RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) – Argentina’s
1-0 defeat by Germany in Sunday’s World Cup final prevented Lionel Messi, who
was named Player of the Tournament, from cementing his place in the pantheon of
the truly great.
While the 27-year-old has won
everything there is to win — and broken every record there is to break — with
Barcelona, the final offered him the opportunity to definitively seal his
legacy in the sport.
Pele, Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo
all scored decisive goals in finals, while Diego Maradona created the goal that
settled the 1986 tournament, but Messi found himself upstaged by Mario Goetze’s
sensational extra-time winner for Germany.
He would be haunted in particular
by a glaring opportunity early in the second half, when he found himself with
only Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer to beat, but whipped his shot wide.
It was to be his only clear sight
of goal and his failure to seize the chance continued a narrative that had
taken root earlier in the knockout phase.
Whereas Maradona had seemed to grow
with each match as Argentina surged to the title in 1986, scoring braces
against England and Belgium in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, Messi
appeared to shrink.
After dazzling in the group phase
with four goals, he made the winning goal for Angel di Maria against
Switzerland in the last 16, but in his own encounter with Belgium he flickered
only sporadically, and in the semi-final against the Netherlands he was
anonymous.
He has now gone four games without
scoring for the first time under the stewardship of coach Alejandro Sabella,
losing his capacity to make a difference at precisely the wrong time.
His inability to reverse
Argentina’s fate at the Maracana suggested that the fatigue of which his father
has spoken weighed more heavily upon him that he has yet admitted.
With 354 goals in 425 games for
Barcelona, many of them works of art, his genius cannot be denied, but as he
himself has admitted, there is no substitute for a World Cup winner’s medal.
- Overcooked his shot -
“I would give all my personal
records to be world champion,” he had told German tabloid Bild ahead of the
final.
“I’d prefer to win the World Cup
than the Ballon d’Or. As a player, winning the World Cup is the biggest thing
there is. It’s something you dream of as a youngster and that dream never fades
away.”
Whereas Holland had successfully
man-marked Messi during the semi-final, Germany opted to crowd him out whenever
he picked up the ball.
Bastian Schweinsteiger had shackled
him masterfully during Germany’s 4-0 quarter-final win in 2010 and the Bayern
Munich midfielder recorded early victories by nicking the ball away from Messi
on a couple of occasions.
Germany’s high defensive line left
wide open space behind their back four, however, and Messi twice launched
dangerous raids down the right flank that exposed Mats Hummels’s lack of pace.
On the first occasion his cut-back
was cut out by Schweinsteiger, while shortly before half-time he got in behind
Hummels and toed the ball past Neuer, only for Jerome Boateng to hack clear.
The moment that the thousands of
Argentines inside the Maracana had been waiting for arrived a minute into the
second half when Messi was freed by Lucas Biglia, but he overcooked his shot
and rattled it wide of the right-hand past.
An injury-time free-kick from 30
yards offered one last improbable chance at redemption, but he hooked it over
the bar.
Where Maradona had broken down in
tears after Argentina lost to West Germany in the 1990 final, Messi looked
merely numb.
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