Argentina national team players celebrate victory over Mexico (Instagram)
1986... everyone knows what this summer means for Argentina, and for Leo Messi.
It was the last World Cup before the birth of Lafaroush, and the last one won by the team led by Diego Maradona.
Since the beginning of his career, this has been his main ambition, and the current tournament is his last chance to fulfill it.
All this is clear as day, and millions of words have been spilled in discussions on the issue.
However, 1986 is a very symbolic year also from the point of view of Poland and Robert Lewandowski.
It was the last World Cup in which the team passed the group stage, and also the last one before the birth of the striker.
Lewandowski has grown into a great scorer, and when it comes to the success of his teams there is no doubt about his place in history, but can his status as the greatest Polish player of all time be guaranteed without having done something worthy in the national uniform?
To a certain extent, this is exactly Messi's dilemma, only in different shades because Poland is not expected to lift the World Cup.
At least not in this millennium.
Because it used to be different.
Once, in 1974, Poland had a team that really dreamed of gold medals, even if from the underdog position.
They reached the tournament after knocking out England in the qualifiers, thanks to a legendary performance by goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski at Wembley.
In the first group stage, she defeated Argentina and Italy (as well as Haiti), finishing at the top.
In the second group stage, the Poles also overcame Sweden and Yugoslavia, extending their winning streak to 5, and faced the host West Germany knowing that a sixth victory would advance them to the final.
And this ambition was alive until the 76th minute, when Gerd Müller scored the only goal.
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Where does he rank among Polish legends?
Lewandowski (Photo: Reuters)
So the national team beat Brazil in the match for third place, and its two stars were ranked ahead of Müller in the top scorer table.
Grzegorz Lato won the prize with 7 caps, Andrzej Scharmach scored 5. In one tournament, yes?
In total, Lato has 10 World Cup goals.
He found the back of the net twice in 1978, when Poland finished ahead of the Germans in the first group stage and were only held back in the second group stage.
He also scored in 1982, when the team skipped all the way to the semi-finals, ahead of defending champion Italy in the first group stage.
When the Poles played against the Squadra Azura at Camp Nou, the fans believed they were the favorites to reach the final.
Paolo Rossi ended it with a double, but in the historical view they remain the heroes.
Lato isn't even the biggest star of that amazing generation.
Kazimierz Dayna, the authoritative captain of the team in the 70's, was a rare elevation, and one of the biggest stars in the world during his time.
Had it been possible for the magical playmaker to leave Legia Warsaw before the age of 30 and move to Parr Club, there is a reasonable chance that he would have been mentioned in the same breath as Johan Cruyff.
As for 1982, this was already the team of Zivgeniev Bonik, who dominated before moving to Juventus and among other things scored a hat trick in a 0:3 win over Belgium in the second group stage.
How do you measure Lewandowski in relation to these giants, if until last Saturday he had no goals in the World Cup at all?
In preparation for the 2014 World Cup, the team did not survive the qualifiers, in 2018 many saw it as a kind of black horse in Russia, but it was humiliated in the group stage and finished last after Colombia, Japan and Senegal.
And maybe Lewandowski broke Gerd Müller's legendary goalscoring record in a Bundesliga season, but is that comparable to the opportunity to play against Gerd Müller for a place in the World Cup final?
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He also had a magical World Cup.
Bonik (Photo: GettyImages)
The Poles are less obsessed with football than the Argentinians, so this discussion is conducted at a slightly lower intensity, but it exists.
The importance of the World Cup is much lower these days compared to the 1970s and 1980s, and the fans also know that the team will no longer be as serious a contender as in the past, but they still expect Lewandowski to deliver the goods on the big stage, if he's already there.
Because if Poland is again eliminated in the group stage, it will be a stain on the star's legacy.
After all, he messed up again and again in the European championships, and in Euro 2020 the Poles flew again already in the group stage.
Another fiasco in a reasonably reasonable house in Qatar would make this business grotesque.
That would be excessive.
Dana and Leto represented the motherland much better.
This is the angle from which the missed penalty against Mexico should be viewed, so Lewandowski felt he was destined to always be the tragic hero.
That way it will be much easier to understand the tears of happiness that flowed from his eyes when he scored against Saudi Arabia.
Perhaps there is something a bit puzzling when a superstar of his level gets excited at the age of 34 by a simple goal against such an opponent, but it turns out that for Lewandowski it was a defining personal moment.
He got a big monkey off his back and put the ball in the net at the World Cup.
That's worth a lot, but still not like Messi winning the Copa America that ended the long drought since 1993. To match that, Lewandowski must at least get through the group stage, for the first time since 1986. Beyond that, anything would be a bonus.
And if Poland reaches the semi-finals, he will also be asked about Dana, Lato and Buniek.
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Did not forget the 8:2.
Messi (Photo: GettyImages, Rafael Marchante)
So now he has a head to head battle with Messi.
In principle, there is a possibility that the two teams will qualify together, and it is even quite probable.
However, Mexico has always advanced to the round of 16 since 1994, and only needs to defeat Saudi Arabia by a large margin to continue the tradition.
Who said she can't do it?
On the other hand, Saudi Arabia, which has already proven itself to be a well-coordinated and well-trained team, only needs to beat the Mexicans to advance to the round of 16, and if they win first, they may well cause their opponent to mentally collapse.
These scenarios are very realistic, and the two stars can only rely on themselves - what's more, it's worth finishing in first place to avoid meeting France in the round of 16.
Messi must win.
A draw will be enough for Lewandowski to advance, and a victory is required to be safe at the top of the house.
And in this struggle, the two stars have an emotional charge against each other as well.
Lewandowski felt very deprived when Messi won "at his expense" the Ballon d'Or in 2021, and on the other hand, he knows very well himself that the vote of the journalist of the strange panel of France Football was also influenced by the achievements in the national team.
The Argentinian won the Copa America, while the Pole's goals did not help his team in the Euros.
It turns out that it has a weight of consciousness even now, when club football is more important and of higher quality than the national teams.
third house
Group
games
victories
draw
losses
gates
points
1
Poland
2
1
1
0
0-2
4
2
Argentina
2
1
0
1
2-3
3
3
Saudi Arabia
2
1
0
1
3-2
3
4
Mexico
2
0
1
1
2-0
1
On the other hand, Messi cannot ignore the fact that Levandowski took his place this season as Barcelona's biggest star.
The Blaugrana management apparently did not have the money to keep the flea as a free agent in 2021, but now there was a budget to pay a huge salary to the Pole, who is responsible, among other things, for one of the biggest humiliations in Messi's career - the 8:2 defeat to Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals of the Champions League in August 2020. Something absurd and illogical in that Levandowski represents Barcelona in this World Cup, and Messi does not.
It still doesn't quite fit in the heads of the Catalan fans either.
Who should they be here for?
This is a non-trivial dilemma.
And so they prepare for the big meeting tonight (21:00), with great hope, but also with great fear.
Messi wants to recreate 1986, and Lewandowski also wants to recreate at least 1986, and fantasizes about 1982. They feel it is possible, but also understand very well that this is the last chance.
And if the result in the parallel game does not go in their favor, one of them will end this evening with a broken heart.
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Lionel Messi
Argentina national team
Robert Lewandowski
Poland national team
