His assist for Ezequiel Lavezzi was excellent in its own right, but – if it’s a competition – was perhaps not quite as good as the one he laid on for Gonzalo Higuain in the last round. But his free kick, which made it 2-0 and essentially ended the game after 32 minutes, was maybe one of the best goals he has ever scored .
His set piece against Panama in the group stage, the second goal of his treble, was brilliant. Textbook. Against Bolivia, from a wider angle, he almost defied logic by whipping one into the far corner. That whistled centimeters past the post. Here, he surpassed himself. Just to the left of center, more than 25 yards out and with the left-hand side of Brad Guzan’s goal gaping, he elected to go the other way. He shocked us. Wrapping his left boot around the ball, he went to the right-hand side, the one Guzan was covering, and managed to beat the U.S. keeper by squeezing the ball in that minute gap between glove and the crossbar, grazing the woodwork as it went in. It was beautiful.
It was also the goal which put him out in front as Argentina’s all-time leading goal scorer . Coming into this tournament he was four behind Gabriel Batistuta, whose record has stood for 14 years. The hat trick moved him to within one. In his last match, he put the ball between goalkeeper Dani Hernanez’s legs to move level. Barely half an hour into this game he broke it, obliterated it, with a goal which would have been remembered for years to come even had it come in a friendly. Of course, it put his side into the Copa America final.
Whoever Argentina faces on Sunday, be it Colombia or Chile, they should be very afraid. Messi is playing at the top of his game right now and there are no signs that anybody is able to live with him. Indeed, few teams have been able to cope with him in this kind of form since over the last decade.
Ahead of this match, Martino was at pains to point out that his men "are not the best" in terms of pressing from the front or building up from the back. He was concerned about a sloppy 15-minute period against Venezuela, and what would happen to them if they were as careless against the States.
There was excellent backing for the hosts, too. Over 70,000 people filled out the NRG Stadium in Houston and the atmosphere promised to be electric, especially after a stirring rendition of the home national anthem. But that was all but extinguished after just three minutes when Lavezzi headed in from Messi's chipped ball over the top. It unravelled from there, and Higuain made it 0 shortly after halftime to really hammer home the dominance. And Messi, bearing down on goal with four minutes to go, could have added to his tally, but elected to square it to Higuain for a tap in.
Source.Goql
No comments:
Post a Comment