The football world was amazed last night as Argentina substitute Lionel Messi scored an insane hat trick against 10-man Panama in Chicago. But as with anything in football, the story goes so much deeper than that as to why this happened.
As many of you know, there is only one person known worldwide as the 'Messi Stopper' and that is your humble blogger. The IMOTGP blogger has seen the great Messi play three times - on three different continents - and he has failed to produce a goal each time.
That is why with a huge crowd on tap Friday we here at the IMOTGP blog opted against attending the match against powerful Panama. Before this fabulous blog was created, we saw Messi in a scoreless draw against Bob Bradley's competent United States team in 2008 when he was subbed off at the half. We watched him turn in a limp display in a 2-0 derby win over Espanyol in 2011 at Barcelona just weeks before he and La Blaugrana thrashed Man United to win the Champions League. The next year, we saw him held in check by a ferocious Peru team in a World Cup qualifier in a 1-1 draw in Lima.
That last match made apparent that Messi can't handle the pressure of playing in front of the Phantom. So we can enthusiastically report that Messi did not start Friday not because he was coming off injury but because he was frightened by the possibility of failing in front of your esteemed blogger yet again. Luckily, we got in touch with Argentina at half-time and told them we were not attending. Thus liberated, Messi produced a magical 30 minutes of football. Plus, we had a superior Copa Centenario experience for $125 plus service fees last weekend anyway.
From all of us at the IMOTGP blog, we say 'You're welcome, Chicago!' It was the least we could do for the football world.
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