After a delay of more than 6 months due to the outbreak of the new Corona virus, the South American qualifiers for the first World Cup in the Middle East will start tomorrow, Thursday, as Messi renews the dream of winning the biggest title for any player.
At the age of thirty-three, Messi’s coffers are not missing any title at the club level, after he crowned them all with his Barcelona team, and he has won all possible personal awards, most notably the golden ball for the best player in the world six times (a record).
Residual dream
Messi repeated on many occasions that “the only dream I did not fulfill was to win the World Cup with the national team,” who lifted the most expensive trophy for the second and last time in 1986 in Mexico, led by legend Diego Maradona.
The dream was very close in the World Cup in Brazil 2014, but Mario Gotze snatched him from Messi and his companions by scoring the winning goal for Germany in the final match.
When Messi arrives in Qatar two years from now, he will be thirty-five years old, which makes the 2022 World Cup probably his last chance to try to achieve the dream.
After a convulsive summer and his failed attempt to break free from his contract with Barcelona due to his disagreements with club president Josep Maria Bartomeu, Messi hopes that the start of the qualifiers for Qatar 2022 will form a fresh air with a different flavor than what happened at the start of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, when Argentina lost at the “Monumental Stadium.” The legendary in Buenos Aires against Ecuador in the very same 0-2 in October 2015.
“Flea” magic before the World Cup in Russia
Argentina needed Messi’s magic to ensure their qualification for Russia 2018, by winning the last round of qualifiers over Ecuador 3-1 in Quito thanks to a hat-trick by the Barcelona star, ending the “CONMEBOL” group in third place behind rivals Brazil and Uruguay and ahead of Colombia.
Cope with the absence of the crowd
For its first qualifying match on its home soil, Argentina must adapt to a new reality, which is the absence of its loud and eager crowd since matches are held, at least for the time being, behind closed doors due to the repercussions of the new Corona virus.
Playing at the “La Bombonera” stadium of Boca Juniors has always been a nightmare for visiting teams because of the majestic atmosphere, but the absence of the fans will lose Messi and his companions a basic weapon in the face of their Ecuadorian guest.
Messi and the “old guard”
The absence of the crowd will not be the only change that Messi must adapt to, but he will play in a completely different squad that called the 2018 World Cup from the final price at the hands of France, who later crowned the title. New, but with the retention of some elements of the old guard in order to secure the factor of experience.
Scaloni spoke of “seven or eight players from memory that form the basis,” noting that the presence of experienced players makes the national team go as necessary “after one day of training” with the youth.
But the Scaloni team will be without Manchester City’s top scorer Sergio Aguero due to injury, while Paris Saint-Germain winger Angel Di Maria is excluded from the squad.
Scaloni believes that “Messi needs two players to play in front of him in order to pass the ball to them. They must play in the depths and not on the outskirts of the region. That way we achieved results in Brazil during the Copa America 2019,” referring to him to the third place the national team achieved there.
There is a player who is seriously competing to be Messi’s teammate in the front line in the person of Sevilla’s Lucas Ocampos.
Scaloni said of Ocampos, who is competing with the duo Paolo Dybala (Juventus) and Lautaro Martinis (Inter Milan), that he is “strong, technical and scoring goals. He also helps in the defense.”
Before traveling to Bolivia on Tuesday for the second round of the qualifiers, Scaloni and his men hope to take advantage of the difficult stage the Ecuadorian team is going through, led by a new coach, Argentine Gustavo Alvaro, after the departure of the Dutchman Yordi Cruyff without leading the team in any match.
The Ecuadorian Federation used the son of the late legend Johan Cruyff in January, but the outbreak of the new Corona virus suspended sports activity around the world and ultimately prompted the former Barcelona player to resign in July in light of the uncertainty imposed by “Covid-19” .
Alvaro trained 13 teams in Argentina and won the Copa Sudamericana Cup with Arsenal in 2007, but it will be the 58-year-old’s first job at the level of national teams.
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