EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Lionel Messi had the collar of his shirt pulled up to
his nose. With his eyes peeking out just over the fabric, he watched a
nightmare unfold.
Argentina and
Chile had played 120 minutes of ruthless, scoreless soccer on Sunday night at
MetLife Stadium. Penalty kicks would be needed to decide the winner of the 45th
Copa América. Up stepped Messi, widely regarded as the best player in the
world, to take the first shot for Argentina, and he missed, sending the ball
sailing over the crossbar and into the crowd. Moments later, he watched as
Francisco Silva of Chile buried a shot inside the left post to give his team a 4-2 shootout win.
All of the
Argentine players hung their heads near the center circle as the Chileans
erupted in celebration. But Messi took a slow, solitary walk across the grass
and took a seat on the far end of his team’s bench. He stared at the grass as
the Chilean players bobbed up and down in celebration. When he got up again,
there were tears in his eyes.
The emotions
boiled over, and they carried to the locker room. When Messi, 29, re-emerged,
he suggested, shockingly, that his national team career was over.
“In the locker room, I thought that the national team was
finished for me, that it’s not for me,” Messi said. “It’s what I feel right
now. It’s a great sadness that it happened to me, that I missed penalty kick
that was very important. It’s for the good of everybody. It’s not enough to
just get to the final and not win.”
The meeting
of Argentina and Chile in the 45th Copa América final was eagerly awaited as an
alluring confrontation of two of the finest soccer teams in the world. Yet the
game that materialized had all the charm and beauty of a street brawl.
Faces puckered in pain and anger.
Studded cleats whipped dangerously in the air, aimed at flesh. Bodies collided
with other bodies, crumpling and splaying onto the grass.
Those in the crowd of 82,026 — the
largest soccer crowd in New Jersey history — who sought a showcase of sophisticated
play were instead treated to a stream of crunching tackles, theatrical
quarrels, disciplinary cards (eight yellows, two reds).
The Chileans, who defeated the
Argentines in the same competition last year on Chile’s home soil, will not
mind the soreness. Argentina, which has not won a major tournament since 1993,
will have a dose of existential despair to accompany the physical pain.
Before the tournament, memories of
the team’s most recent heartbreaks weighed heavily on Messi’s mind: the Copa
América in 2007, in which the Argentines lost a second straight final to their
archrival, Brazil; the World Cup final in 2014, in which they succumbed to
Germany in overtime; the Copa América final in 2015, in which they fell to
Chile in a penalty shootout. Add 2016, when Chile outlasted them in an unending
rumble.
“It’s incredible, the fact that we
can’t win it,” Messi said. “It’s happened to us another time, and by penalty
kicks. It’s our third consecutive final. We tried, and it wasn’t for us.”
Messi has played 113 times for
Argentina. Last week, with his 55th goal, he become his country’s leading
scorer. He has won every award and honor imaginable as an individual and with
his club team, Barcelona. But if he does not play another international soccer
game, his glittering résumé will have one glaring hole: a championship with
Argentina.
The game on Sunday had a violent
start, establishing a fierce tone, and amid the constellation of superstars on
both teams, the referee, Héber Lopes, somehow emerged as the center of notice.
The only credible chance of the first half came in the 22nd minute, when
Gonzalo Higuaín chipped his shot wide after finding himself one on one with
goalkeeper Claudio Bravo. Otherwise, it was a parade of fouls and cards.