At around the same time that Zlatan Ibrahimovic made his MLS debut for the LA Galaxy on Saturday, scoring a late equalizer and then game-winner in dramatic fashion, another football icon made a late entrance and saved the day. In this case, the player was Lionel Messi and the circumstance was a two-goal deficit against Sevilla, an unbeaten season on the line.
Whether it’s scenic selfies, adorable dog pics or extremely manicured photos of food, Instagram is the place for people to show off how much better their life is than everyone else’s. Soccer players are no different, with many of the world’s biggest stars using the social media platform to highlight the high life. But some soccer Instagram posts, unfortunately, are more boring than a 0-0 draw between West Brom-Stoke.
For anyone who paid the slightest bit of attention to Argentina throughout the CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying cycle, Spain’s resounding 6-1 defeat of La Albiceleste comes as no surprise. Without Messi, Argentina has zero business being at this World Cup. The statistics, again, bear repeating:
Without Messi, Argentina played eight matches in qualifying. They won one. They scored 0.75 goals per game. They lost to Ecuador, Paraguay and Bolivia. They drew with Venezuela. Tata Martino was sacked and so was his successor, Edgardo Bauza.
We all know Messi has infinite magic in his left foot. However, not many of us are aware that ‘La Pulga’ also possesses some hypnotic verbal abilities.
FC Barcelona’s Paulinho has recently revealed in an interview with El Periódico that a few words uttered by Messi were enough to prevent him from taking a free kick in an international friendly against Messi’s Argentina.
As Lionel Messi has grown more adult, so has his hair. Except for that blonde thing a while back. We'll get to that. Anyway, Messi's hair and beard have gradually mutated from a clean-shaven, moppy-haired boyish look to a bearded, crew-cutted mannish look. Let's take a look at how this transformation came about:
Two months ago we would have said this wasn't possible. In fact, we specifically remember thinking a few months ago that it wouldn't be possible, but here we are: Cristiano Ronaldo absolutely has a chance to overtake Messi for La Liga top scorer.
Despite suffering through a suspension and the worst form of his career, Ronaldo is on fire and finds himself just three goals behind Messi at the top of the Spanish goal-scoring charts (Messi also leads La Liga in assists).