2014, 2015 and now again 2016. International glory continues to elude Argentina and with that one of the greatest footballers across generations; Lionel Messi.
Monday morning at 5:30 AM IST, Argentina met Chile for the second consecutive time in the finals of the Copa Centenario 2016. Argentina had also found Chile in the last edition in 2015 and got beaten by the same opponent on penalties 4-1. This is also the third consecutive year Argentina has qualified into the finals of a major international tournament.
Chile again provided to be a hard nut to crack. Higuain repeated what he had done in the 2014 FIFA world cup finals; squandered a golden chance. That was a decisive chance for Argentina because during the entire 120 minutes Argentina never came so close to winning.
Higuain has been the top goal scorer in the Serie A for the recently concluded season, playing for Napoli. But unfortunately he has got into the habit of messing it up in the finals.
Chile effectively blocked Messi and his supply line. For rest of the match there is not much to talk about. Ultimately the match went into penalties. Chile had wanted that to happen because Argentines are known to be poor shooters and Chile had one of the best goal keepers in Bravo.
Messi walked up to take the first strike. He aimed to launch the ball into the top right corner of the net; he missed and the ball went way above the post and beyond. It is difficult to understand what prompted Messi to attempt such a shot but any day getting success in penalties always involves some amount of luck for sure.
It was not Argentina’s day and Bigila missed the third shot to hand Chile a consecutive Copa win.
Messi was visibly depressed and images of a tearful Messi was beamed all across the globe. Reminded me of that night in 1990 when Argentina lost out to West Germany in FIFA WC and Maradona was inconsolable. But still Maradona had ’86 to cherish about. For Messi it seems the wait is never ending.
Then came the announcement of Messi retiring from international football. That came as a pure shock. As an ardent fan of Argentina, I had been to Yuvabharati in Kolkata to watch the friendly where debuted as the captain. While watching the match yesterday, I had never thought that sitting thousands of miles away I was witnessing him in Argentine stripes for the last time.
There are number of theories going around of the corruption issues within AFA which has prompted Messi’s retirement announcement. Respect for Messi is also not of the highest order among Argentines as many people considers him to be a ‘foreigner’ incapable of leading a team.
AFA has its own issues. But people fail to understand that because of Messi Argentina was able to play in the 3 finals; leave out Messi and I doubt if Argentina would qualify for FIFA world cup. Had he really been a ‘foreigner’ he could have easily taken up citizenship of Spain and won at least a couple of Euro and World Cups. God knows what makes him play for Argentina still; a country where no one paid for his medical treatment.
Yes I would somewhat agree that Messi is not a commanding and inspiring leader. In spite of his calibre and achievements he always carries the boy-next-door charm. May be that has worked for him to generate a lot of fan following but that is not enough to motivate the team to strive towards the common objective.
Sachin needed Ganguly and then Dhoni. So will Messi needs his captain.
Retiring is not an option at 29. During Russia Messi will be at the peak of his career; unless he suffers premature burnout because of all these upsets. I don’t expect Messi to retire either. I expect him to be back for Russia and somehow feel that would happen.
Teams like Germany and Italy may have won a lot trophies between them but people tend to remember teams which win hearts with their beauty. I don’t think any other world cup triumph is more celebrated than Mexico 86.
The golden cup will not achieve its destiny till it is touched by Messi. Nor Messi will be able to sit among the gods till he touches that gold.
COME BACK MESSI. GO FOR GLORY. IMMORTALITY AWAITS YOU IN RUSSIA.
P.S: World Cup in Russia has come and gone. Argentina had a poor show and still no world cup for Messi.
Monday morning at 5:30 AM IST, Argentina met Chile for the second consecutive time in the finals of the Copa Centenario 2016. Argentina had also found Chile in the last edition in 2015 and got beaten by the same opponent on penalties 4-1. This is also the third consecutive year Argentina has qualified into the finals of a major international tournament.
Chile again provided to be a hard nut to crack. Higuain repeated what he had done in the 2014 FIFA world cup finals; squandered a golden chance. That was a decisive chance for Argentina because during the entire 120 minutes Argentina never came so close to winning.
Higuain has been the top goal scorer in the Serie A for the recently concluded season, playing for Napoli. But unfortunately he has got into the habit of messing it up in the finals.
Messi walked up to take the first strike. He aimed to launch the ball into the top right corner of the net; he missed and the ball went way above the post and beyond. It is difficult to understand what prompted Messi to attempt such a shot but any day getting success in penalties always involves some amount of luck for sure.
It was not Argentina’s day and Bigila missed the third shot to hand Chile a consecutive Copa win.
Messi was visibly depressed and images of a tearful Messi was beamed all across the globe. Reminded me of that night in 1990 when Argentina lost out to West Germany in FIFA WC and Maradona was inconsolable. But still Maradona had ’86 to cherish about. For Messi it seems the wait is never ending.
Then came the announcement of Messi retiring from international football. That came as a pure shock. As an ardent fan of Argentina, I had been to Yuvabharati in Kolkata to watch the friendly where debuted as the captain. While watching the match yesterday, I had never thought that sitting thousands of miles away I was witnessing him in Argentine stripes for the last time.
AFA has its own issues. But people fail to understand that because of Messi Argentina was able to play in the 3 finals; leave out Messi and I doubt if Argentina would qualify for FIFA world cup. Had he really been a ‘foreigner’ he could have easily taken up citizenship of Spain and won at least a couple of Euro and World Cups. God knows what makes him play for Argentina still; a country where no one paid for his medical treatment.
Yes I would somewhat agree that Messi is not a commanding and inspiring leader. In spite of his calibre and achievements he always carries the boy-next-door charm. May be that has worked for him to generate a lot of fan following but that is not enough to motivate the team to strive towards the common objective.
Sachin needed Ganguly and then Dhoni. So will Messi needs his captain.
Retiring is not an option at 29. During Russia Messi will be at the peak of his career; unless he suffers premature burnout because of all these upsets. I don’t expect Messi to retire either. I expect him to be back for Russia and somehow feel that would happen.
Teams like Germany and Italy may have won a lot trophies between them but people tend to remember teams which win hearts with their beauty. I don’t think any other world cup triumph is more celebrated than Mexico 86.
The golden cup will not achieve its destiny till it is touched by Messi. Nor Messi will be able to sit among the gods till he touches that gold.
COME BACK MESSI. GO FOR GLORY. IMMORTALITY AWAITS YOU IN RUSSIA.
P.S: World Cup in Russia has come and gone. Argentina had a poor show and still no world cup for Messi.
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