Pat Riley, distinguished basketball player, coach and executive, once summed up his sport thus: “There’s only two things in the NBA —there’s winning and there’s misery.” Beyond the grammatical faux-pas, Riley was actually too short-sighted; for his pithy maxim extends to the entire professional sports landscape.
The Argentina national football team have experienced misery twice over during the past 12 months—in an extra-time heart-breaker against Germany in the World Cup final, and in a penalty shootout failure against hosts Chile in the Copa América final—continuing Lionel Messi’s long international nightmare.
Despite having achieved everything there is to achieve in club football, Messi’s inability to secure the sport’s ultimate prize, the World Cup (or a major international trophy of any kind, for that matter), leaves a gaping hole on his résumé.
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Nonetheless, it hasn’t stopped the multitude of “Messianics” from praising the “messiah” to high heaven, and to prematurely bestow him—whose undeniable otherworldly exploits on a football pitch are fresh on everyone’s minds—as the greatest player of all-time. They justify it by amplifying Messi’s feats on the domestic front and dismissing, or at least rationalizing away, his lack of it on the international stage (never mind that the two usual suspects for the GOAT title, Diego Maradona from the previous era and Pelé from the era preceding that, not only won the ultimate prize but was the main reason for their teams doing so).
The most ardent defense the Messianics have of their man is to point out—quite rightly—how often he has been hamstrung by his bumbling Albicelestes teammates in the biggest moments.
Fast forward 12 months, and Messi was let down by his teammates again, the Messianics would protest—too much, me thinks. This time it was the Copa America final: there was the unnecessary suicide run by Ángel Di María that nicked his hamstring; the preference of perennial big-match underachiever Higuaín as a substitute over the in-form forward Carlos Tevez by (current) manager Gerardo Martino; the ill-advised and sloppy pass from Lavezzi and the subsequent botched attempt by Higuaín at the end of regulation; and the penalty misses by Higuaín (again) and Éver Benega—after Messi coolly converted his—in the shootout.
Turn any one of these litany of close misses in each final into a make, the Messianics contend, and a new timeline is created which eventually sees Argentina as world and continental champions—and Messi as the all-time greatest.
But that is not a fair way to play the what-if game: to bend the arc of history in just the one direction. For Messi also squandered chances that could have turned the tides of history: a one-on-one against Neuer in the second half of the Cup final that just missed the far post, and a Cristiano Ronaldo-like free kick attempt at match’s end to force a crapshoot of a penalty shootout; and a distinct lack of adjustment in the Copa final to counter Chile’s physical style of play and the extra man sent to mark him.
Then again, there is also the matter of his truly anonymous performance in the World Cup semifinal, which, fortunately for Messi, was overshadowed by Dutch manager Louis van Gaal’s colossal gaffe in stranding his specialist spot-kick stopper Tim Krul—responsible for saving two of the five penalties in the shootout of Holland’s previous match—on the bench in a drab match that was destined for penalties.
This is of course not to suggest that Messi should be made the scapegoat for Argentina’s big-match failures. There is enough blame to go around: Messi’s teammates, his managers, and, not least, Messi himself.
Do you agree that Messi is partially to blame for Argentina not lifting neither the World Cup nor the Copa America?
Should Messi retire from international football until things get better? I’d love to hear your views. Share your comments with our community in the box below.
