Messi scores first goal in Qatar World Cup in his 1,000th career game

Argentinian fans chanted “Messi” standing up from their seats as a whistle was blown to signal the end of the game. Argentina’s Lionel Messi scored his first goal at the World Cup tournament match in his 1,000th career game. With his outstanding performance, Argentina advanced to the quarterfinals for the first time in eight years.

Messi led his team to win by scoring the first goal of the match held at Ahmed bin Ali Stadium in Ar-Rayyan, Qatar on Sunday against Australia 35 minutes in the first half. The Argentinian team won 2-1.

Messi’s goal of the day has many significances. Since his debut in FC Barcelona as an adult football player in October 2004, he played for 999 games until Sunday and recorded 788 goals and 345 assists. He played for 778 games in FC Barcelona, 53 games in Paris Saint-Germain, and 168 games in the Argentinian national team. In his 1,000th career game, he scored his first goal in World Cup matches. While he scored eight goals in World Cup matches since he first played in the 2006 World Cup in Germany, all of them were in group matches. Now, with a record of nine goals in World Cup games, he exceeded Argentinian football legend Diego Maradona’s eight goals.

Messi’s performance was outstanding on Sunday. While the Argentinian team had more dominance throughout the game (ball possession rate of 53 percent vs. 35 percent), they struggled to get through Australia’s defense, for which Messi provided a solution. He passed the ball to the right side from the right corner of the penalty area and got through Australia’s defensive players before running to the right side of the goal area and receiving a pass. He had three Australian defenders but calmly made a left-footed shoot and found the net. Messi controlled the game by changing positions from offense to defense and made six shoots, which was about half of the team’s 14 shoots. He took his team to the quarterfinals for his ‘World Cup Last Dance.’ “I am happy that we are one step closer to our goal of winning the World Cup,” said Messi after the game. “It was almost god-like. He’s embarrassing players,” Rio Ferdinand, a former defender of the English national team, said on BBC.


Dong-Wook Kim creating@donga.com