Lionel Messi made history on Monday evening in Arlington, Texas, in their World Cup Group J game against Austria, becoming the highest ever scorer in FIFA World Cup history.
The goal was, typically, a thing of beauty but the entire move, start to finish, showed something even more special: this is Leo Messi's team; these are Leo Messi's boys.
Let's rewind a bit. If you go on the football side of social media, one of the clips that will flood your feed is the Argentina squad all milling about waiting for Lionel Messi to come and lead them out. From across matches and training sessions, different tournaments and training camps, this particular genre of clip will keep popping up, and each time the edit makes it look amazing. The aura, as the kids say, is palpable. The message being conveyed is crystal clear: this is Leo Messi's team; these are Leo Messi's boys.
You'll see more if you keep looking. Everyone listening with rapt attention when Messi speaks ahead of that Copa America final. Messi leading his team across the hoardings to confront Brazilian police after a spot of violence in the stands. Rodrigo De Paul and/or Leandro Paredes slamming into anyone who puts in a rough tackle on Messi. Paredes turning to Messi the moment the penalty that won the World Cup in 2022 went in. Alexis Mac Allister speaking about how he hated being called 'Ginger' by everyone in the team and how everyone stopped the moment Messi asked them to stop. This is Messi's team. These are Messi's boys.
Back to Arlington and that goal.
As Thiago Almada drives forward through the inside left channel, you know what's coming. Almada knows it too, and so does everyone else in Argentina white and blue. The team is flying forward, committing in numbers, the ball moving about quickly, flying from left to right in the blink of an eye... but amid all that chaos, you still know what's coming, where this will end.
MacAllister started it all with a tackle on the right wing just inside his own half, but the moment the ball's won, it becomes about Messi. De Paul slides in hard to save the ball from going out and on the spin hooks a ball back inside, to an area just inside the Austria box. If it was anyone else, playing for any other team, you'd call it a blind ball, a midfielder just trying to prevent a throw-in, but not when it's De Paul, not when he's doing it for Argentina. For right there stands Messi, in that favourite out-of-possession spot of his just inside the opposition half, on the right.
When Messi receives the ball, he immediately moves it and himself ever so slightly diagonally backward, but the moment he does that his teammates put their head down and sprint forward. Messi's not shouted any command, nothing in his movement has explicitly asked them to do this but the moment Messi turns backward, everyone pours forward. A drop of the shoulder, and suddenly Almada -- having made space to receive the ball that he knows is coming -- has the ball at feet.
As Almada then drives forward, Lautaro Martínez pushes back the defence on the right, while Enzo Fernández races past Almada to push them back on the left. As he reaches the edge of the box, Almada releases Facundo Medina down the wing. He then has the briefest glance over his shoulder and sees green grass behind him. But that's enough -- this is the only point in this entire move that anyone looks for Messi -- for he knows what's coming, who's coming.
He dummies Medina's cutback and there appears Messi, in a pocket of his own personal space, created partly by the genius of his movement and partly by teammates who simply know how all this will end. You know what comes after that, a copy-paste goal that we've seen so many times it's burned into our collective memory... but it's that phase of play that preceded it all that underlined the true aura of this world champion team.
You can point out individual imperfections across, but collectively, this is a team set up perfectly to get the best out of Messi. This is Messi's team. These are Messi's boys. And that is so ingrained in them that they instinctively know what to do to make sure the ball's at his feet when it matters.
Once it gets there... Leo Messi takes care of the rest. No one knows that like this Argentina team.