June 27, 2016
Missed penalty kicks, they stick with you.
Mine came in the form of a sophomore-year junior-varsity match with the mighty Haddon Township (NJ) Hawks. It was the last shot of an away match against the Colonial Conference foes from neighboring Audubon. Score was tied.
Approaching the ball felt good. Striking the ball did not. Right foot hit dirt first. The ball proceeded to take a leisurely path toward, and beyond, the left goalpost. Whistle. Match over. Sadness. But that sadness probably disappeared before the bus got back to Township. I can only remember so much from the late '80s, after all.
For Lionel Messi, recovering from the PK-balloon-shot-heard-round-the-world won’t be so easy, and not just because international soccer tournaments and South Jersey JV matches are in so very few ways comparable.
Nope, Messi – the greatest soccer player on Earth and, obviously, my favorite – was already saddled with the failed expectations of a nation that’s waited 23 years for an international trophy. It was obvious from his uncharacteristic bouts of embellishment amid tight marking from the Chile defense to draw calls Sunday night. At times, Messi was less like Messi and more like Luke Skywalker in an alternate universe where the trash compactor won.
The burden of winning countless trophies with his club team in Barcelona but zero for the nation of his birth is unfathomable. It’s among the least enviable positions in the sporting world, this Monday morning, barely double-digit hours after that PK became the new emblem of the Albiceleste’s shocking – but familiar – penchant for not finishing the job.
But then came post-match reports about statements that the 29-year-old made in the heat of defeat.
“It’s incredible, the fact that we can’t win it,” he’s said to have said.
“In the locker room, I thought that the national team is not for me. It’s what I feel right now,” he’s said to have continued.
Messi announced his retirement from international play, his words were interpreted to have meant.
If this turns out to be a fanboy’s wishful thinking, so be it: I don’t think he’s retiring any more than I think all the other Argentina players who followed verbal suit are. (Caveat: I have zero knowledge of intra-squad relationships and friction, or the inner monologue of an athlete I’ll probably never meet; maybe he’s just had enough with the soul-crushing weight of expectations.)
Heat-of-the-moment quotes are often walked back upon further (or, any) reflection from elementary school playgrounds to the international stage.
When they come from a man who plays his sport the way La Pulga plays his, odds are good that he’ll take some time off – even from World Cup qualifiers – and realize that is not the last shot on which he wants his national career to get –30—'d. (Besides, my interpretation of those quotes wasn’t that of a retirement announcement in the first place; it was a guy venting about an embarrassing end playing on loop.)
Hot takes will scorch the soccer world for a while. Then, they will fade, leaving an indelible (but not definitive) watermark on a continuously stellar career.
Maybe he’ll lose in the World Cup Finals in Russia under again-debilitating circumstances two years from now.
Maybe he’ll win it on a free kick from less than 30 yards, an opportunity that eluded him Sunday night in North Jersey, leaving his sporting legacy in the hands of coin-flip odds.
Just can't fathom a scenario in which he doesn’t take another run at being the proverbial John Elway waiting until late in his career to hoist the trophy that eluded him before.
Whatever twist-a-plot avenue this proceeds upon, I know this much: He was, is and will remain a fun damn soccer player to watch and root for. An asterisk shouldn't change that.
If you’ve read this far, though, you’re probably waiting to see my spun reaction to last week’s “I’m rooting for Messi against the USMNT” column. So here goes:
Knowing what I know now, do I wish he lost to the U.S. in the semifinals instead?
Kinda (for a few minutes late Sunday night), but nah (the saltiness evaporated by 6 a.m. Monday).
Sure, if that happened, it’d have been an American coup that staved off the Penalty Kick Soul-Stomping. Even if Chile would’ve likely still hoisted that Copa America trophy last night against ‘em. (But, yeah, having run my mouth so much in advance of it, I'd be disappointed if U.S. diehards didn't rip me for it. All is fair in smack talk and sports.)
But that wasn't meant to be. This was. So, it didn't take me half a day to walk back from the initial “never watching f------ sports” reaction.
Here’s hoping Messi walks back from his “screw it all, I’m done” words, gets moved to fifth in the next championship penalty-kick order and kicks the ball into the damn net because, quite frankly, I'm not sure how much of this anyone can take.
