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Before the Copa America final: is this the best Messi ever?

2021-07-10T20:51:54.778Z


Lionel Messi has already reached the finals of the South American Championship three times without luck. Now it's the final of the highly controversial tournament against Brazil. And at the age of 34, the uncrowned Argentine seems more ready than ever.


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Lionel Messi

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DOUGLAS MAGNO / AFP

The semi-finals were perhaps his weakest game at the Copa America.

But that doesn't mean a lot at this tournament.

Lionel Messi also assisted in the win against Colombia and was the first to convert in the subsequent penalty shoot-out.

Messi seems to be responsible for almost everything on his team at this Copa.

The captain takes off and on, hits from eleven meters and with free kicks or lifts.

Having turned 34 at the end of June, he may be playing his penultimate major tournament for the sky blue and white selection.

And it's his best yet.

He contributed four goals and five assists, and Messi has been involved in 80 percent of Argentine goals at the South American Championship.

The striker was voted best player four times.

Fans and experts agree that he has never been seen in the national team jersey like this: so much enthusiasm, so many goals, so many assists, so much role model.

And now Messi will meet Brazil and Neymar, his old friend from times together at FC Barcelona, ​​in the final on Saturday evening (Sunday, 2 a.m. CET).

And in front of a little audience.

Each country is allowed to send 2,200 trailers to Rio.

In total, the authorities allowed ten percent of the capacity of the Maracanã, or 7200 spectators.

Against all reason

Messi and Neymar owe this chance to the final to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who pulled the tournament against all common sense after the two co-hosts canceled.

Colombia withdrew due to social protests, Argentina gave up the role of host due to the high incidence of corona.

The right-wing populist Bolsonaro, who wants to show closeness to the people through football, wanted to use the tournament to improve its falling polls. He didn't care that his country is a virus variant area and that even his own national team questioned the sense of the tournament. He was also not interested in the negative attitude of the population, which has more than half a million corona deaths to complain about.

The skepticism was justified. Even before the first game, Venezuela had to re-nominate practically an entire team after 15 corona cases in the team. There were more than 160 corona infections in the teams, 37 of them were players, coaches or supervisors. 125 cases were diagnosed among drivers, cleaning staff and other service providers. Most of these employees are Brazilians who may have carried the virus into their families.

Therefore, health experts fear that the tournament could lead to another wave of infection, especially since only 13 percent of the 220 million people in Brazil are fully vaccinated.

But the Conmebol, the South American football association that pushed through the Copa with Bolsonaro, was rigorous when criticizing the tournament.

When the Bolivian player Marcelo Moreno became infected and accused the association of endangering the health of the players with the Copa, there was no understanding, but a harsh penalty: the former Werder Bremen striker was suspended for a game and had to pay $ 20,000.

»Cova América«: criticism from the people

The Brazilians also view the tournament as critically as Moreno. They renamed the tournament "Cova America". "Cova" is the Portuguese word for grave. Reports that the Chilean players had a party and invited prostitutes to contribute to the criticism. And the Brazilians secretly let a hairdresser fly into the bladder, who prettied up half the team.

Messi and his team are meanwhile focused on the biggest goal - the first title in 28 years. It was still in the last millennium when the »Albiceleste« won something: in 1986 the World Cup and in 1993 the Copa America. This is one of the reasons why fans and experts in the most football-crazy country in Latin America have long since caught fire despite the circumstances of this Corona Copa. The appearance of their captain in the tournament gives wings to dreams: "The best Messi of all time," headlines the sports newspapers. Sometimes they just put a question mark on that sentence.

Messi is more mature, it is said, finally playing like a leader, has a different body language, laughs and does not let himself go on the pitch.

Well-known sports reporter Carlos Salgado, who has been writing about the sky-blue selection for a long time, said: "I've never seen Messi in the Argentine jersey like this before." And then he rose to the greatest and most daring of all compliments: "Messi is finally playing like Maradona."

He wants Pelé's record - and finally a title

For Messi, the South American Championship is also about two personal goals.

He set Pelé's record for most international goals.

If he scores once in the final, he will equal the Brazilian legend with 77 goals as the most successful goalscorer in Latin America.

But it is more important for him to finally win a title with the national team.

His eternal rivals Cristiano Ronaldo (European champion with Portugal 2016) and Neymar (Copa America winner with Brazil 2019) have that advantage over the Argentine.

At the World Cup in Qatar in 15 months, it should be much more difficult.

Then Messi will be 35 years old and Argentina will compete against the strong European teams.

The uncrowned Argentine has lost four finals so far, three times at a Copa America and, above all, the World Cup final in Rio against Germany seven years ago.

In Latin America, people are looking forward to an exciting football weekend. First Copa final, then the European Championship final one day later. The presidents of both countries, Bolsonaro and Alberto Fernández, who are warmly disliked each other, teased about the game at the summit of the Mercosur countries recently. And the loud-mouthed Brazilian held out his hand with his five outstretched fingers across the screen to his counterpart at the video conference: "We'll win 5-0."

Source: spiegel

All sports articles on 2021-07-10

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