Lionel Messi scores twice for Argentina as a substitute in 3-0 win vs. Jamaica

By
Roy Nemer
-
32

Lionel Messi scored twice as a substitute for Argentina in their 3-0 win vs. Jamaica.

Messi started the game on the bench as all eyes in the stadium were on him. It was Julian Alvarez who started the game in place of Messi, who had cold-like symptoms.

Julian Alvarez would start and Julian Alvarez would score. After great work by Lautaro Martinez, Alvarez would score his second goal for the Argentina national team to give Argentina the 1-0 lead.

Argentina national team coach Lionel Scaloni did not make any substitutions at half time but Messi was warming up. Messi would be brought on as a substitute for Lautaro Martinez as the New Jersey crowd in the stadium would get to see the best player in the world.

The ball would fall to Messi and with one man marking him, Messi would score from outside of the penalty area to give Argentina the 2-0 lead. The fans would go crazy but Messi was not done.

A free kick for Argentina and Messi would roll the ball under the wall and score. He has now scored 90 goals for the Argentina national team.

It is now 35 games undefeated for Argentina.

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32 Comments

  1. Neither of our fullbacks provided a single key pass is the most important takeaway from the game. There was no threat whatsoever from the flanks. Lo Celso had to run relentlessly to make something happen. Explains why Argentina switched to a 3-5-2 towards the end of the game.

  2. Man let’s be realistic here. I always believed what happened in thiese 2 friendlies will be crucial to decide the final 26. We have to prepare that Scaloni will still take MacAllister to the World cup. I think the fact that he started today means that he is quite high in pecking order. Maybe the one in danger is Palacios if they are to take just 7 midfielders. Enzo should be safe.

    What I hope now is reduced role for MacAllister. He was ineffective as left midfielder and just as ineffective as right midfielder as we saw tonight. Him replacing De Paul, his job is to distribute the ball upfront but what he did was just making back passes all the time. The only good thing he did was that pass to Lautaro.

    Hope Scaloni will never consider him as the back up of Lo Celso, De Paul anymore. His role like someone says here should be only when we go full defensive mode and we need an extra body for it.

    Also I really hope Scaloni will swap the role or Enzo and MacAllister. Enzo can be an 8. MacAllister can’t. Scaloni did the opposite today making Enzo a 5 and MacAllister 8.

  3. Bielsa, Basile and Pekerman were great coaches until they got penalized by their mistakes in the world cup.

    Scaloni’s steaks are high because he won the Copa. However, if he continues to rely on the devine touch to get around his player selection fiasco, then it wouldn’t be long before people here will start criticizing the Copa winning coach.
    Scaloni has been wasting valuable game times for more deserving players by consistently trying to force the likes of Roberto Pereira, J Correa, A McAllister, Armani to the team.

    In todays game, there were some tactical decisions of Scaloni that invite examinations. Why on earth you play Enzo as 5 and McAllister as 8 (for solid 70 mins) when you already see how the midfield was dysfunctional.

    Also, I didn’t get his formation at the later stage of the game when both Lisandro and Molina came in and Teglafico still playing. Basically, he went to 3-5-2 formation with Teglafico! It would have worked had we played Nico or Acuna in place if Teglafico. Since, both were injured, Scaloni could have played in 3-4-3 format with Julian continue playing in exchange for Teglafico. Or, Scaloni could have put Lisandro in DM and Teglafico in LB and move Enzo little higher up in the midfield.

    In tactical point of view, it was confusing what Scaloni wanted to accomplish by these weird formations/choices.

  5. Although there is still a lot of room for improvement, overall the team had a good game with good results. So you have nothing to fear, cry here.

  6. Why this much frustration? Brazil midfield is not better than us. Yes they are fast but we can shut them if we back to our best. Argentina played their typical game. All played well except macallister. And di Maria we all know that he is mostly ineffective against defensive teams. Look don’t expect more goal feast from our side. They know the opponents. Don’t judge players with one performance. All praised tag and guido during Italy game and now criticizing.

    • Brazil midfield is mediocre bt they makeup for it by their forward line which is great. We have messi bt their wingers r far superior than ours lautaro is little better than their no. 9 bt not much so in order to win we need a better midfield as both sides fullbacks r quite mediocre. France still the top favorite and we have to avoid them because they have ego prblm bt if they play unitely and they click they will become close to unbeatable. They have Benzema mbappe dembele coman Griezmann upfront thn physicality in midfield in tchoumeni and camavinga thn they have varane saliba kounde upamecano in defense. Gosh France is stacked talentwise

  9. Messi scored 11 goals the entire of last season for PSG, yet he already has 10 goals in 6 games for Argentina this year. Its obvious that the problem on PSG isnt on Messi goalscoring ability but their tactical setup for him.

  10. Argentina needs Messi in GOAT form to win WC. Our best available midfielders and fullbacks are just mediocre as compared with France/Brazil. I don’t want to see Alex McDisaster again. He is another Meza.

  11. My player reviews.

    CBs: Nothing much to do, Jamaica just sat back and defended and occasional weak attacks were easily handled by our CBs and Emi may be touched the ball no more than 5 times. When Licha came in Scaloni tried 3 in the back with Molina and Tagliafico in more attacking areas.

    Fullbacks:
    Similar to Molina in the last match Montiel wasn’t involved much in the attack, he sat back most of the time. He had one cross which went out if I am not mistaken.
    Tagliafico, as usual very good when defending but while attacking, he again reminded he is not the one. Hopefully Acuña doesn’t get injured in the world cup because Tagliafico poor attacking skills was the reason nobody wanted him for even 5 million price tag. He is only good when defending a lead. Molina played for 10 mins and other than one miss pass he did nothing. We really need him and Acuña to be back to form otherwise our pressing game will look blunt these two matches.

    Midfield:
    Both Guido and MacAllister didn’t have a bad game in defense department but their lack of contribution in attack was one of the reason why we looked so blunt and all over the place. This is where Palacios stands out. Unlike Leverkusen where he is deep lying CM, in national team he is a box to box midfielder with very good chemistry with other fellow midfielders and always maintains the pressing and tempo. Regarding Enzo and Depaul , both couldn’t do anything special today. Locelso reminds of his Spurs days. He is usually very sharp with Villarreal and creates a lot of chances for them.

    Attack:
    Lautaro made a great assist and Julian scored a nice goal but missed a very good chance from Dimaria’s pass which was the only contribution from ADM, other than that he was very poor. Both goals from Messi was very good. I am glad he scored 4 goals as we need Messi to be back to his clinical best. He will score more goals than Lewandowski and Benzema if he continues this form as he seems to get his scoring boots back slowly,which is great news. Joaquin Correa didn’t do much in 10 mins. Dybala is in red hot form and it was a shame he got injured. I would replace Lautaro with Dybala and Julian would be third in pecking order.

    • To summarize, 3 months gap seem to have totally damaged our team chemistry and pressing game. Also unlike other teams we had a longer distance to travel and then visa issues didn’t really give the team and coaching staff too much time to prepare I also have zero complaints regarding attack and defense. However, our midfielders were really mediocre. Depaul , our engine was totally off. Paredes only played one match but wasn’t convincing. Loceslo seems like he is playing for Spurs. Both his creativity and passing were missing along with poor finishing. MacAllister will only be useful if we need to go into full defensive mode. He is like our poor man’s Kante. But he offers nothing pressing forward and thats a big disadvantage. I don’t see Enzo not being able provide the same service what MacAllister offers. Palacios was missed and he really needs to get back to fitness. Guido had a off game, but he didn’t play the first match and 3 months gap is a very long gap tbh. He is very good in air and despite being a defensive minded player he offers quite a bit in attack. AFA should try to get players to the training camp atleast one week early. No point playing the last league match. We need 2 weeks of closed door training to get back the chemistry. If this poor performance from midfielders continues in the world cup then we are doomed. Also, Scaloni needs to make use of Dybala’s red hot form even if that means Angel and Joaquin Correa are dropped or not used . Nicholas Gonzalez high tempo pressing was also missing in both matches.

      • I strongly disagree, he has actually been playing very well in Lyon and might be our most in form fullback at club level right now. The lack of attacking output shouldn’t be a major concern because for that we have Acuna which is our most consistent attacking experienced full back. Technically he is our main starter at LB.

    • Nice summary

      > Similar to Molina in the last match Montiel wasn’t involved much in the attack

      Foyth should be called if thats the case. As each games goes by, the more I’m convinced we need Foyth’s defensive output. I hope his form kicks shortly after his return.

  12. Everyone is talking about how the team chemistry isn’t there in the attacking area
    But is no one gonna talk about our defensive structure????
    Lol not once did I feel we were going to concede in both the matches we played

  14. Two golazos from 🐐…. ENZO FARNANDEZ is must for the world cup. I have told many many times he is the best Argentine midfielder currently. Alexis machailster has a limitation ,you can’t except extraordinary games from him…

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