Messi, Argentina end long wait with Copa America triumph

The relief among Argentina players was palpable as they ran to Lionel Messi, already on his knees and in tears, leaping into him in celebration at the full-time whistle on Saturday night at Rio’s Maracana Stadium.

The 1-0 victory of La Albiceleste, as Argentina are known, over main rivals Brazil in their den, courtesy Angel Di Maria’s first-half strike, in the Copa America final took them to 15 South American titles, level with Uruguay as the most successful team in the continental competition. More notably, Messi won his first major international title with Argentina, having lost four finals since he started playing for the national side 15 years ago.

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Messi did win the Olympic gold with his national team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Men’s football at the Olympics though is essentially a U-23 event with only three overage players allowed in a squad. What weighed heavily on the Barcelona superstar was losing three Copa America finals—in 2007, 2015 and 2016—in addition to the 2014 World Cup final defeat to Germany at the Maracana.

“(Messi) said ‘thank you’ and I said ‘thank you’ to him. He told me it was going to be my final,” an emotional Di Maria was quoted as saying by Associated Press. Di Maria, Messi’s teammate in the Olympic triumph, had missed the 2014 World Cup final due to injury and was substituted early in the 2015 Copa America final after he picked up a knock.

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As Argentina celebrated the victory, Brazil star and Messi’s former Barcelona teammate Neymar walked over to his friend. They hugged for a good few seconds and exchanged a few words, Messi consoling Neymar and the latter congratulating the Argentine great on finally ticking his checklist—a major international title.

The respectful exchange between the two friends was caught on cameras and widely circulated on social media. Either of them would have grabbed the headlines. Messi eventually did but it was the kind of night where he wasn’t significantly influential in the game.

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The closest he came to scoring was when he found himself one-on-one with Brazil goalkeeper Ederson in the 88th minute, put through inside the box by the impressive Rodrigo De Paul, whose delivery was converted by Di Maria. This battle though was won by Ederson, who rushed out and managed to grab the ball before Messi could shoot.

Neymar, in comparison, had a bigger say in the game, particularly in the second half as Brazil sought an equaliser. But barring a few moments of concern, the Argentine backline held firm with goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez pulling off a couple of good saves and right-back Gonzalo Montiel having a particularly stellar outing. By the end of the game, Montiel’s right sock was drenched in blood following an ankle injury.

Messi too played despite an injury, Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni revealed. “If you knew the way that he played in the Copa America you’d love him even more,” he told reporters after the final. “You can never do without a player like him, even when he is not fully fit like in this game and the previous one.”

Despite Messi having a quiet night, it is difficult to fathom how Argentina would have fared without their talisman. Without his four goals and five assists, both the highest in the competition, La Albiceleste may not have reached the final.

The Copa triumph will give Scaloni’s side a lot of confidence ahead of next year’s World Cup. That young defenders like Cristian Romero and Montiel can step up in crunch games and that the team’s goalkeeping position finally looks settled with the emergence of Martinez shows signs of progress since the 2018 World Cup, when they were knocked out in the last 16 by eventual champions France after just about managing to get past the group stages.

Argentina’s start to the World Cup qualifying campaign hasn’t inspired much confidence—in six games, they had narrow wins over Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru and failed to beat Paraguay, Chile and Colombia. In comparison, Tite’s Brazil were flying high winning all six games with five clean sheets and a goal difference of +14. They had thus come into this tournament, shifted to Brazil at the last minute, as favourites to defend their title.

Their resurgence though will give Argentina belief when they resume their qualifying campaign in September. Scaloni’s side didn’t quite dominate games in Brazil—they managed three 1-0 wins, including the final, and two 1-1 draws, one of which ended in a shootout win over Colombia in the semis.

But Argentina managed to get over the line whenever needed. That is the trait they will have to continue showing if they are to harbour hopes of triumph next year in Qatar, in what could potentially be Messi’s last World Cup.

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