Leo Messi burnishes legacy with hat-trick as Argentina come from behind
The Independent|
Updated: Oct 12, 2017, 02.28 AM IST
By Miguel Delaney
Divine intervention, a holy trinity of goals… on a night when a special saviour offered redemption and deliverance, it’s simply impossible not to reach for old religious language, because it’s now so easy to make the argument that Leo Messi is the greatest of all time.
That is still one of those eternal debates that will never be settled no matter how many times the few players in history at his level have done something like this, but there could be no debate about what happened in Quito, and what happened in this entire qualifying campaign for Argentina.
Messi dragged his team to the World Cup on his own, or at least as much as any individual ever can in a team game. He was this time really that deeply influential, that depended upon, as he hit the gold-standard achievement of a hattrick of goals to bring Argentina from behind to beat Ecuador 3-1 and thereby from behind in the South American table to qualify directly.
In doing so, the great man did not just save his country. He also ensured that the national team’s wretched performances beyond his individual striving did not drag down his legacy, did not deny him a place on football’s greatest stage while still on his greatest level. Instead, their atrocious form only burnished that legacy, because he defied it. That form merely offered Messi another way to show his genius, using the multiple strands of that genius to live up to one of the various definitions of the word: to solve a complex puzzle, to get out of a hole.
Not even Diego Maradona had to do this, in a team under-performing like this. This was the Hand of God in a different way, and the way he did it was even more impressive than the bold bald fact that Messi scored a hat-trick to deliver his side to the World Cup.
There was first of all the problem that all of Argentina’s worst fears seemed to be coming through, because fear had so afflicted the rest of the players beyond Messi and Javier Mascherano. Ecuador took advantage of the paralysing anxiety that had so gripped the side through a year when no one other than Messi scored, when they had scored just one goal in four qualifiers just as it was all coming to head, as Romario Ibarra gave the home side the lead after just 40 seconds.
Disaster. Potential desolation. That anxiety became something else, something worse. There was panic throughout the Argentina team, except Messi. He instead had the calmness to finish with the outside of his foot after just 11 minutes following a deliciously simple one-two with Angel Di Maria to make it 1-1.
That moment was all the more symbolic and significant because it was finally a move when one of Argentina’s previously misfiring attackers had decided to return one of Messi’s passes to him, when they followed his presence of mind. That was something that wasn’t happening in previous, and Di Maria deserves credit there.
There was also something else happening. After so many games when it looked like Messi was trying to be too responsible in the use of his quality, too constrained, too much of a team player only to see that team misfire, it was as if he just decided to distill all that abundant talent and make it happen himself. He drove forward and hammered the ball into the roof of the net. In doing so, he also replicated another Argentine legend other than Maradona, and showed another ability. This was a finish reminiscent of Gabriel Batistuta.
At 2-1, it was still wasn’t over, because Argentina weren’t over their nerves. They were still ceding ground, still failing to keep the ball, still struggling to keep their heads. Ecuador were still looking dangerous. So, just when it looked like they were on the brink of a costly equaliser, Messi pushed himself past the limits again. He produced again, and this clinching crowning goal appropriately the finest of the lot.
Divine intervention, a holy trinity of goals… on a night when a special saviour offered redemption and deliverance, it’s simply impossible not to reach for old religious language, because it’s now so easy to make the argument that Leo Messi is the greatest of all time.
That is still one of those eternal debates that will never be settled no matter how many times the few players in history at his level have done something like this, but there could be no debate about what happened in Quito, and what happened in this entire qualifying campaign for Argentina.
Messi dragged his team to the World Cup on his own, or at least as much as any individual ever can in a team game. He was this time really that deeply influential, that depended upon, as he hit the gold-standard achievement of a hattrick of goals to bring Argentina from behind to beat Ecuador 3-1 and thereby from behind in the South American table to qualify directly.
In doing so, the great man did not just save his country. He also ensured that the national team’s wretched performances beyond his individual striving did not drag down his legacy, did not deny him a place on football’s greatest stage while still on his greatest level. Instead, their atrocious form only burnished that legacy, because he defied it. That form merely offered Messi another way to show his genius, using the multiple strands of that genius to live up to one of the various definitions of the word: to solve a complex puzzle, to get out of a hole.
Not even Diego Maradona had to do this, in a team under-performing like this. This was the Hand of God in a different way, and the way he did it was even more impressive than the bold bald fact that Messi scored a hat-trick to deliver his side to the World Cup.
There was first of all the problem that all of Argentina’s worst fears seemed to be coming through, because fear had so afflicted the rest of the players beyond Messi and Javier Mascherano. Ecuador took advantage of the paralysing anxiety that had so gripped the side through a year when no one other than Messi scored, when they had scored just one goal in four qualifiers just as it was all coming to head, as Romario Ibarra gave the home side the lead after just 40 seconds.
Disaster. Potential desolation. That anxiety became something else, something worse. There was panic throughout the Argentina team, except Messi. He instead had the calmness to finish with the outside of his foot after just 11 minutes following a deliciously simple one-two with Angel Di Maria to make it 1-1.
That moment was all the more symbolic and significant because it was finally a move when one of Argentina’s previously misfiring attackers had decided to return one of Messi’s passes to him, when they followed his presence of mind. That was something that wasn’t happening in previous, and Di Maria deserves credit there.
There was also something else happening. After so many games when it looked like Messi was trying to be too responsible in the use of his quality, too constrained, too much of a team player only to see that team misfire, it was as if he just decided to distill all that abundant talent and make it happen himself. He drove forward and hammered the ball into the roof of the net. In doing so, he also replicated another Argentine legend other than Maradona, and showed another ability. This was a finish reminiscent of Gabriel Batistuta.
At 2-1, it was still wasn’t over, because Argentina weren’t over their nerves. They were still ceding ground, still failing to keep the ball, still struggling to keep their heads. Ecuador were still looking dangerous. So, just when it looked like they were on the brink of a costly equaliser, Messi pushed himself past the limits again. He produced again, and this clinching crowning goal appropriately the finest of the lot.
