitude.
Time passed. Scaloni, of course, made changes. At halftime, the two Martínez (Lisandro and Lautaro) and Tiago Almada for Nicolás Otamendi, Julián Álvarez and Alexis Mac Allister. Then, Paulo Dybala and Leandro Paredes for Angel Di María and Enzo Fernández. The last variant, Nicolás Tagliafico’s Marcos Acuña.
Until another free throw comes, another left kick from Messi and again the stick to frustrate his own cry. However, that fine shot proved to be the key to spoiling the result, as the rebound was grabbed by Almada, who found the goal with a left-footed shot. Of course, the celebration of the best is missing. There was a fifth free kick, which he kicked over. And the sixth execution came with a stopped ball, the “defunct”. This time Leo’s shot was nailed at an angle, to the top left of the goalkeeper. And the Monumental is disarmed. “Messi, Messi, Messi…”. It was the 800th goal of his career: 701 with the clubs and 99 with the light blue and white. Almost nothing is left.
The epilogue should be like this. Good up. In another soccer gift from the genius to collect. Better ending, impossible. Now yes in the party of the 10th and this Argentina world champion nothing is missing.
Source: La Verdad
I am Shawn Partain, a journalist and content creator working for the Today Times Live. I specialize in sports journalism, writing articles that cover major sporting events and news stories. With a passion for storytelling and an eye for detail, I strive to be accurate and insightful in my work.
