The crowd at Dallas Stadium didn’t care that Argentina had already won Group J. They didn’t care that this was a meaningless group-stage finale against Jordan. They wanted one thing, and when Lionel Scaloni finally sent him to the sideline to warm up, the stadium started buzzing.
Lionel Messi checked into the match in the 59th minute, and the place went absolutely nuts. Argentina’s fans had been loud all night. But when No. 10 started stretching near the touchline? That was a different kind of noise.
Argentina took control early without him
Scaloni rested his 39-year-old captain to manage his workload, and it didn’t hold Argentina back at all. Giovani Lo Celso opened the scoring in the 19th minute with a gorgeous curling free kick into the top corner. Then Lautaro Martínez buried a penalty just past the half-hour mark after a VAR check, putting La Albiceleste up 2-0 at halftime.
That felt like the game was over. It wasn’t.
Jordan came out fighting in the second half. Captain Ehsan Haddad delivered a pinpoint cross to halftime sub Mousa Al-Tamari in the 55th minute, and Al-Tamari slotted it home to make it 2-1. Suddenly Jordan had life, and Argentina needed an answer.
Scaloni had the best answer in soccer history waiting on the bench.
The captain changed everything
Messi’s presence shifted the entire dynamic. He didn’t just roam around picking passes. He took over the offense, drawing defenders, opening space, dictating the tempo. For 31 minutes, Jordan couldn’t figure out how to handle him.
Then came the moment everyone came to see.
In the 80th minute, Messi stepped up to a free kick from dangerous range. He didn’t just score. He scored with the kind of precision that’s made him the greatest to ever do it, curling the ball past the wall and into the net to seal a 3-1 win. Argentina finished group play with a perfect 3-0 record.
That goal was Messi’s sixth of this World Cup, leading the tournament. It also made him the first player in history to score in seven consecutive World Cup matches. Not bad for a guy who supposedly was just getting some rest minutes.
What comes next
The defending champions roll into the Round of 32 with all the momentum in the world. They’ll face Cape Verde on July 3, and with Messi firing like this, it’s hard to see anyone slowing them down. Cape Verde will have to figure out a way to handle a team that just went undefeated in group play while its best player barely broke a sweat.
Good luck with that.
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