The match against Argentina was the biggest challenge in Canada’s history, and Jesse Marsch’s students had equal minutes with the world champion and current Copa America owner to the surprise of the crowd. Tens of thousands of enthusiastic Argentinian spectators were present at Mercedes-Benz Atlanta Stadium.

Under Marsch’s guidance for more than a month, Alphonso Davies and his teammates are gradually regaining form. Canada played brilliantly against Argentina until their physical strength was no longer guaranteed. With all due respect, Canada can hold its head high and declare that without Messi, the outcome would have been different.

But the truth is that Argentina still has Messi, and even though Messi is nearly 37 years old, he is still a monster. Before the match, the Inter Miami player raised his eyes to the sky and smiled as if he were challenging time. The living legend of modern football, the one who can change the outcome of the match, has fulfilled his duty.

Messi had an excellent night with two breakthrough passes for Julian Alvarez and Lautaro Marttnez to score. For the first goal, he headed a pass over the defense to Alexis MacAllister. The Liverpool midfielder directly assisted Alvarez to escape, easily placing the ball into the empty net to open the score. This is his 8th goal after 32 appearances for the national team.

Messi continued to set a new record in the Copa America when he dribbled into the middle and made a smooth pass to Lautaro Martínez, who entered the field in the 76th minute, to score his 25th goal for the team. On the day he broke the record for the number of appearances in the Copa America with 35 matches – surpassing Sergio Livingstone’s (Chile) record of 34 matches from 1941-1953, Messi also improved his own record for the number of assists in the Copa. I got number 18.

So, despite missing a few good opportunities, Messi’s performance was still superior to the rest. That is most clearly shown through the opponent’s shy sharing. “Yes, we talked a lot about playing focused and identifying areas where Messi often appears,” coach Jesse Marsch admitted. “We agreed not to rush into a direct dispute with him because it is very difficult to win the ball from Messi’s feet. Furthermore, if you rush in, he can easily pass and create plays. danger”.

“This is something I always emphasize about Messi. I have faced him many times and feel we have had good tactical plans and done many things right. But the problem is that Messi is too good , he can still create miracles. Messi’s two passes lead to two truly world-class goals.

To make it more convincing, there are additional numbers. Messi is currently the player with the most goals and assists in Argentina national team history in major tournaments such as the World Cup and Copa America with 54 times (26 goals and 28 assists). During his career, Messi has made 373 decisive passes for teammates to score at the club and national team levels. This is an unprecedented record in the history of world soccer. Since the beginning of 2024 until now, Messi has appeared in a total of 17 matches at the club and national team levels (scoring 16 goals and contributing 13 assists).

And it’s important to repeat once again: Messi is about to be 37 years old. At that age, it’s still hard to believe that Argentina still can’t live without Messi. La Pulga is truly an exception, he does not need to run, does not need to retreat to defend, is free to do whatever he wants because just his presence on the field is a blessing to football.