Even In Defeat, Messi Draws Acclaim

The frenzy surrounding the football World Cup has died down with the final match on July 19. It set one record after another. With its brilliant display, Spain lifted the WC trophy, breaking the hearts of Argentina and its fans across the globe. Argentina perhaps played the most ruinous game in its WC history. It was shocking and never expected. Was it the same team once helmed by Maradona? Or is it the same squad that is really captained by Lionel Messi, considered the greatest footballer of all time? La Roja controlled the ball most of the time and passed it quickly to their teammates, only to leave Albiceleste staring, frustrated. Spaniards choked Messi, disallowing the fluid ball to roll near him. The defending champion was left rudderless. Spain dominated throughout the game by playing in the tiki-taka style that was refined and popularised by Barcelona and executed by the Spanish national team.

This writer, who has been following Messi’s games for more than one and a half decades, is taken aback when Argentina failed to adopt a strategy to foil tiki-taka that is based on short and quick passing. Originally developed by Ajax in the Netherlands, the tiki-taka style was brought to Barcelona by the great Dutch player John Cruyff when he played for the club and was its manager in the 1990s. It was during the tenure of Pep Guardiola as Barcelona’s coach from 2008 to 2012 that tiki-taka became the iconic style of the club. As the mentor of Messi, Guardiola has been credited with bringing Messi’s best into the game. Barcelona had a pool of talents – Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Piqué, Puyol, Villa and Alba, among others, and Guardiola perfected tiki-taka with them. Messi shone in Barcelona and helped the club win many trophies. And the Spain national team won three European Championships and two World Cups by precisely applying this method.

Failing to learn

However, the Barcelona team was formed keeping Messi at the centre, meaning he was the key to the tiki-taka game. But why didn’t Messi, in his capacity as captain, follow a similar tactic to challenge Spain in the final showdown? Argentine coach Lionel Scaloni and Messi must have seen and analysed how Spain knocked out France 2-0 in the semi-final with its fast, skillful and dominant possession. Spain crippled France from start to finish. Did Argentina miserably fail to learn from France’s debacle and apply a reciprocal strategy to tame Spain?

Argentina’s disastrous performance is attributed to several factors. Unlike Spain’s balanced team with the majority of young players, Argentina is an ageing squad. Excessive reliance on Messi has been Argentina’s Achilles heel from the beginning. Messi carried the weight of the entire team and he had to produce sublime chances whenever the team was in a soup. During the encounter with Spain, Messi remained a bystander most of the time, with Spain’s players dominating the midfield through long possessions. It was bizarre that Messi could not hit a single shot at the opponent’s net. Argentina’s Lisandro Martinez was considered an important player in forming a defence line but he was forced to leave the pitch due to injury. Then came the red card to Enzo Fernandez after he rammed into Spain’s Pau Cubarsi. It was salt added to Argentina's injuries that was already outplayed by Spain. Confined to 10 men, Argentina was further pushed deep into its defence, allowing Spain to create more opportunities to score a goal.

The defeat painfully ended Messi’s quest to become a WC champion for the second time. Though he had won everything in soccer, the second consecutive WC win would have immortalised him as the greatest football player, said former captain of the England football team Wayne Rooney. But, at the individual level, he had the best performance at his sixth WC run, with eight goals, four assists and a total of 21 career goals in WC. Two assists in the dramatic comeback victory over England were magical. After receiving the silver medal, Messi looked towards the grandstands and broke down in tears as fans chanted his name. It was perhaps his last WC appearance. He had perhaps acutely realised that he failed to live up to the expectations of his supporters and countrymen. Despite defeat, he has drawn oodles of applause from noted football players from Zlatan Ibrahimović and Thierry Henry to Juan Riquelme to Lamine Yamal.

Outstanding performance

There is a reason for Messi to cheer up as the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) has declared him as the IFFHS Best Player for his outstanding performance in the tournament. This honour is decided by a data-driven methodology that includes match ratings, goals, assists and knock-out impact. However, attempts were made to discredit this legacy and greatness through systematic social media campaigns. Some of them even called him a ‘FIFA boy’, and the world soccer body wants to hand out the WC trophy again. For a wizard who plays football in majestic form, popularises this game globally and has broken every record in football, hurling such charges is shameful and odious. Irked by the criticisms levelled against Messi, his teammate Martinez, in his social media post, said, “Remember that 'the fall of the great is the joy of the mediocre.”

However, the WC champion Spanish team’s superstar Yamal has more emotional words for his icon: “When I looked at Messi after the final whistle, I didn’t just see an opponent. I saw the player who made millions of kids, including me, believe football could be art. Without players like him, kids like me wouldn’t dare dream this big. One day another generation will replace mine too. That’s football. But there will never be another Lionel Messi.”

(The author is the Managing Editor of this daily.)