the last step of Messi and his Argentinian “muchachos” to enter the legend – Liberation

Badly embarked on what looks like a last chance World Cup for Messi, the Albiceleste, carried by an entire people, is only one match away from bringing back a trophy that has been leaking since 1986.

Tuesday evening, long after the final whistle, the Argentinians remained on the lawn of the Lusail stadium. With red eyes, big smiles crossing their faces, Scaloni’s men hugged each other in the middle of the field. Before resuming in chorus with their supporters boysthe unofficial anthem of the Albiceleste during the World Cup, which Argentinian fans have been singing at the top of their voices for three weeks as soon as they have the opportunity, so much so that the catchy tune runs through our heads without ‘we manage to get him out and find ourselves whistling in the shower.

It’s about Argentina, “the land of Diego and Lionel”of the “lost finals mourned for years”and especially “the hope that has returned” of in “win a third” and to be “world champion”. Lionel Messi and his clique qualified for the final, the music has never sounded so right.

From the stands, however, it is impossible not to remember that three weeks earlier, on this same lawn, Lionel Messi did not have the morale to push the song. For its entry into a World Cup synonymous with the seven-time Ballon d’Or last chance to lift the only trophy it still lacks, Argentina had been cold-picked by the very modest Saudi Arabia, 51st in the Fifa rankings. . It only took ten minutes after returning from the locker room, inattention on one side, euphoria on the other, for the Sky and White to concede their first defeat in 37 games. We then saw the Argentine players pass through the mixed zone in single file, heads down and staring into space, as if the bus waiting for them was to take them straight to the slaughterhouse.

“The sun will shine tomorrow, whether we win or not”

Suddenly, the disproportionate pressure of a whole people who live and die for football had come crashing down on their shoulders. That of a country where shops close and children skip class when the Albiceleste plays. Of a whole nation “passionate and crazy about football”an Argentinian told us at half-time of a match, where “a victory can make you forget all the problems of everyday life”from unemployment to galloping inflation, “when a defeat has the effect of a bomb and drags the country into crisis”. “The World Cups are everything to me. I don’t intend to miss any until I die.”testified another, accustomed to dropping all or almost all of his savings every four years to follow the Seleccion.

“It’s hard to make people understand that the sun will shine tomorrow, whether we win or not.tempered Argentine coach Lionel Scaloni, after shedding a few tears of relief during the victory of his team against Mexico on November 26. I think we need to have a little more common sense. I don’t think we should play more than one football match, otherwise it will always be difficult.” This same Scaloni swore before the World Cup to come to Doha “without pressure” because his team had “already won”. By winning the Copa America last year, Messi’s band ended nearly three decades of title drought.

Not always attractive, not really impressive, Argentina has nevertheless got back on the right track since the misstep of entry against Saudi Arabia (2-0 against Mexico, 2-0 against Poland) . For five games, the Alibeceleste has shown the solidarity which has allowed it to chain the second longest series of meetings in the world without defeat for a selection. Confidence returned and with it his players started singing again.

Messi, aggressiveness and vice

Scaloni’s recipe for success is simple: line up players who are certainly quite talented but above all capable of suffering together and serving the collective. Types of the brawling type, not stingy with low blows and provocations, ready to defend like dogs while waiting for their number 10 to perform in sometimes perilous situations. A team that enjoys chasing the ball, which struggled to put on the intensity for eighty minutes but which can explode at any time in transition.

The method also works largely because the Albiceleste found the brilliant Lionel Messi in Doha who, after a difficult first season in Paris, is splashing the Ligue 1 this year. the field a good part of the match. Then suddenly, the ball arrives in his feet and the magic operates. It is not Gvardiol, the young and yet very good Croatian defender who will say the opposite, strolled over 40 meters on Tuesday evening by the little Argentinian fifteen years his senior.

In six games, Messi has five goals (including three from penalties) and three assists. He who had never scored before arriving in Qatar in a World Cup knockout match mainly planted in the round of 16, then in the quarter and half. A perfect. On mission, as possessed, he also showed a resentment and a vice that we knew little about him, helping to increase his popularity rating with supporters who appreciate virile demonstrations and a bit macho.

Still, history will only remember the exploits of Lionel Messi in Qatar if Argentina lifts the cup, late Sunday afternoon, in the middle of the Lusail stadium which it now knows so well. The opportunity for the captain to draw a line under seventeen years of wearing the sky and white tunic punctuated above all by disillusionment, by finally bringing back “la tercera”, the third world star he has been waiting for for thirty-six years now. And to definitely join “Don Diego” in the hearts of the Argentine people.