Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of
the party is a fairly well known typing exercise that I am lazily using to
illustrate the fact that the big players are now making themselves known at
this year's World Cup. Neymar was brilliant for the Brazilians on Sunday
evening, while Suarez showed his Jekyll and Hyde nature over two games in this
past week. Elsewhere, Miroslav Klose became the joint all time WC scorer, while
lesser known names like James Rodriguez and Joel Campbell have marked
themselves as ones to watch in South/Central America.
However, the one we've all been waiting for, the one who
perhaps has slightly more of a nation's hopes on his shoulders than Neymar,
Lionel Messi, scored twice against Nigeria to prove that he's ready to shine on
the international stage.
Having bailed out his Argentina pals in their opening two
games, his goal after three minutes and his sumptuous free kick against
Nigeria, should help put any doubt about his international credentials to bed.
Alejandro Sabella looks to have given the Barcelona star free reign within his
side, and by allowing him to do a similar role to that which he does at the Nou
Camp, it looks to be paying off.
While used to seeing Messi tearing up La Liga and having
a more European slant on his career, the Argentines haven't always been in awe
of him. Having left his home land at a very young age to reside in Barcelona, he
didn't go through the Argentine youth system, meaning that his compatriots
didn't have as much of a grasp on his development as they had for the likes of
Maradona, Batistuta, Ortega and other Argentine luminaries who I can't think
of.
Simeone, there's one.
Instead, he honed his craft in the shadow of the Nou
Camp, aided by magnificent facilities, growth hormones and, perhaps most
importantly, Pep Guardiola. The Bayern Munich boss just seemed to have
"got" Messi from the off, bringing out the absolute best in him, from
a coaching, training and belief stand point. This is evident in the
performances the 27 year old put in under Guardiola's tutelage and is proven
with the myriad of trophies and championships they won together.
However, Messi's international career has been far less
spectacular, with his club form perceivably not translating as well when he
dons the blue and white. Although, when compared to Maradona, who he is always
going to be compared to, he does have a better scoring rate. At time of writing,
he has 42 goals in 89 appearances, compared to Maradona's 34 in 91. Where Maradona proved he had the skills, the bite and the flair to inspire his
nation's side throughout his storied and celebrated career, Messi hasn't lit
the Argentine version of the heather on fire in quite the same way.
But he's getting there.
When Angel Di Maria's blast cannoned back off the post
via the Nigerian goalkeeper in the third minute of yesterday's game, a Messi
shaped casm opened up in front of goal for the diminutive forward to fill. He
duly did, blasting high in to the net, almost taking Sergio Aguero's head off
in the process. Having bided his time to find the net in the last two games,
Leo was anything but lethargic in the way he took the game by the scruff of the
neck, showing that he can finish others' work as well as his own.
It's a shame his defensive pals couldn't say the same, as
Nigeria levelled within a minute and a half. A darting run from the half way
line from Eminike ended with Ahmed Musa receiving the ball in acres of space on
the left. Shifting the ball on to his right foot, he curled a beauty of a shot,
high across Romero and in to the far corner.
#BOOM
It was an immediate response that silenced the mass of
Argentine fans in the stadium, but with Messi in their side, they knew that
wouldn't be the end of the scoring. Di
Maria tested Vincent Enyeama in the Nigeria goal from distance, before the
Lille stopper made a stunning acrobatic save to deny Messi from a 25 yard free
kick.
When given a carbon copy opportunity though, Argentina's
number 10 made no mistake. To go back to my typing analogy from the first line
of this blog, "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" would be an
accurate description of how the free kick played out.
Messi (the fox) curled
the ball from the exact same position, in to the exact same area of the goal
that Enyeama (the dog) had brilliantly guarded the last time. However, instead
of reacting in the same way, he sort of ran towards the ball, before twirling
around a bit as it sailed under the junction of bar and post. (Lazy).
#PING
Enyeama, the subject of a fairly funny World Cup meme
remarking on his laid back approach, had been undone by a thing of beauty, so
don't let his methods of prevention in this instance take any shine off of the execution
of the free kick.
With four goals in three games, and looking unbeatable,
bookies were slashing odds on Messi grabbing a hat trick in this game let right
and centre, in view of the inevitable happening. It didn't though, as it was
Nigeria who came out of the traps quickest in the second half, Musa applying a
finish from the edge of the area when he was picked out in acres of space
amid the Argentine back line.
As has been the case with a lot of the free flowing
attacking teams this year, the defences have been woeful. For Musa to find as
much space as he did to score his second leveller of the game, in a defence
featuring seasoned pros like Zabaleta and Mascherano, it's almost unthinkable that they are among the favourites for the trophy. Sabella seems to have employed Stuart McCall's method fro winning in his team though, as Marcos Rojo's downward header proved to be the winning counter for the South Americans.
With Messi subbed for a wee sit down ahead of their last 16 game against Switzerland, the game ended 3-2 to the Argentines, to see them top the group. Nigeria also qualified as runners up, setting up a choice encounter with France in the second round.
#CHUCKLE
The French were kept at bay by 10 man Ecuador's keeper Dominguez in an entertaining 0-0 encounter in the Maracana. The wastefulness that was evident in the first half of France's opener v Honduras was back for this one, wioth Pogba, Griezman and Giroud passing up chance after chance after Antonio Valencia was given a straight red for a nasty, over the ball challenge.With their passage to the next round already secured, the pint saw them top the group ahead of Switzerland, Xherdan Shaqiri blasting them through as runners up with a hat trick, including another goal of the tournament contender.
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