Messi fails to save Argentina in World Cup qualifier against Brazil

Messi fails to save Argentina in World Cup qualifier against Brazil. November. 12, 2016 07:12. by Yun-Cheol Jeong trigger@donga.com.

Argentina lost 0-3 to Brazil in Game 11 of the Latin American qualifiers for the FIFA 2018 World Cup in Russia, which took place in Brazil on Friday. With the loss, Argentina has 16 points (four wins, four draws and three losses) overall, and is ranking sixth among the 10 teams, and facing a crisis in its bid to advance to the World Cup finals. In the Latin American qualifiers, the four strongest teams advance to the World Cup finals, and the fifth team must play in intercontinental playoffs to make it to the finals.

After his national team became the runner-up at the 2016 Copa America that happened in June, Lionel Messi said that he did everything that he could, but the team failed to become the champion, declaring his retirement from the national team. Messi however changed his mind in the face of fans’ strong objection to his retirement, and returned to the national team through a World Cup qualifying match against Uruguay in September. He scored the finishing goal in his return match to lead his team’s 1-0 win, but since then he failed to make the national team roster for a while due to groin injury and other reasons. Amid Messi’s absence, Team Argentina had lackluster performance of two draws and one win in three Latin American qualifiers.

For this reason, attention was focusing on whether Messi, who overcame side-effects due to his injury, would be able to save Argentina in the showdown with its Latin American archrival Brazil on Friday. Argentina had expressed strong confidence, even by announcing its roster of players including Messi on the eve of the match date, which was an unusual move. Messi also had an intense image tattoo inscribed on his left leg in a gesture to renew his commitment to win.

However, Messi failed to prevent Argentina’s demise again this time. Argentina was constantly dominated by Brazil throughout the match on the day due to the former’s sloppy teamwork of fullbacks. For Brazil, Philippe Coutinho scored the opening goal in the 24th minute in the first half, before Neymar (45th minute in the first half) and Paulinho in the 14th minute in the second half) added goals in succession to secure win with ease.

Argentina deployed all of its top strikers including Messi (FC Barcelona, 8 goals), Gonzalo Gerardo Higuain (Juventus, 7 goals), and Sergio Aguero (Manchester City, 8 goals) who have displayed stellar performance in their professional teams, but finished the game scoreless. Messi expressed disappointment by saying that his team needs a change.