Defeat to Saudi Arabia was jarring. The opening half vs. Mexico was worrying. But not to fret, Argentina: Lionel Messi is still your savior.
The dream for Lionel Messi and Argentina, for now at least, lives on. Lionel Scaloni’s side will have to play an awful lot better than this if Messi is to win the World Cup at his fifth attempt. But the most important thing against Mexico on Saturday was simply to win, to get this World Cup campaign up and running and to claim three points that mean victory over Poland in four days will secure progress to the last 16.
It was, of course, Messi who turned the game, a 2–0 triumph at the stadium that will host the World Cup final three weeks from Sunday. Who else could it have been? Who else will it ever be? It’s always about Messi. There is something elegiac about watching him now, knowing that every match could be his last at a World Cup. He is 35, his body beginning to fail him. He will surely not be at the World Cup in the U.S., Mexico and Canada in four years. Every game is played with a sword hanging over him. Had Argentina lost here, had it been eliminated, would he even have turned out against Poland? Rumors persist about his calf strain.
And this could easily have been a draw, if not outright defeat, and after losing to Saudi Arabia, that latter scenario would have put Argentina out after just two games. For the first half, Argentina was wretched—and it was fortunate Mexico was not much better. That Scaloni had made five changes from the opening game, albeit a couple of them forced by injury, suggested just how rattled he was, which, after a run of 36 games unbeaten, seemed remarkable. All the talk of stability and balance that dominated the optimistic build-up to the tournament gone in one slightly freakish four-minute spell against the Saudis.
Ariel Schalit/AP
“The days felt very long,” Messi said of the period after the opening defeat. “We were eager to have the chance again to turn the situation again. We knew this was a critical game. We were very much aware of what we wanted to do. We had to play calm, we knew that we were going too fast at times and therefore we made mistakes. We wanted to find the spaces, but then the situation led us to play in a different way.”
This felt a lot like Italia 1990, when Argentina, having suffered a shock defeat in the opener, went back to Bilardista basics, and wrestled and spoiled and fought like cornered pumas to scrap its way out of the group and go all the way to the final. That instinct lies deep within the footballing culture; gone were the neat patterns of qualifying and last year’s Copa América win and in their place were blunt aggression and stubborn defiance. Mexico is never slow to accept an invitation to wrestle. By halftime there had been four times as many fouls as shots. It was desperate stuff.
But after dropping Guido Rodríguez deeper to operate as a third central defender, Argentina improved.
“The first half wasn’t good from either side,” Scaloni said. “But we made some adjustments at halftime and then we started playing more aggressively.”
Necessity made it crisper, but Messi kept dropping deeper, a sure barometer of Argentinian woe. And then, after 64 minutes, it happened. Ángel Di María played the ball in from the right. Messi, for once, was unmarked, just outside the box. He took a touch and then drilled a low shot into the bottom corner.
The emotional release was profound. Messi’s arms were going up in celebration even as the ball left his foot. He sprinted to a pocket of Argentina fans in the corner, fists pumping, eyes streaming, passion etched on his face. If it turns out to be his last World Cup goal, it was a brilliant one and, yet again, it got Argentina out of difficulty. Again and again, he has to sort out these messes himself.
“The feeling we all had was relief,” said Scaloni, who has spent much of his reign trying to convince Argentinians to feel football less dramatically. The reaction of assistant Pablo Aimar to Messi’s goal, sobbing on the bench, suggests he has some way to go.
Hassan Ammar/AP
“It’s difficult to make people understand that the sun will shine whether you lose or you win,” Scaloni went on. “We need to find an emotional balance.” The players celebrated with abandon in the dressing room for well over an hour, suggesting Scaloni may have work to do with his squad as well.
Nevertheless, once it was ahead, Argentina could relax. Suddenly there were signs of the team that had threatened to top Italy’s record for consecutive games unbeaten. The second goal, whipped into the top corner by Enzo Fernández, was brilliant. Whatever Argentina’s post-Messi future looks like, the 21-year-old Benfica midfielder is likely to play a major role.
“Enzo is able to pass forward and to distribute the game,” Scaloni said.
But that is for the future. For Argentina, the present, this tournament—they are about only one man.