Really good analysis from Henry. This is the Ronaldo issue right now.
He's playing as a 9, but he's never been a 9 and he's not acting as a 9. Not giving Portugal those traits and it hurt them today.
🐐 | Some updates are in order
Most goals in #FIFAWorldCup history:
🥇 16 – Miroslav Klose, Lionel Messi 🆕
🥈 15 – Ronaldo
🥉 14 – Gerd Müller, Kylian Mbappé
Most World Cup goals among active players:
🥇 16 – Lionel Messi 🆕
🥈 14 – Kylian Mbappé
🥉 10 – Thomas Müller
Continuing to write football history at 38 years of age. 👑
Lionel Messi's first World Cup hat-trick comes a week before his 39th birthday.
He is now the top scorer in men's World Cup history with 16 goals, level with Germany's Miroslav Klose.
The oldest player to ever score a hat-trick at a World Cup.
Simply extraordinary.
To summarise. Lionel Messi is...
◉ The oldest player to score a hat-trick at the World Cup (38y 357d)
◉ Joint-top goalscorer at the World Cup (16)
◉ On his record breaking SIXTH World Cup tournament appearance
There are no words. 👏
5 - Rodrigo De Paul's assist for Lionel Messi was the fifth time two MLS players combined for a goal at the FIFA World Cup and the first for a team other than the #USMNT.
Herons.
Lionel Messi is probably the last player you could ever describe as an unknown quantity.
Still, in the weeks leading up to his sixth World Cup, a few doubts hung in the air. How fit would he be? Would he be a guaranteed starter for Argentina? Would he still, with his 39th birthday just around the corner, have the energy and drive to dominate matches at this level?
It only took him 45 minutes to make all of those questions look deeply idiotic.
Ditch the doubts. We're still living in Messi's world.
📝 @JackLang
Argentina 3-0 Algeria Briefing: https://t.co/LjIDuVMBd5
Argentina have real problems with their squad (no wingers to receive the passes their great passes play) but they're absurdly deep with central attackers and at 60' they can just sub on equally good players with fresh legs in every match
Argentina are a great case study for football analysis.
A group of players raised in Argentine football who share the same language not necessarily through club familiarity but through cultural transmission from childhood & centred around the divine presence of the best player in history.
La Nuestra, Lionel Messi, South American fire and grit, history and a coach in Scaloni who understands it perfectly.
That's why they are literally a force of nature.