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There was extra time. When you’re Lionel Messi, there’s all the time extra time. One other break up second to play the move. One other couple of beats to attend for the area to open up. One other 12 months to mount a problem. One other World Cup to struggle. And right here, on a vivid heat day in November, with the clocks placing 13 minutes of damage time, there have been nonetheless a couple of extra seconds for Argentina to make issues proper.
Messi superior down the best channel, nudging the ball together with impatient faucets of his left outstep. A bit area had opened up in entrance of him within the Saudi Arabia midfield. Ángel Di María was making the overlapping run on the best wing. In between him and the aim stood three defenders. Briefly, thrillingly, you could possibly see the cogs whirring as Messi contemplated taking all of them on and saving the match on his personal. As a substitute, the move went sideways to Di María and the cross went nowhere. There’s all the time extra time.
Not right here, maybe, however later. There are two video games remaining on this group, processes to be trusted, religion to be saved. Even after a catastrophe on this seismic and gorgeous scale, the strategies that introduced Argentina to Qatar as one of many match favourites on a run of 36 unbeaten video games should stay intact, if solely as a result of they’ve little different alternative. The stakes have been all the time this excessive. The margins of failure have been all the time this punishing.
Argentina’s deadly mistake right here was in deluding themselves in any other case. The twenty first century’s best World Cup shock didn’t instantly portend itself. As Saudi and Argentinian followers converged on the enormous golden boat of the Lusail Stadium beneath cloudless noon skies, the ambiance was nearly festive: selfies on the metro, hugs on the concourses, Saudis carrying Messi shirts, Qataris carrying Messi shirts, Australian vacationers carrying Messi shirts.
Nothing that unfolded in a vivid and entertaining first half appeared to shake that air of informality. It was 1‑0, however the ball had hit the Saudi web so many occasions that it didn’t really feel like a 1-0. In reality what was occurring was that Hervé Renard’s immaculate defensive position was completely disrupting Argentina’s buildup, forcing them to go for slightly extra, to play the move slightly earlier or later than they might have appreciated. This was how Argentina scored – or didn’t rating – their three offside objectives.
No person appeared overly perturbed at any of this. There was, in any case, all the time extra time.
What of Messi? Effectively, he acquired his aim, a pleasant confidence trick of a penalty within the tenth minute. However for probably the most half he, too, was easing himself into the match, sniffing the air, making an attempt to maintain a lid on issues. We already knew this about him, after all: the best way he likes to spend the opening minutes simply strolling and watching, attending to know the form and heft of the sport, understanding the place the areas would possibly open up. Messi might be the one man on the earth who truly reads all of the phrases and circumstances.
However on the similar time Argentina appeared to melt slightly, satisfied that each one they wanted to do was to handle the sport by way of to its inevitable conclusion. An increasing number of their assaults started to interrupt down, or dissolve into innocent spells of possession. In the meantime the exact physicality of the Saudi defensive rearguard was starting to disrupt them. Each single Saudi outfield participant made at the very least one sort out. Eight of them blocked a shot. They attacked bravely and instantly, Firas al-Buraikan and Salem al-Dawsari striding up the flanks like lone troopers sprinting throughout no man’s land. Slowly and by levels, Saudi Arabia have been starting to sharpen the sport to a degree.
Even so, when the equaliser got here it nonetheless felt like one thing of a miracle, and was greeted as such by a deafening wall of Saudi pleasure and Saudi songs, Saudi males and extra Saudi males. Actually Argentina appeared surprised by the violence and suddenness of the assault. Not often, if ever, can they’ve performed a World Cup sport in a impartial stadium and felt so totally outnumbered, out‑chanted, outmatched. And it was in these notorious couple of minutes that the sport was misplaced. Eardrums nonetheless stinging, hearts nonetheless pumping, heads nonetheless rattling, Nawaf al-Abid tried a curling shot, Di María and Leandro Paredes lunged hopelessly on the rebound, and Dawsari fired the ball into the highest nook to screams of anguish and disbelief.
What did Argentina have left? Because the tackles continued to pile in, because the crosses rained down on the aim of Mohammed al-Owais, because the Saudis within the crowd shredded what was left of their nerves, maybe that is what is going to concern Lionel Scaloni most. The mix of urgency and composure that characterises all the nice groups was fully absent right here: too cold within the first half, too confused within the second. The withdrawal of Paredes unbalanced them in midfield and, in need of giving the ball to Messi, they have been bereft of concepts within the remaining third.
This isn’t a group which have gone stale in a single day. However no matter serenity, stability or momentum that they had constructed up over the previous three years has been shattered. Each remaining minute of their World Cup will now be performed with a knife between their enamel, which may finally forge them or break them. Messi’s personal worldwide profession has by no means felt nearer to oblivion. There’s nonetheless time. However it’s swiftly operating out.
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