In Buenos Aires on Thursday, world champion Argentina celebrated its return with a 2-0 friendly victory over tenacious Panama, and Lionel Messi concluded the night of pure happiness by scoring his 800th goal of his career.
Thiago Almada, a 21-year-old MLS prodigy who scored his first goal for the national team in just his third appearance, provided a peek of what the future may contain before the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner’s incredible free-kick in the closing minutes.
The 83,000 fortunate fans who were able to secure tickets among the more than 1.5 million individuals who tried, created an atmosphere that gave many goosebumps. It was an emotional night as fireworks cracked overhead prior to kickoff at the spectacular Monumental stadium.
As Argentina’s World Cup song was sung in unison by the crowd, Messi, coach Lionel Scaloni, and a number of other players entered the field with their children. Several of them appeared to be on the verge of tears.
It was obvious that this was more of a party than a game of football, but Panama obviously hadn’t read the playbook.
It managed to delay the newly crowned world champions for 78 minutes despite fielding a depleted team thanks to organization and discipline. Eventually, its defenses were broken.
Considering that they had 73 percent of the ball in the first period despite playing champagne football to start the game, Argentina created remarkably few chances.
Messi’s free kick hit the woodwork, and Enzo Fernandez’s long-range attempt forced Jose Carlos Guerra to dive and save it with one hand.
After a scoreless first half, Scaloni made three changes to the starting lineup that Argentina used to defeat France in the World Cup final in December, winning 4-2 on penalties following a thrilling 3-3 draw.
Argentina put all of its effort into trying to win the game of football in the second half, but Guerra twice stopped Messi free-kicks and also stopped an effort by veteran Angel Di Maria to curl the ball low.
The stress increased as the minutes passed because Argentina was keenly aware that if they lost, their party might not succeed.
But ultimately their leader took the lead and made sure Panama wouldn’t ruin the party.
Almada, a replacement in the second half, scored the opening goal after Messi had a role in it by sending another free kick off the woodwork.
The crowd exploded, and Argentina’s players, who were at this point primarily replacements, felt their stress evaporate.
Messi received his fifth free kick of the game with a minute remaining, and this time he curled it into the top corner to complete the perfect scenario for his ecstatic supporters.
