El cuento era que Lionel Messi nunca había ganado un trofeo con la selección adulta de Argentina. Pero ese suplicio hoy se acabó. El "10" lideró a la Albiceleste en el Maracaná para derrotar a Brasil y conseguir la primera Copa América de la nación desde 1993.
Lionel Messi is finally a champion with Argentina. In his fifth major final in his 10th major tournament, Messi led La Albiceleste to a major international trophy, beating Brazil 1-0 in the 2021 Copa América final on Saturday night at the Maracanã.
Maybe that will shut the naysayers up after years of hearing “yeah, but” when discussing Messi as the greatest player of all time.
And you could see what it meant to him, his teammates and his country.
¡Maracanazo consumado!
Leave it to Fox to fuck up the biggest soccer match of the year. The 2021 Copa América final was supposed to be on cable on FS1, a baseball game getting the network broadcast on FOX. But the match was nowhere to be found on FS1 as it kicked off, thrown to the obscure FS2 because of another boring baseball game going long.
Then things really got bad.
SAO PAULO — A "considerable number" of guests specially invited to watch the Copa America final between Brazil and Argentina have been faking false COVID-19 tests to ensure their entry, organisers the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) said on Saturday.
The match between the two arch rivals is due to kick off on Saturday night at the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro.
Comunicado CONMEBOL
RIO DE JANEIRO — Europe might be waiting for England against Italy in Sunday's Euro 2020 showpiece, but there is an even bigger match to look forward to in South America as an older rivalry between two more successful teams kicks off in Saturday's Copa América final.
Brazil against Argentina is a true clasico. The teams first met in 1914 and in the years since have established themselves as two of the most storied sides in world soccer. Together they have won seven World Cups.
En medio de una reunión del Mercosur, el polémico presidente de Brasil, Jair Bolsonaro, le dijo a su similar de Argentina, Alberto Fernández, cuál era su pronóstico para la final de la Copa América, la cual enfrenta a ambos países. Bolsonaro usó el tema como una forma de desactivar las tensiones en una áspera jornada entre los principales líderes sudamericanos.
Tuesday’s Copa América semifinal between Argentina and Colombia was the Lionel Messi show for 90 minutes. But when the game went to a penalty shootout, the spotlight shifted to Argentina’s goalkeeper, Emi Martínez.
The Aston Villa keeper chirped the Colombian players to no end and saved three penalty kicks. Some absolute legend has now provided us inferior English-only speakers with an Emi Martinez trash talk translated video.
Muchas veces se le ha criticado a Lionel Messi una supuesta falta de carácter a la hora de liderar a la selección de Argentina. La idea se ha repetido por años y la ausencia de títulos de la Albiceleste la ha ido perpetuando.
Argentina se ha clasificado a la final de la Copa América, luego de empatar 1-1 en los 90 minutos y vencer a Colombia en una tanda de penales que ha sido inusual e histórica. Emiliano Martinez, arquero de la Albiceleste, se convirtió en héroe después de contener tres lanzamientos desde los doce pasos. Sin embargo, lo más singular de esto no fueron las atajadas, sino el cómo se dieron.
When Lionel Messi announced his international retirement after missing in the penalty shootout defeat to Chile at the 2016 Copa América Final, he disappeared into the New Jersey night with the crushing final words: “For me, the national team is over. I’ve done all I can. It hurts not to be a champion. It’s been four finals, I tried. It was the thing I wanted the most, but I couldn’t get it, so I think it’s over.”
It wasn’t.