Messi always chokes! Messi is crumbling under pressure!
And worst of all: Messi is no longer the GOAT!
After Messi missed a penalty in Argentina’s 1-1 draw with Iceland, there was no stopping them. No hiding from the onslaught, nor repelling it.
But now that it’s hopefully subsided, and now that emotions are hopefully no longer clouding logic, can we please acknowledge how absurd that idea – that Ronaldo, on the back of 21 hours in Russia, surpassed Messi – is?
Saturday was not Messi’s finest moment. As Sergio Aguero said after the match, “he’s human.”
But the argument that 180 minutes would separate two players who have played roughly 130,000 combined minutes of professional soccer in their careers is just preposterous. Messi has scored plenty of hat tricks, including one to singlehandedly drag Argentina to the 2018 World Cup. Ronaldo has missed plenty of penalties, including two in Champions League semifinals; one in a Champions League final shootout; and, oh by the way, one in the Euro 2016 group stage that cost Portugal two points.
GOAT debates weren’t decided on those nights, just as they weren’t decided when this same Iceland team shut down Ronaldo two years ago, just as they weren’t when Messi won a 2014 World Cup group stage game in stoppage time, just as they weren’t when Messi skipped by a Swiss defender and set up a 117th-minute winner two weeks later.
Recency bias is a heck of a drug, but let’s let the effects wear off before we start spouting nonsense. As great as Ronaldo’s performance was, and as fallible as Messi was, we’ll forget about those 21 hours if Messi leads Argentina to the semis while Ronaldo and Portugal flame out without a knockout round victory.
Which is why the biggest loser of Day 3 at the 2018 World Cup wasn’t Messi; it wasn’t Argentina; it was …
Loser: Rationality
Unless you were right on the fence of theRonaldo-Messi dispute entering the World Cup, Friday and Saturday shouldn’t change your opinion.
Oh, and it doesn’t change the fact that at club level – where the vast majority of professional soccer is played, and which is the best barometer for a variety of other reasons – Messi eclipses Ronaldo in almost every relevant category.
Loser: Lionel Messi
Messi was certainly a loser on the day as well. He was a loser for a few reasons, all of which were encapsulated in his postmatch reaction. He ripped off his captain’s armband, and stood near midfield, dumbfounded, either soaking up the scene or simply too exhausted and exasperated to move.
We’ll refrain from amateur psychology, but if Messi were fed up with his teammates, it would be tough to blame him. It’s not that they were inept; it’s that their dependence on him has become so ingrained, so habitual, that there is no Plan B. And in many cases, it’s not that those players incapable of providing Plan Bs; it’s that they don’t even try.
Messi, of course, was also fed up with himself, and he took responsibility after the match. “The penalty would have changed everything,” he said.
But he won’t fail like that again in Russia. The real issue for Argentina Saturday was that it looks like Messi can’t afford to be anything less than a superstar if La Albiceleste is going to make a deep run.
Winner: Scandinavian goalkeepers who may or may not be film directors
Saturday’s star was Icelandic goalkeeper Hannes Thor Halldorson. Not only did he swat away Messi’s penalty; he made six saves in all, including this massive diving stop in injury time:
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