Before the match, all 16 of Lionel Messi’s previous World Cup goals were shown one by one on a giant screen at Dallas Stadium. The crowd cheered each other. By the time the last one appeared, the stadium was already his. Then two more. They always do.
In the ninth minute, Messi went to the penalty spot and missed. Not much. He tried to fight against the post. Schlager dives, guesses right, but the ball goes a few centimeters wide and doesn’t need to be touched. Messi covered his face with both palms, looked up at the Texas sky, and turned around. Who did an Austrian fan paint Messi in the stands? on his stomach. It seemed like a reasonable question, in short.
After twenty-nine minutes he answered.
Almada leaves Medina on the left. Medina cuts the ball back. Almada, reading something only he and Messi knew, let him pass untouched. And Messi, who was walking—as he does, as he always does, save for something the rest of us can’t name—suddenly wasn’t walking. He burst into the box at full speed, got to the near post before the Austrian defender could react and left-footed the ball to Alexander Schlager’s right. for the first time. bottom corner. Seventeen goals in the World Cup. thirty seconds. a touch In 2014, Miroslav Klose’s record from a July night at Belo Horizonte was surpassed.
A missed penalty necessitated the goal. Apart from the ninth minute, Messi has another goal in the 38th minute. With this, the story has a shape: the miss, the counter, the wait, and the moment that follows not from the penalty spot, but from open play, from instinct, from a run that starts in his own half and ends at the near post.
Austria gave them relief and made good use of it. This is Messi’s third penalty miss in the World Cup. They realized it and pressed on. Ralf Rangnick’s side pushed David Alaba out of defense and found dangerous areas through Marcel Sabitzer and Konrad Lemmer. Before scoring the first goal, Alaba blocked Messi’s shot literally on the line. At half time their xG was 0.24 against Argentina’s 1.05. The pressure was real. There was no threat.
The second half was functional rather than dramatic. Argentina sat deep when needed, pressed when they saw opportunities. Scaloni used his bench methodically — Romero on 57, Lautaro and Almada replaced by Alvarez and Gonzalez on 64. Rangnik threw everything: triple replacement at 67, Arnautovic to chase the tie, Chukwuemeka submitted at 85. Best chance to grab Grebit from Austria. On the left, the striker continues under pressure from Medina — but that came before Rangnick’s changes, not after. Arnautovic never had his moment.
Then, in the fifth minute of stoppage time, a stray ball from the right fell to Messi after a failed Austrian counter. He sprayed Alvarez, whose shot was saved by Schlager. The ball comes back to Messi. First attempt blocked. The second shot went into the middle of the goal. 2-0. Eighteen goals in the World Cup. Two clears from close. Every single one of Argentina’s goals in the tournament, all five of them, was scored by one man.
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In search of a third, he had time to take a free kick. It would have been something else.
With his first goal, Messi joined Just Fontaine and Jairzinho as the only players to score in six consecutive World Cup matches. With his second he kept going easily.
Before the tournament, when asked about his twelve-year record, Miroslav Klose simply said that it always falls to someone, and that he was happy, if anyone, it would be Messi. This record fell in the 38th minute. Messi then scored again in the 95th. Close had already been generous about it.
Messi hugged his teammates. After that he met the opponents. Argentina has reached the knockout stage. Their 38-year-old captain has 18 World Cup goals, still runs, still saves, still finds a way.