Tough competition against England, Brazil and Spain: Messi
Argentinean star Lionel Messi has stated that in his opinion, England, Brazil and Spain are one of the toughest teams to defeat in this World Cup.
The 22-year-old world class striker confessed that these three countries have the highest probability to be in contention for the World Cup in South Africa. Messi said, “I think that right now, the strongest sides going into the World Cup are Spain, England and Brazil”. He also added, “They had a strong, easy qualifying and are very tough”.
He said that in comparison to other teams, the Argentine team had work through mud and rain to reach the final stages of the FIFA World Cup 2010. Messi told that the squad had to face defeat at the hands of Bolivia 6-1 which was the nation’s worst defeat since 1958. Then came the terrible tragedy of losing to Brazil by 3-1 and fans became pessimistic if the 1986 World Cup Champions would even get through to the final stages of the tournament.
Eventually, they got a break against Uruguay and that ensured the Argentineans qualification to the mega event in South Africa. Messi said that even though there were doubts, Argentina has made it and now they are fully prepared to meet the obstacles coming in their way.
Messi told that he was an optimist and hoped that the team will for glory. He said, “I pray. Hopefully, it will be my World Cup, Argentina's World Cup and that we hit the ground running and play up to people’s expectations and win the World Cup.”
Being the patriot that he is, Messi claimed, “It’s very special for me to wear the shirt of the national team. I think it’s a beautiful responsibility to be playing with this shirt, especially with such a football crazy country watching everything we do. It’s something very beautiful.”
Early in his early years, Messi was diagnosed with a hormone deficiency and had to leave Argentina and move to Spain for medical attention. It was during this time that Messi was incorporated in the Barcelona football programme and he ultimately came into their team. Messi on many instances was offered to play for Spain but he politely refused them, telling that he would prefer to play for his motherland.
The star has been compared to Maradona quite often but in reality, Maradona has had an outstanding career at the international level. Messi in comparison till now has not lived up to expectations by giving average performances in the qualifying rounds. On the contrary, Maradona’s record at the club level isn’t that great either when compared to Messi who has insane statistics.
On the subject of performing for his country and club, Messi exclaimed, “People have an opinion and I respect it. I’m the first person who wants to do well with my national team and perform like I do with Barcelona. I know that this is a really good opportunity for me and I'm going to try to do it.”
He told that the game at the club and country level were very different. He explained, “At Barcelona, Guardiola decided to use me more in the middle and that’s when I had more touches on the ball and played more around the front of the area. And well, I’ve had the luck to be able to score more goals.”
Messi clarified that despite the criticism against Maradona style of management which is quite controversial; the whole squad is at ease working under him, “At first, it was strange to have him as our coach. The truth is he was a little imposing. But afterwards, we started getting used to him and he’s been our coach for a while, so now it’s normal. Also, he’s really close to the players; he’s one of the guys, so there’s no problem”.
He admitted that Maradona in fact had been real helpful to him and was a close friend of his. Experts say that it would be interesting to see in the World Cup what the apprentice has learned under the veteran’s wings. Argentina have been drawn in Group B with Nigeria, South Korea and Greece and have their first match on the 12th of June against Nigeria, followed by their match against South Korea on the 17th of June and Greece on the 22nd of June.
Tags: