Kansas City (USA): Lionel Messi delivered his first World Cup hat trick while matching Miroslav Klose’s career tournament scoring record, giving thousands of Argentina fans packed inside of Arrowhead Stadium for a match against Algeria a moment they will never forget.
Messi scored his first goal in the opening minutes off a nifty feed from Inter Miami teammate Rodrigo De Paul, the second early in the second half, and the third moments before subbing out to a standing ovation, helping La Albiceleste begin the defense of their World Cup crown with a dominant 3-0 victory over Les Fennecs.
The trio of goals came 20 years to the day that Messi made his World Cup debut in a match against Serbia and Montenegro – he scored in that one, too – and made the pride of Rosario only the second player to score in five editions of the tournament.
Messi has 16 goals in his six World Cup appearances, and it seems inevitable that Klose’s record will fall in the coming weeks. The hat trick was the 61st of his career and his 11th while playing in the blue-and-white kit of the national team.
It also was the fifth straight World Cup game in which Messi has scored.
“At a loss for words about Leo. What can I say? He’s incredible,” Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said. “Everyone in football wants to see him and enjoys it.”
His hat trick also upstaged two of soccer’s other big stars – Kylian Mbappe of France and Erling Haaland of Norway – who had big games of their own on Tuesday. Mbappe scored twice in France’s 3-1 win over Senegal to move into a tie for fourth on the World Cup goals list with 14, while Haaland scored twice for Norway in its 4-1 victory over Iraq.
“Messi is a madman,” Haaland said in a post on Snapchat.
Messi, who turns 39 next week, had been dealing with a minor hamstring injury with Inter Miami that had slowed him in the lead-up to the World Cup. But the eight-time winner of the Ballon d’Or, which honors global soccer’s best player, had no problems in a tuneup last week with Iceland, scoring on a penalty kick while playing 20 minutes in a sharp performance.
Messi’s appearance against Algeria was the 200th of his international career, which began in 2005 at age of 18. The only players with more are Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, who will play his 229th on Wednesday, and Bader al-Mutawa, who played in 202 for Kuwait.
Messi and Ronaldo are the only players to have scored in five World Cups.
Argentina is among four national teams making their base camps in the Kansas City metro. And much as it has the rest of the world, Messi-mania has swept through the area ever since La Albiceleste’s arrival in the Heartland about two weeks ago.
On match day, thousands of fans wearing his No. 10 jersey trekked into the home of the NFL’s Chiefs on the outskirts of Kansas City, singing odes to their hero from Rosario. Meanwhile, during a watch party at the downtown Power & Light District, a goat accompanied by former NFL quarterback-turned Fox broadcaster Jameis Winston came on stage wearing an Argentina jersey.
The humorous moment seemed to have foreshadowed a big night for Messi when he scored an hour later, and the argument that he’s soccer’s GOAT – the greatest of all time – is becoming no argument at all with every match he plays.
