La fiesta continua (SPA - ENG)

The party continues

Surely the players of the Argentine team must have crossed their minds several times the phrase "please let this never end".

It has been a party that began as soon as Gonzalo Montiel converted the fourth penalty of the series against France, setting an unattainable figure to define which team would be the new world champion for the next four years.

On this first FIFA date after that final in Qatar, which has already been three months, there were some matches of teams for the qualification to the next phase of different cups that are played around the world and of course, as always happens, several Other national teams take advantage of the occasion to play friendly and preparatory matches for when they have to do it for the points.

Argentina had no official tournament commitments and looked for a couple of teams that wanted and could face it in this break where matches for local or international championships between clubs are not played.

I understand that he got two selections in the lower-ranking roles, Panama and Curaçao. This lower hierarchy is an incontrovertible fact in light of the overall results obtained by each team, however, you always have to play them and the possibility of a surprise result is latent, we have seen it before on various occasions, without going any further. , several of them in the World Cup in Qatar and these days too, with the unexpected defeat of Brazil against the revelation team: Morocco, which showed that their fourth place in that same World Cup was not the work of chance. Another surprise score was Germany's loss at home to Belgium.

But Argentina did not give any possibility of surprise, everything was a great party, from the match with Panama, the fleeting passage through the gala of the draw for the South American and Libertadores cups where they took advantage of the opportunity for all of South American football to give them a well-deserved tribute to bringing the world cup back to these lands after 4 consecutive world cups where we had to suffer European supremacy, ending with the match against Curaçao where the difference was widely noted and reflected in the 7-0 result of the escaloneta, as the team led by Lionel Scaloni began to be called.

Something that surprised me, at least, was the promotion that made the selection of the candidacy of four countries of the southern cone to host the 2030 World Cup, in that year the 100th anniversary of the first World Cup held in Uruguay will be celebrated and where that country obtained its first star, the proposal is for this World Cup to be organized between Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, and Argentina, I fervently hope that FIFA considers and accepts the offer.

There is not much to say about the match, the stadium called Madre de Ciudades in the northern province of Santiago del Estero looks more like a European field than a South American one and was the perfect setting to receive the champions. Curaçao, a team that is ranked 86th in the world and made up mainly of players of Dutch origin (now the Netherlands) who have not been able to succeed in their competitive league, presented some resistance that for a few minutes, something that made me think that Perhaps a worthy presentation like the one made just a few days before by the Panamanian team could be repeated.

But that feeling did not last long, only until minute 20 when Messi scored the expected 100th goal with the national team, it was an emotional moment, not only because of the impressive figure that makes him the first South American player to reach that number representing his country but also because it was a play perfectly carried out by the team and culminated by the 10 giving him a smooth pass to the net with his less skilled leg, the right, meekly depositing the ball in a corner that the goalkeeper could not reach after a dribble that left an opposing defender scattered.

This a new record for the great player who, not content with it, converted another two goals to add a new ball to his incredible Hat-Trick collection, which has already reached 50. The funny thing about it is that when scoring goal number 100, the referee of the match preserved the ball to give it to him as a souvenir at the end of the match. The question was hovering in my mind, did they give you 2 balls last night?

As I said when making the note about the first match against Panama, Messi is still in force and it is perfectly clear that he now plays with peace and joy with the Albiazul shirt, far from the years in which he suffered every time the team was left at the gates. of a title that was stubbornly denied year after year and competition after competition.

I thank God that Messi was more stubborn than fate, he managed to tame it and finally what he deserved came. They say that triumphs are enjoyed more the more one has had to work to achieve them.

Surely we will be able to enjoy his game for a while longer and it is certain that the records will continue to fall.

Meanwhile, the party continues and may it never end.