Forget that Algeria was very weak. Forget that Luca Zidane embarrassed his father, Zinedine, in goal. Forget that 90% of the crowd at the stadium in Kansas was Argentine and made it feel as if the match was being played at the Monumental in Buenos Aires.
None of that matters. None of that will be remembered. What everyone will remember from this day (or morning, or evening, or night, depending on where you watched the match) is that this was one of the most significant games of Lionel Messi's career, a game in which he set so many records and milestones that it is hard to keep track of them all.
So let's put things in order: The moment the opening whistle sounded, Messi had already set a new record as the first player to appear in six World Cups. Cristiano Ronaldo will equal that achievement in a few hours, but thanks to the fixture draw, the first belongs to Messi. It was also his 200th appearance for Argentina, making him the first to reach that number.
The voice that has followed Messi
Then the show began. The first goal he scored past Zidane Jr. was rightly disallowed for a narrow offside. But the second time Messi struck toward goal, it was perfect. Into Zidane's top corner. A golazo.
I watched the match at the hotel bar in Los Angeles, surrounded by dozens of Mexicans who cheered to the sound of the legendary Andres Cantor's cry of "Goooooooooooooool!" on Telemundo.
The same Jewish Andres Cantor, the son of Holocaust survivors, who burst into tears while broadcasting Argentina's World Cup triumph in Qatar. And it happened right next to me, because his commentary position at Lusail Stadium was adjacent to the booth from which Uri Uzan and I broadcast that unforgettable final.
Exactly one week before his 39th birthday, Messi scored in his fifth consecutive World Cup match, after finding the net at Qatar 2022 in the round of 16, the quarterfinal, the semifinal and the final.
I assume someone has already updated La Pulga that if he scores in the next match as well, he will equal the record held by France's Just Fontaine (1958) and Brazil's Jairzinho (1970), who scored in six consecutive World Cup matches.
After 20 years
By now, everyone had started talking about the all-time goals record, the one held by Germany's Miroslav Klose, who said this week he would be happy if Messi or Mbappe surpassed him. Kylian had scored twice earlier and moved within two goals of Klose's 16.
Messi decided to outdo the Frenchman. At least for now. In the 60th minute, he took advantage of Zidane's poor save and scored his second. Then came the third, 14 minutes from time. The first hat trick of his World Cup career, and an equalizer of Klose's record. Along the way, he also became the oldest hat-trick scorer in World Cup history.
And when did all this happen? On June 16, 2026, exactly 20 years, to the day, after his World Cup debut in 2006.
Back then, at the World Cup in Germany, he was a promising youngster who was not yet 19, coming on in the 74th minute against Serbia and Montenegro in place of Maxi Rodriguez, who yesterday was the commentator on Telemundo.
He assisted Hernan Crespo and scored in the 88th minute, Argentina's final goal in a 6-0 win. So here is another record set yesterday: 20 years between the first and most recent goal, for now, by any player in World Cup history.
Twenty years later, Messi may be on his way to a second consecutive World Cup triumph. True, the road there is still long, and Argentina will face much stronger opponents than Algeria later on. But Messi keeps rewriting his own history.
