Doing it from the penalty spot would be too banal. Something more stylish was needed to mark the moment, and the gods of soccer agreed. And so Argentina‘s Lionel Messi spurned the first chance to become the World Cup’s all-time top scorer when he steered his penalty kick wide of the Austria goal, only to find a far more adequate means of reaching the milestone almost half an hour later.
The strike that broke the deadlock on the way to Argentina’s 2-0 victory was entirely fitting. It was a collective move, coach Lionel Scaloni‘s side attacking in one of their familiar clusters; Messi, with the break, left to Thiago Almada, further left to Facundo Medina, the low square ball across the defense, the clever leave by Almada to allow an arriving Messi to sweep the ball flawlessly and seemingly effortlessly past the keeper.
How is it that after so many years of frustration, 12 of Messi’s World Cup goals have come after his 35th birthday? It’s because of moments like these, little collective jewels where gifted players combine to ease the task of the most gifted of all. That leave from Almada spoke volumes; it highlighted just why Argentina are so successful.
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A basic truism in soccer says that the team helps make the stars. For years with Argentina, it appeared to be the other way round, with Messi the star forced to carry the team. But not in recent times, in this extraordinary run of success under Scaloni.
It could have turned out very differently. Scaloni took over in 2018 after having spent the World Cup in Russia observing Argentina’s opponents. He became obsessed with France and announced a bold new manifesto. Modern soccer meant rapid transitions, he said. The best teams won the ball and were in a position to shoot within four seconds. This was the style that Argentina needed, and the style he was going to implement.
There was an obvious problem. This was not Messi-ball. It was an idea of play more suited to Kylian Mbappé. Indeed, the then Paris Saint-Germain — and current United States — coach Mauricio Pochettino spoke recently of the difficulty of having them both on the same side. Messi wanted the ball to feet, in a patient, passing build-up. But this forced the opposing defense back and robbed Mbappé of the space behind that he loves to run into.
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Trying to play Mbappé-like soccer with Messi was never going to work with Argentina, who got off to a dreadful start in Scaloni’s first competitive test, the 2019 Copa América.
So, it was time for a rethink. It was during that tournament that the two Lionels began to get on the same page. Messi, no longer at ease with Barcelona, had decided that the Argentina team would be his priority. Gone was the self-contained, reserved figure, replaced by the new vocal leader. And Scaloni surrounded Messi with his fan club, with a generation of players who worshipped him and, crucially, in an idea of play that would help them all win together.
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There is something delightfully retro about the way that the Argentina midfield circulates the ball. The cluster of short passes followed by a long ball, the sudden change of rhythm when patient possession has opened up a space between the lines. Almost all the players have been based abroad for a while, but when they get together, they can turn the clock back to Argentine soccer in its vintage years.
Whether Argentina’s defense will be good enough to hold the best at bay is the key unanswered question of their quest to win back-to-back World Cups, but the midfield seems ever better than in Qatar four years ago.
Rookies then, such as Enzo Fernández and Alexis Mac Allister, are now consolidated stars, but they are well aware of the identity of the biggest star. The objective of the midfield is to get the ball to Messi in a position where he is close enough to the goal to create danger. And it is precisely because this is working so well that veteran stage Messi is scoring at such a startling rate.
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His record won’t last for long, as Mbappé has time — and goals — on his side. But this is unlikely to cause Messi any lost sleep. Individual awards do not seem to attract much of his attention. His interpretation of the sport, his way of enjoying himself, appears to be based on succeeding in a collective context, in being the leading light of a team that functions as a unit. He had that at Barcelona, and in the latter years of his career, he has it with Argentina.
It was Messi, of course, who added the second goal of the win over Austria, deep in stoppage time. The most stunning moment in the goal was not the final shot, despite all the persistence that he displayed. Instead, it was his wonderful cross-field pass that put Julián Álvarez clean through.
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Messi was naturally delighted with his goal. But the impression is that he would have been just as happy had Alvarez beaten the keeper, that playing the right pass is as satisfying as scoring the goal.
It will be a sad day for us all when Messi finally leaves the stage. Until then, we should all be savoring every last minute of the World Cup’s all-time top goal scorer.
