Lionel Messi: He came, he saw, he mesmerised

Passing, in Argentine philosophy of football, was considered ‘unmanly’. If you have the ball at your feet, you need to find a way to run through the defence and score — all by yourself — and not pass. Perhaps that’s the reason why the Argentine teams of the recent past have struggled to get the right results.

Coach Alejandro Sabella seems determined to end that style. He has realised that to win matches, Argentina need to pass. That is how they can get Lionel Messi into play. And that is how their, and the world’s best player will come into his own when playing for the national side.

Argentina ended Friday’s match with smiles and a sense of relief. But they had to be patient before earning the 1-0 win over Venezuela at the Salt Lake Stadium here on Friday.

Like at Barcelona, for whom Messi has been the messiah, Sabella based Argentina’s game around Messi. He started wide on right, and from the first minute he was down to business. But it didn’t take long for Venezuela to figure out the strategy and close down Messi. By the end of the first quarter, they had won the mental battle. Though Argentina dominated possession and constantly hovered around their penalty area, Venezuela — playing with a deep defence line — did not allow them inside the box.

That remained the pattern throughout the first 45 minutes. Argentina found Messi, who either tried to set up a teammate or take a shot himself. Each time, though, they were blocked by the rock-solid defence. Venezuela, in fact, had better opportunities to take lead but lack of composure in front of the goal cost them dear. “We could have won but we missed a few chances. But I am happy the way we defended. It was a good performance,” Venezuela coach Cesar Farias said.

Whether it was a case of good defence or a poor attacking performance by Argentina will depend on the way one looks at it. Angel Di Maria and Gonzalo Higuain had their chances but they barely showed any prowess in front of the goal. But they got the all-important goal in the second half. A 67th minute strike by Nicolas Otamendi from a Messi corner sealed the issue for the Argentines, who started their regime under Sabella with a win.

The result was an anti-climax of the build-up to this encounter. The quality of football dished out was not of the highest level. But Sabella said they are a side where work is still in progress.

“I am happy that we won the game. It is too soon to make analysis. I have just got three days with the players but there are a few areas we need to work on,” he said.