Everything turned out good this Friday for Leo Messi, the albiceleste team and Argentina. Under the guise of a simple warm-up friendly for Qatar 2022 (3-0 victory over Honduras), the smiles and hopes of an entire country were actually found.
With the dream of the World Cup very much alive and his starting gun getting closer, Messi embodied the illusion and acted as a thermometer for an albiceleste who smiles when seeing him enjoy himself in this way.
"The important thing is that he enjoys playing football," Lionel Scaloni said after the match. He constantly tries, he associates with the usual and with the new ones, and maintains that level of forcefulness in front of the goal that always had him as the best in the world (he has already scored 88 goals with the albiceleste).
At 35 years old, Messi assured that, defending the colors of Argentina, he feels the same tingling that goes through the body of each follower when watching his team play.
"We are the same as the fans, we go with the same anxiety, the same desire and the same illusion", assured the PSG player.
At the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami (USA) all those tickles came together this Friday and that almost magical communion between the team and the fans was felt again, with the stands full and singing the songs that remind us of the champion Argentina.
But Messi is also a cautious and cautious leader and, although he does it with a smile on his face, he lowered the euphoria. “With peace of mind because, although we have a great team and a great group, the World Cup is special and we have to go step by step”, he argued.
In addition, an open secret was openly confirmed in the Miami mixed zone: that his moment with the national team is a consequence of the obvious good start to the season with PSG, a start that contrasts with how difficult his first year in Paris was.
“I feel good, different from last year. Previously I had a bad time, I never finished finding myself and this year is different: I arrived with a different head, more accommodated to the club, to the locker room, to my teammates, to the game. I feel very good and I enjoyed myself again, ”he detailed. That smile that is born in Paris is reflected in the selection, something that Scaloni knows perfectly.
“He is enjoying himself in his team and that is important. Wherever he goes, everyone can see him play and enjoy seeing him on the pitch. The more he enjoys, the more we all enjoy. I see him well, happy and I hope he continues like this, ”said the coach.
Messi is a leader to follow but also a benchmark to protect. That's how clear it was for his teammates because they shared Leo's frustration when seeing that the defender from Honduras Héctor Castellanos accompanied him all over the field.
In addition, they did not hesitate to put themselves at the service of their leader like an army when Messi received a very hard impact on the face and was lying on the grass, a moment after which, immediately, Rodrigo De Paul, Papu Gómez and Lautaro Martínez, among others, they surrounded the Hondurans demanding explanations.
In short, it was a great night in which there were those who also stated, especially among local fans, that Messi's smile and motivation this Friday were nothing more than a small nod to what, perhaps in the future, will be his new hobby since there are rumors that the personal and professional concerns of the Argentine go through the MLS and Inter Miami.
Perhaps this memorable performance by Messi in South Florida will not be his last.
