FIFA World Cup 2010: Goal Drought for Argentina's Star Player Lionel Messi, Maradonna says Messi is as Good as Me
Argentina has comfortably qualified for Round of 16 of the World Cup, and they have done it in style. Before the tournament, there was a lot of criticism thrown towards Maradona and his young men, as they struggled in the Qualification stages. Even during the tournament, many showed their concern with Maradona’s managing style, which started a war of the words between the Argentinean Manager and former stars like Pele and Platini. Despite all these concerns, everything went in the favour of Argentina and Maradona, as they showed, arguably, the best performance in the World Cup, so far.
However, that does not mean that Argentina is not facing any problems. Although they have scored many goals, and the team that beat Greece in the last match had many players from the bench, the major problem remains. Lionel Messi, the biggest star in the World Cup, has found it very hard to find the back of the net, so far in the tournament. Lionel Messi just had a brilliant season with his club Barcelona, with a record-breaking 47 goals in the season, but is failing to find any goals for his country.
This does not mean that Messi is not playing well at the moment, because he has shown some real class and quality in the three opening matches. He has made breath-taking runs and had a reasonable number of shots on goals, and also assisted his team-mates in making the chances. This drought of goals is not hurting Argentina, as Messi himself said that he would not care if the team keeps on winning, but it is hurting Messi. Many of the critics have pointed out that Messi does not play well for his country, where he has always failed to show his flair. These remarks have always been thrown towards Messi, despite the fact that he was the top scorer and top assist-maker for Argentina in the Qualifying campaign.
In this World Cup, Messi started very well against Nigeria, but denied many times by the well-efficient and athletic Nigerian goal-keeper. In the second match against South Korea, Argentina got the own goal on the flying and swinging Messi’s free-kick. That goal might have come as a little surprise, and many might blame the controversial Jabulani ball for that, but still the effort of the World’s best player are being undermined. In the final match against Greece, Messi again showed class, but he was unlucky as he was denied by the post. In addition, his effort bounced back from the keeper, which resulted in a goal by Palermo.
There is one thing that we should always keep in mind, that the opposition teams, playing against Argentina, are well aware of the talents of Lionel Messi. Therefore, they always come up with a special plan to counter him in the midfield, and so far, they have been successful. Nevertheless, this success is only partial, because Messi is still finding space to shoot towards the goal, and he is either being unlucky or facing acrobatic saves from the keepers. However, as the tournament advances and Argentina faces other oppositions, it is for sure that he would get extra room to manoeuvre in the matches and put some shots behind the goal.
There is also another contribution that Messi makes for the team. Due to his different style of game, he makes runs in the dangerous areas, while the opposition defenders try to close him down. Therefore, more than often he is dragging two or more defenders along with him, which makes room for the other forwards. This is the reason that Higuain was lurking free in the three goals that he scored against South Korea.
The fans might be worried, but Messi is still contributing a lot for the team. He might take some time to be on the score-sheet, but once he is there, there would be no one stopping him. There’s no denying that the star Messi, 23, is widely acknowledged as the greatest player on the planet and Coach Diego Maradona says he’s playing as well as he himself did, when he inspired the team to win the World Cup in 1986.
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