Lionel Messi Refuses To Let Time Win

For 79 minutes of Tuesday afternoon's round of 16 match against Egypt, Lionel Messi was terrible, and by extension so was Argentina. Terrible might be overstating it, but when confronted with the enormity of Messi's talent, even at this sunset period of his career, anything other than something we've never seen before feels, well, terrible. Messi spent the first 79 minutes of the match misplaying passes, dribbling to nowhere, missing yet another penalty—boy, am I glad that he made his two penalties in the 2022 World Cup final, or we'd never hear the end of it—and watching helplessly as Egypt hunkered down, rode goalie Mostafa Shobeir through some incredible saves, and scored not once but twice. Seventy-nine minutes had gone, and while Argentina controlled the balance of play, the scoreboard didn't lie. Egypt had been deadlier and more efficient with its chances, while Argentina looked out of ideas and, crucially, almost out of time. That's the thing about having Messi on your team, though. Until the final whistle blows, there is always time. In this case, all it took was four minutes for Messi to do what he has done more than perhaps any player in the history of soccer: Rescue his team from the jaws of defeat through sheer willpower and otherworldly talent. In four minutes, Messi roared to life. All it took was one dribble where he looked like Young Messi—or at least the Younger Messi who dismantled poor Josko Gvardiol at the 2022 World Cup—to wake him up. That dribble didn't end in a goal, but fast forward just a few second later, and his talent would make the difference. The first Argentina goal was actually the kind of assist that Messi doesn't do all that often, which makes it all the more entertaining to watch. This was just a simple cross, cutting inside on his left from the right wing before lobbing it at a perfectly timed Cristian Romero run, which allowed the Tottenham captain to head the ball with enough power to get through Shobeir's save attempt.