Va-Va-Voom wrote:Angelito wrote:It wasn't a one on one. It was a clear chance.
The microscopic inspection that Messi goes through pretty much says it all.
It's almost as if someone regarded as the GOAT by many will be held to higher standards, especially when said miss came in the WC Final and you're trying to blame all the failures of Argentina on everyone but Messi.
Yes.
Because Argentina are a big footballing nation destroyed by corruption and incompetence. And it's only in this Messi era that we have been achieving at the international stage since Batistuta's lot won the Copa in 1993.
No individual can single-handedly win the World Cup. It's about cohesion and team spirit. That is how Spain won it in 2010 by scoring lesser goals in the entire tournament than Russia have in this World Cup so far.
Argentina don't have the set up of Germany, the cohesive unit of Spain, the unity and administration of Brazil, or the sheer talent of France. It's an eye-opener that Argentina wouldn't have even qualified in the World Cup if Messi hadn't scored a hat-trick in a must-win game.
I don't blame Messi because I understand the situation at Argentina and know the deficiencies on and off the field. Argentina without Messi is a disaster waiting to happen UNLESS the AFA can get rid of its toxic culture. And that's not happening anytime soon. The dearth of talent coming through the ranks is obvious. There's never been a shortage of young players as there is right now.
Pekerman's Argentina is the last time Argentina were a legitimate world power in football. That was the last time Argentina played free-flowing attacking football. Today, we still dominate games but that's simply because the opponent wants to squander possession so that four players could mark Messi.
Before Aguero scored his first World Cup goal ever against Iceland, only one player had scored a goal for Argentina in a competitive game since Oct 2016. Yes, Leo Messi.
It's deep. It's complex.
I will blame everyone but Messi because that is the truth. No other player in any country in the world pays the training staff of their national team from his pocket. That's just one of the issues.
Some of us are just grateful that he plays for Argentina.
And as much as it hurts, I'd rather Messi had played for Spain and won 3 WCs in a row than suffer playing for an association that does not deserve him.
He deserved to be there.
