Messi’s First World Cup Hat Trick Unleashed Chaos Outside Arrowhead — and Argentina Looked Scary Doing It

KANSAS CITY — Lionel Messi has spent two decades making the impossible look routine. But Tuesday night at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, the 38-year-old did something he’d never done before: score a hat trick in a World Cup match. And the reaction from the crowd outside the stadium was loud enough to make you wonder if the sound waves had a direct line to Buenos Aires.

Argentina’s 3-0 win over Algeria in their 2026 World Cup opener was, on paper, a straightforward result. But the way it happened — Messi scoring all three goals, the second and third coming in the 60th and 76th minutes — turned a group-stage game into something closer to a coronation.

FOX Sports posted video of the scene outside Arrowhead after Messi’s third goal, and it’s pure bedlam: fans packed into watch parties, arms raised, noise spilling into the Missouri night. The stadium itself was already buzzing, but the energy outside suggested this wasn’t just a win — it was a statement.

Messi’s hat trick ties him with Miroslav Klose for the all-time World Cup goals record at 16. Klose got there over four tournaments. Messi, in what might be his final World Cup, tied it in his 27th match on the sport’s biggest stage.

Before he finally broke through in the 17th minute — off a perfectly weighted pass from Inter Miami teammate Rodrigo de Paul — Messi had a shot saved by Algeria goalkeeper Luca Zidane (yes, that Zidane’s son) and another wiped out by an offside flag. The frustration didn’t last long.

Argentina entered this tournament as defending champions, but their 2022 campaign started with a stunning loss to Saudi Arabia. That memory has faded, but not disappeared. Tuesday’s win felt like more than three points. It felt like a team that knows how to win, led by a player who refuses to stop.

The larger story here might not be the hat trick itself — it’s that Messi is still doing this at 38, in a World Cup held partly on U.S. soil, with a title defense on the line. Argentina didn’t just beat Algeria. They looked dangerous doing it. And if Messi keeps playing like this, the conversation about the greatest of all time might finally stop being a conversation.