Watching Argentina play last night in the second round match against Switzerland in the World Cup, it seemed that the entire team had just one basic strategy – Get the ball, pass it to Messi and hope for the best! In fact, the Argentinean crowds now chant “Come On, Messi!”, rather than “Come On, Argentina!” – Such is Messi’s importance to an entire football crazy nation.
Messi has scored an incredible 23 goals in the last 25 matches that he has played for Argentina, and in this World Cup in particular, his importance to his team simply cannot be overstated. Messi is at the heart of every Argentinean attack, providing assists, forging forward, scoring goals, rescuing his team from bad situations – Messi does it all. Argentina looked completely lost, if not for Messi, in their three matches in the group stages, and looked even worse against Switzerland yesterday. They look a side completely bereft of ideas, depending on only one man to win football matches for them.
Even against a team as low in the Fifa ranking as Iran, Argentina could hardly get a goal for the entire duration of the 90 minutes, and if not for Messi’s sensational strike in the closing minutes of that match, his team would have had trouble even qualifying from the group stages. While Messi’s goals against Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iran and Nigeria won those matches for his country, his brilliant assist in the 119th minute of the match against Switzerland, beautifully setting up Angel Di Maria for the match winning goal, saved the day for Argentina yet again. One can only imagine how the Argentinean public, who are well known for being so utterly passionate about their football, would react to their side going out so early in the tournament.
The utter dominance of Lionel Messi in how Argentina play their football is deeply worrying and really puts a question mark on their chances of ultimately winning the World Cup. Already, Messi is plagued with a recurring injury, and it is possible that the serious workload being carried by him for the sake of his team, match after match, may have a heavy bearing on his body. One shudders to think how Argentina would fare if Messi is unavailable even for one match in this World Cup.
In a way, this reminds me so much of how important Sachin Tendulkar was to the Indian team in the 1990s, when he was faced with the burden of carrying the expectations of an entire cricket mad nation. Tendulkar was very young then, in only his early twenties, but already, every time he walked on to the cricket field with his bat, he knew that a failure from him would devastate an entire nation of a billion people.
The 1990s was a period when Indian cricket wasn’t as dominant as it is today. It was also the first time that cricket matches were telecast live all over the country and new private sports channels such as ESPN and Star Sports held the attention of the entire nation. If prizes could be given for the most passionate fans, Indians would win hands down. But the Indian cricketers of that era were decidedly mediocre. Rahul Dravid and Saurav Ganguly were yet to make their presence felt then, so India had no choice but to pick some really average players in the side such as Ajay Jadeja, Sanjay Manjrekar, Venkatesh Prasad, Nayan Mongia, Manoj Prabhakar and many others, who would be nowhere near an Indian team of today.
Indian cricket of the 1990s suffered from a severe lack of talent, and even worse, a complete absence of killer instinct – that is so important in sports. Almost every Test series played outside India was lost and lost heavily, despite Tendulkar doing his best and coming out with great knocks match after match. Tendulkar’s consistency was stunning, even in matches that India lost. For instance, one remembers the Test series held in Australia in 1992, which India faced a humiliating 4-0 defeat. But the only saving grace for India in that series was the 19-year old boy, already being compared to the batting legend Sir Donald Bradman, who made 3 centuries in all, including one on a Perth track that was seriously quick.
So comparisons between the Argentinean football team of today and the Indian cricket team of the 1990s are valid. But the Messi of Indian cricket, Sachin Tendulkar, still won the cricket World Cup in 2011, which completed a great career in which he has done everything humanly possible. But Sachin was well into his late 30s when he won the cricket World Cup. It would be a shame for world football if the equally great Lionel Messi has to wait just as long to win the greatest accomplishment in sports, the football World Cup.
