Greatest humiliation in history
Lionel Messi finds no excuse for this embarrassment
By Stephan Uersfeld, Doha
11/22/2022, 7:08 p.m
Lionel Messi’s last World Cup should be a triumph. The Argentinian attacking genius, one of the best players of all time, finally wants to lift the World Cup. Since Saudi Arabia is just right as the opening opponent. You could have thought.
What a humiliation for Argentina. What a humiliation for Lionel Messi. The South Americans, who are valued so highly, start the World Cup with an unbelievable disgrace – they lose 1: 2 (1: 0) to Saudi Arabia. They haven’t experienced anything like this in 32 years, maybe never before. Back then, the defending champions stumbled 1-0 against Cameroon in Italy, it’s a moment of awakening for an entire continent. Since then, Africa has been dreaming of its first World Cup title. Asia, the continent where Saudi Arabia is based, is not yet dreaming. And Argentina? Desperate, tries to put the inexplicable into words.
“It’s very bitter,” said superstar Lionel Messi after the game: “There’s no excuse. We have to be more united than ever.” That’s also imperative if they don’t want to run into an elimination in the remaining two games against Mexico and Robert Lewandowski’s Poland that might trump Germany’s disastrous result in Russia 2018.
The first world tournament after the death of Diego Maradona is supposed to bring Argentina its first title since the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. The Albiceleste, the sky blue, are the big favorites for the World Cup before their opening game. Everything speaks for her. The already dreadful form of the European giants in the final games before the tournament is now being torpedoed even further by the Europe v Qatar, Europe v FIFA clash. The South American teams don’t care. You are here to play soccer. Brazil have the offensive, but Argentina is a slightly stronger team on paper.
Diego, Lionel and Cristiano
On the streets of Doha there is only one theme before the game. It’s not the “One Love” pad. The fan hordes of both countries are only discussing the amount of victory for the sky blues, who have been unbeaten for 36 games. They negotiate like in a bazaar. Usually they agree on a 3:0, sometimes also a 5:0. Lionel Messi will fix it. Even if Diego lives on, in the songs on the train, in the hearts of the nation and on the flags that the fans carried into the stadium. They only wear the 10 and Messi on the shirt.
The 35-year-old from Rosario is facing his last major world tournament, last pandemic summer he brought Argentina their first continental success since 1993, at Paris Saint-Germain he recently presented himself with a more than solid late work – 29 goals in just 21 games until the World Cup break. And then there’s this Instagram picture of him brooding over a chess board. His opponent is his eternal rival, Cristiano Ronaldo, whose career has gone awry at club level and who now wants to join Portugal at the World Cup again.
Both compete with Diego Maradona, who died on November 25, 2020 at the age of 60, for the crown of the best player of all time. Diego is no longer there, but accompanies Messi onto the field on this hot Tuesday afternoon in Doha. When the Argentinian star runs onto the field to warm up to deafening applause at 12:21 p.m., the stadium director plays “La Mano De Dios”, the hand of God. A tribute to Maradona by the singer Rodrigo, who died in 2000 at the age of only 27. A song that moved Maradona to tears. A song that, on this day, clarifies the larger-than-life shadow under which Messi still moves.
Argentina runs headless
He can leave this shadow. Here at his fifth World Cup. At the end of his journey, which Germany started at the 2006 World Cup and only once, in 2014, has led him to the final. At that time, however, Mario Götze was better than Messi for a brief moment. The whole world can see it. But against Saudi Arabia, after an early urge, Argentina presented themselves with a penalty from Messi – the VAR had previously intervened – strangely sluggish, almost arrogant. They score three more goals, but both Messi’s second triumph after 22 minutes and two goals from Laurato Martinez are ruled out – offside.
They play down the first half easily, feeling safe, only to give up the game within five minutes and run into epic embarrassment. They can’t think of anything anymore. Headless rushes, high balls, Messi’s desperate attempts to take on eight players at once. It’s not enough. “A heavy blow for all of us,” said Messi after the game and Inter striker Martinez seconded: “We lost, it was because of our own mistakes. We should have scored more than one goal in the first half.”
Saudi Arabia doesn’t care. They also find it hard to believe that they just created a historic moment at the World Cup. “We made Saudi football history and it will live forever,” said Hervé Renard, Saudi Arabia coach, after the game. They wrote Argentinian football history right away. Messi now has to fight for his big dream. “It’s a situation we haven’t been in for a long time,” he says, urging his team to show “that we’re a real team.” These words are usually the harbingers of doom. For the time being, it remains an incredible humiliation.