Lionel Messi has scored hundreds of goals in his career and he rarely celebrates wildly after scoring which he is good at doing and accustomed to as well. However, in Argentina’s first match of this World Cup against a stout Bosnia and Herzegovina side on Sunday at the Maracana, the four time footballer of the year looked ecstatic after scoring which also triggered wild celebration among the thousands of Argentine fans in the stands.
Messi was definitely under pressure as the physical approach of Bosnian defenders and the lack of space kept him frustrated at times. He was not up to the mark in the first half, but the introduction of Higuain at the beginning of the 2nd half allowed him the space and his preferred role. Consequently he produced the magic he was expected to as he drove through the Bosnian midfield before a lovely one-two with Higuain placed him at the edge of D box and then he sprinted past couple of challenges like a venomous snake before unleashing his typically sliding left-footed drive past Bosnian goalie Asmir Begovic who dived in vain as the ball hit the inside of the post before going in to give Argentina a 2-0 lead.
Waving his hand in the air, he sped to the left hand flag and was duly surrounded by his teammates. Messi even raised his hand in acknowledgement to the raucously vocal Argentine supporters.
All these meant Messi was definitely happy to break his eight year jinx as his only previous World Cup goal came against Serbia in the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Although Messi entered the 2010 World Cup on the back of a goal-laden season for Barcelona, he inexplicably failed to register his name in the score-sheet even after playing in five matches before Argentina were shown the exit door by Germany in the quarterfinals. His uniquely prolific goalscoring form for Barcelona laid the foundation of the belief of millions of Argentina fans worldwide that he would light up the tournament and hand Argentina its 3rd World Cup triumph. But the Barcelona superstar left empty-handed, without a goal and in a flood of tears.
Messi had his sympathizers though as many thought he was unlucky as Lady Luck deprived him goals on a number of occasions, particularly against Greece and Nigeria when he beat the goalie but the ball went agonizingly wide. On top of that, he also hit the woodwork once or twice. But all these could finally be put to bed on Sunday at the Maracana as he finally managed to break the jinx.
He was also selected for the man of the match award and the Argentina captain looked relaxed when he arrived before the media for the first time in the post match presser. However, he did not stay more than three minutes.
This is what the little magician had to say, “It’s important that we started off on the front foot with the three points. But we do have things we must improve on. It’s not easy with all the anxiety and the nerves, but the important thing is the result. We had a great second half. We had the ball much more, created several opportunities and that’s what we have to continue to do.”
Messi himself admitted the shift from five in defense to a 4-3-3 formation made it much easier for him and fellow striker Sergio Aguero. He said, “As strikers, we prefer that system as it gives us more attacking opportunities and we suffer a bit if we don’t adopt that system.”
“I was often on my own and so was Kun [Aguero] and it was very difficult. So there are things to improve on,” concluded the messiah. Although he suffered from injury just before the recently concluded season in La Liga, he was still in a rich vein of form as World Cup glory again beckons him with arms wide open.