FIFA World Cup 2010 - Maradona knows Lionel Messi cares more for Argentina than scoring goals
We all know that the football player of the year, Lionel Messi, is one of the most famous players of this generation. Fans from all around the world just love the way he dribbles the ball and controls it and runs with it with immense pace and body balance. In this FIFA World Cup 2010, we have no seen a goal coming from Lionel Messi, but the fans, who are watching, from all around the world, know how much meaning he brings to the Argentinean football team.
The Barcelona star, Lionel Messi, had a confirmed spot in the squad of Argentina when he became the footballer of the year and received an award for it. Not forgetting the fact that Christiano Ronaldo, Ricardo Kaka and so many other super stars play in other clubs with impressive skills as well. But, he managed to impress the audience and the judges to win footballs most prestigious award.
In his club, he plays alongside many legendary players; including, Iniesta, Xavi and even Ibrahimovic. But, he has surely topped them all and showed his class time and time again. During this year’s football season, he managed to score the most goals; not only in the Spanish league but in all the leagues around the world. He scored fifty-six goals in forty-six appearances, which is a record itself. He is not equal to the Brazilian star Ronaldo, who once played in Barcelona and then got transferred to Real Madrid. Diego Maradona, the Argentinean coach, has praised Messi a lot of times and said "he's there," when he was asked whether Messi is as good as him in the 1982 World Cup.
Lionel Messi is not only a goal scorer but also a play maker, as seen by the public. His actual position is supposed to be right wing, but he manages to swap positions with his fellow team mates and becomes a centre forward, a left winger or even a mid fielder at times. His through balls, shooting ability and especially the way he dribbles the ball is remarkable. For now, he has the most shots on target in FIFA 2010 World Cup. Most of them, coming from his stronger left, foot.
Sadly, for Messi fans, he has been denied most of the times during this World Cup. He has been unable to score a goal throughout the group stages. But he was involved in most of the goals that the Argentineans scored. The first goal Argentina scored against Nigeria, it was a corner won by Messi, right after his shot was blocked by the Nigerian goal keeper who was having quite a day himself; he denied Messi twelve times that day. During the second match, against the Koreans, Messi was feeling unlucky throughout the first quarter. Then suddenly, he started to make moves and runs with the ball and also started to trouble the Korean defence. He was taking on the Asians single handed. Then the first goal came in with his assist, as he took a free kick from outside of the box, it hit the Korean defender and went inside the net. Then, the second goal was scored when he ran inside the box with the ball, shot and hit the pole. Higuain was around the corner and made it two nil for the Argentineans. The third goal also came from his assist but was mostly Aguero. They both ran together, Aguero came inside the box and Messi gave him a looped pass. He gave it to Higuain who made no mistake and made it three for Diego Maradona's side. Later, Messi ran in again to shoot the ball, which was blocked by the Korean keeper and Higuain deflected in the last shot to make it four, and the final score line was four goals to one; an easy win for the Argentinean side.
During the third game, Messi was covered by the Greek side really well. There were three players marking him throughout, so he couldn't do much. Until, the last goal came because of his run from the right. He shot the ball on target, which the keeper denied and Palmero made no mistake and placed it into the corner to make it two for Argentina. That was the last game Messi played, and the Argentinean side easily qualified for the next round with an unbeaten record in the group stages. As seen, Lionel Messi had a huge hand in making all the goals and the victories materialise.
One can just not count Messi out because he is the World's best player for now and has been nothing but impressive and getting better day by day. His speed while running with the ball has no match. Although, he has been unlucky with the goals; and the fans were expecting him to score most of the goals for the Argentinean side, he just cannot be counted out.
Even though, he could not find the net, the generous player told the press that he does not care about his goals until and unless his team is winning. He said he was just happy about the fact that his country is winning because of him, and he does not care about how others want him to be the star of the show. He said as long as he's playing good and his side is winning, he is happy. He even told the press that it is not only his work that leads to the win, but it is the effort of the whole team. He wants people to know that he is going to keep on playing like this as long as they support him and as long as he can make his country proud.
Although, Messi has been unlucky throughout this tournament so far, shows no care about the fact that he does not have a name on the goal scoring charts. On the other hand, his fellow team mate, Gonzalo Higuain has already scored a hat-trick in this tournament. All thanks to Messi himself who made the chances come true. As said before, Messi is a player of pure class and the next opponents he is going to face, the Mexicans, better watch out for him because he can be a serious threat to any side.
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