In this same place two Olympiads ago, Lionel Messi shuffled through a corridor looking as insignificant as he ever has inside a football stadium. This was the venue where his international career died.
He had turned 29 two days earlier. He had bashed a penalty kick over the bar in the Copa America Centenario final. He had been compared relentlessly to Maradona and his legend. He had finished yet another tournament without leading Argentina to a title.
“The national team is not for me,” Messi said that night, following a penalty shootout loss to Chile.
Tuesday, he earned his 73rd cap since deciding he’d had enough.
He scored his 54th goal since returning to international duty.
And, most important, he earned a spot in his third consecutive major tournament final with a 2-0 Copa America semifinal victory over Canada.
Argentina won the other two, the 2021 Copa America and the 2022 World Cup, breaking a decades-long trophy drought that haunted Messi more than anyone. It's all made his decision to end that brief retirement from the national team wonderfully rewarding.
Argentina now, in Sunday evening’s final against the winner between Uruguay and Colombia, can become the second team ever to win three major titles in a row, joining the Spain group that won the 2008 Euros, 2010 World Cup, and 2012 Euros.
And, as if to verify that Met Life Stadium in New Jersey is where he makes his biggest statements, one way or the other, he said during a shirtless pitch-side interview, “These are the last battles … that is why I’m enjoying it to the fullest.”
"Son las últimas batallas, disfrutándolas al máximo" afirmó Leo.
— TVP (@TV_Publica) July 10, 2024
🩵 Si el 10 está feliz, nosotros también.
📺¡#VibraElContinente en Televisión Pública! Seguí el post-partido junto a nosotros. pic.twitter.com/PNxHNnIc2E
Wait, did he just do it again?
With another World Cup coming to the States in 2026? With his powers not apparently diminishing as he’s less than a month past his 37th birthday and performing at a superlative level for Inter Miami in Major League Soccer and with the Argentines in this event? He can’t be serious about stopping now. Maybe he meant the last battles of this Copa tournament?
The crowd of more than 80,000 that showed up for Tuesday’s game hoping to get a glimpse of what’s made Messi the greatest soccer player in history got a huge dose of his extraordinary gifts. They had to watch closely, though.
The greatest plays in soccer are not always as conspicuous as an Anthony Edwards slam dunk. One of Messi’s best moments against Canada didn’t even involve him touching the ball. On a forward move early in the second half, he faked as if he were going to accept a pass and let it roll through to a teammate – a “dummy”– but Argentina just couldn’t turn that threatening moment into a legitimate scoring chance.
Soon after, in the 51st minute, he dashed in front of Enzo Fernandez’s shot from the top of the box and just nicked the ball, which redirected it slightly and allowed it to slip into the right corner of the net. It was his 109th international goal, passing Iran’s Ali Daei to rank second all-time among men’s players.
It looked, immediately, as though he’d pilfered a sure goal from Fernandez. In fact, Canada’s Maxine Crepeau probably would have deflected the shot wide had Messi chosen not to get involved. It looked as though Messi was well offside as he intersected with the ball, as no defender aside from the keeper was behind him as he struck it. In fact, Canada’s Derek Cornelius had attempted to dash upfield past Messi and trap him offside, but he wasn’t nearly quick enough.
You can’t fool Messi.
Lately, you can’t beat him, either.
To win a third consecutive major trophy after all the harangues he endured — all the suspicion that he did not identify as Argentine because he’d left the country at 13 and spent the majority of his life in Barcelona — would be the best sort of vindication. At this point, though, why not a fourth?
So many of the guys on that Spain team a dozen years ago were Messi’s teammates with FC Barcelona back then: Andres Iniesta, Xavi, Sergio Busquets, Carles Puyol, Gerard Pique. One more win, and he’ll be able to boast just as loudly about his national team accomplishments as they could for the past decade.
If he chooses to stick around another couple years, though, four in a row is not out of the question. Argentina’s core of young players – Lautaro Martinez, Alexis Mac Allister, Fernandez – may be the best national team of which he’s been a part. They’re surely the most accomplished. Because they’ve accomplished something.
There’s still more available Sunday.
And in two years.
Messi can live to fight more battles, if he wants.