After watching last night’s boring display of a football match where both teams successfully annulled each others top players, I have come to the conclusion that Messi hasn’t been that great at all in this World Cup. He has never had the presence of Diego Maradona when he tormented defenders and frightened goalkeepers. It was a game of chess where Holland stood back and let Argentina have most of the match with the view to pouncing on the odd chance.
Both teams had relatively few chances to put away and penalties were, in the end,the only way this game was going to be put to bed. Louis Van Gaal got it wrong for once and decided not to bring Tim Krul on the field just in case it went to penalties. Instead he left the inexperienced Jasper Cillessen, who has never ever saved a penalty in his career, to face an Argentinian hit squad of decent penalty takers.
Leo Messi failed to impress last night and was completely taken out by the Dutch defense. People were talking about Neymar carrying Brazil and Messi carrying Argentina but after the Albiceleste team’s last games, I have to disagree.
Maybe Neymar did carry Brazil to a certain extent but Messi has never carried Argentina to the final, no matter what the fans say.
Argentina now face a well-oiled machine in the shape of Germany this Sunday in the final. This will be a real test for both teams, especially Argentina.There were thousands of tweets after the German humiliation of Brazil and one of the best ones in my opinion came from Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson:
It seems the Germans spend their time practicing football rather than getting tattoos and stupid hair cuts. A lesson for England perhaps.
— Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) July 8, 2014
Clarkson has a point and Germany look like they could carry out part 2 of their humiliation over Argentina. If Barcelona’s Lionel Messi ever had to prove his worth as both a Barça player and an Argentine international, Sunday would be the ideal time to do it.
Is the author alright.. Anti- messi indeed even in success with an average Argentina midfield without Demaria that this jeni had to drop deep to help with atleast 2 players always around him, u still stupid to recognise hw good he has being…. Its a shame pls let go journalism u will be good 4 a politician… Credited with 4 man of the match awards with 4 decisive goals & an all important assist u r still dear question Leo messi…. Pls live football and join a political party(CR7) …. Anyways i can imagine hw disappointed u r that Leo is about tobecome the greatest….
I think the author is entitled to his opinion. Messi didn’t have any impact on last night’s game and if he is to be the star of Sunday’s show, he needs to up his game. Did you watch last night’s game btw?
Please give messi a break in 2010 you said he shouldnt take it on by himself , the team should play together inorder to win. Maradona wanted messi to do what he did but he forgot one thing teams now no longer rely on one defender to stop a striker, nowadays team defend and attack in number. Argentina is playing as a team and Messi has played his part as well.Did you see the way the dutch were teaming up on messi whenever he got the ball but messi is so intelligenthe drops back and joins in the building, messi is not hungry for personal glory thats why he is not depressed about not being at top of goal scoring charts. Did you see the way he celebrated when Di Maria scored and Higuan. How emotional he was during the penalties. Messi is doing it for his team and the team is doing it for the nation and not for Messi. On sunday we will see two teams that are well discplined and play as a team, of course everyteam has one or two individuals that can do magic when things go wrong and tight.People say Germany play as a team yes but deep inside they rely on players like Oezil , Kroos,Muller to unlock defences when teams are stubborn. Give Messi a break and allow him to play football for his country. Messi does not neeed to do it all by himself to be world champion Argentina must do it as team and if they do it Messi will stil be a world champion