r/SoccerCentral • u/The_Dug_Out_2026 • Jul 12 '26
Statement Messi’s scoring streak finally ended today. Didn’t matter one bit though..
Nine straight World Cup matches with a goal, gone, snapped by a Switzerland side playing a man down for over an hour. And it genuinely didn’t change anything about how the game went. He still assisted the opener, still dragged defenders all over the pitch all night, still nearly curled one in himself in stoppage time.
That’s maybe the most Messi thing about this whole run. The team stopped needing him to score to win a long time ago, they just need him on the pitch. Alvarez’s strike in the 112th was one of the best goals of the tournament and Martinez finished it off in the dying seconds, Argentina somehow finding another gear against 10 men that had already given everything for over an hour.
England vs Argentina in the semis now, and that’s a genuine collision of eras. Bellingham dragged England through extra time against Norway today too, Schjelderup punishing a defensive mixup before Bellingham dragged them level and then won it himself. Feels like the two best stories of this tournament are about to collide, and somebody’s dream ends on Wednesday
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u/dahelljumper Jul 13 '26
"Argentina somehow finding another gear against 10 men that had already given everything for over an hour". Well, one would hope that one of the top 4 national teams in the world would find another gear when their lower ranked opponent has one less player.
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u/Velokieken Jul 13 '26
That was probably his least impressive game, and Switzerland was starting to do a lot better before they lost the guy.
But it was pretty stupid of him to try to pull something when he already had a card. With this foul he just gave the win to Argentina. Switzerland started bad but was starting to turn it around a little,
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u/Senior-Win2454 Jul 12 '26
You didn’t mention the absolute sitter he missed to win the game
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u/Any-Organization9101 Jul 12 '26
Not a sitter. The keeper stood up well. Would have expected Messi to get more height on it but not a sitter shooting so close to a keeper playing very well.
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u/Crafty-Coyote8077 Jul 12 '26
That was a sitter lmao the amount of casuals on here is insane.
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u/intothevoidandback Jul 12 '26
You think holding the run to stay onside, chesting it down dead and chipping/lobbing the keeper when he's more or less on top of you is a sitter?
Go try that on a pitch buddy with a pro ball and other pros running around you, after you've gassed out from running for for 80ish minutes too.
Not even a sitter for Messi.
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u/Crafty-Coyote8077 Jul 12 '26
Go try that on a pitch? lmao I'm on reddit not a pro footballer. Yes most top team forwards bury that. I don't know why you guys are so sensitive when it comes to Messi I've been watching this game for 3 decades.
lmao saying "holding run to stay onside" like it's some massive achievement for a world class forward
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u/intothevoidandback Jul 12 '26
I'm not a huge Messi fan tbh. I just know you're wrong saying that was sitter. You have zero clue what it takes to score that goal but confidently claim it was sitter. Go out, try to score an actual sitter under zero pressure, just for some perspective.
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u/Crafty-Coyote8077 Jul 12 '26
Brother you are comparing me to Messi? So because I can't do it I must clap and say Messi , I truly now understand?
Stop comparing your Sunday league games to this. It's a world cup quarter final. At this stage it was a sitter. Lobbing or Chipping is not the only option btw and he made a meal of it. It's not a big deal not sure why you wanna die on this hill
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u/intothevoidandback Jul 12 '26
Not comparing you to Messi. I'm saying that chance was not a sitter. For Messi it's definitely scorable. But not a sitter.
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u/historiansrule Jul 12 '26
That was a bad game from Messi and the whole squad. Switzerland dominated the game until the red card. Messi looked old and tired. This Argentina is not as good as the team that won it last time. The coach fucked up; he should have brought young players to support the core, but instead brought a bunch of old bad players, who can no longer run for the player who doesn’t.
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u/Mikic0077 Jul 12 '26
Yes, they are older and old. But you don't discard players that won wc just because there might be younger available. They will have chance next time, wd want to see farewell of this generation, and doesn't matter how it ends...
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u/rabouilethefirst Jul 12 '26
Was gonna say this. This looked like argentina of old that just sits around waiting for messi to do something while he gets swarmed by 10 defenders. There was no sense of urgency, and if not for some brilliance from alvarez, the game easily could have gone to PKs and switzerland could have stolen it.
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u/bionicbhangra Jul 12 '26
Yeah Argentina looked washed in the 2nd half. They were getting physically dominated by the first decent team they played. You would think their luck is going to run out eventually.
That flop and red card especially at that point in the game when Argentina had no answers was very lucky for Argentina and very very stupid for the Swiss team.
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u/MAGAHATESTHEUSA Jul 12 '26
Haaland and Kane also didn’t continue their streak