Lionel Messi has decided to call curtains on his international career today after Argentina’s loss to Chile in the final of Copa America Centario, in which Messi missed the crucial first kick of the penalty shootout . This loss which was Messi 3rd consecutive final defeat in major tournament, and seemed to have an very adverse effect on him. So what went wrong? Why did he retire at 29, surely he has a lot more to offer to his country and he can surely go on at-least till the 2018 World Cup, So what made him take this decision?
Well for starters getting criticized by his own country fans and legends did not help his cause, we all know how much Messi is loved in Barcelona and other parts of world if he has 1 hater in those place he also has a thousand supporters there, but that doesn’t seem to be the case back home in Argentina , where he has been continually criticized for his lack of contribution to the national team. Well is it true?? Absolutely not !! he won the best player trophy in both 2014 world cup and 2015 Copa america, he inspired Argentina to the final in both the occasion.
So does chokes in big finals and let his team down???
Anybody who follows football will know that this is the most absurd thing ever, we all know what he did in those UEFA champions league finals don’t we? Now coming to his performance in the final of this 3 tournaments that he lost
World Cup Brazil 2014 – Messi Might not have scored or assisted but did he have a bad game ?? no he created a ton of chance which wasn’t converted by his teammates, Higuain Lavezzi etc missed ton of chances that leo created, he might not had a Phenomenal game but still he was nowhere near of having a bad day.
Copa America Chile 2015 – This game was also a goalless draw until the full-time, and in this match also Messi performed well , well he wasn’t at his usual alien level that he usually plays at , but he was pretty darn good and created many chances 2 of which so simple that one would thought even a novice will put it past the goalkeeper, but Higuain bottled on the both the occassion. In the Penalty shootout he scored the first and the only penalty of Argentina.
Copa America Centario(USA-2016) – Well of all three if one has to choose Messi worst performance it has to be this one, he played averagely and also missed the crucial 1st penalty of the shootout .
There seemed to be a reason for his poor performance today and it seemed to me like he was not passing the ball as much as he usually does, whenever he got the ball he tried doing everything himself, which isn’t just like how Plays, so what made him adapt to this style of play?? Maybe just Maybe he lost all his confidence in his Argentina Counterparts, especially after seeing the early miss of Higuain and Di Maria , he might have thought he had to do it all himself and that seemed to have effect on his style of gameplay.
We’ll take a look at Few more of highlights of Messi career, in our second article of the Curious case of Leo Messi.
