Messi answers the call once again as Argentina survive scare

MIAMI: Lionel Messi stole the World Cup spotlight once again as Argentina edged Cape Verde 3-2 in an extra-time thriller on Friday, but his virtuoso display only reaffirmed the perception that the reigning champions are still overly reliant on one man.

Messi had guided Argentina to a long-awaited title in 2022, the talismanic captain grabbing games by the scruff of the neck and providing the answers each time his team mates turned to him when the pressure mounted.

Messi scored seven goals in Qatar, a tally he has already matched in North America as he continues to bend the tournament to his will and break records at 39.

Questions about Messi’s longevity have long since been answered, but coach Lionel Scaloni’s conundrum remains – how long can Argentina go on letting one little genius solve their problems?

Everything flows through Messi 

Miami had become a temporary province of Argentina as the sea of blue-white shirts bounced up and down as one, while a proud pocket of Cape Verde fans in dark blue held their corner.

The noise belonged to one nation but the occasion belonged to one man as Messi scooped up another Man of the Match trophy.

From the outset, all of Argentina’s attacks flowed through Messi as they looked for openings in Cape Verde’s defence.

The hydration break interrupted Cape Verde’s rhythm and when they lost focus for one second, Messi made them pay, plucking a long ball out of the Miami sky with a delicate first touch before firing home from a tight angle.

When the referee blew the halftime whistle, Cape Verde coach Bubista stayed in the dugout deep in discussion with his assistants, searching for a way to contain a man who has scored 20 World Cup goals.

To Cape Verde’s credit, they fought back as Deroy Duarte equalised just before the hour-mark.

Gravitational pull

Once again, Messi made all the running as Argentina looked for a winner, his gravitational pull in the middle of the park too hard to ignore as his team mates struggled to make inroads into Cape Verde’s box.

Messi constantly won free kicks and nobody else dared step up to take them.

When he failed to convert, even after trying to catch goalkeeper Vozinha off-guard while he was setting his wall, it was up to him to deliver from the corners.

The sight of him ambling to the flag every time they won a corner became a running theme, but that was how Argentina finally managed to find the net again – not once, but twice.

Lisandro Martinez benefited from a delivery that fell at his feet at the far post, while the winner, a deflected header from Cristian Romero, had come after Messi’s pinpoint delivery found the defender making his run.

The romance of 2022 lay in Messi finally receiving the World Cup he had pursued for a lifetime, but the reality is that Argentina needed him at virtually every critical juncture.

Once again in 2026, Argentina do not merely have the tournament’s greatest player and scorer, they are leaning heavily on him with a faith bordering on dependency.