{"id":4927,"date":"2026-06-17T04:56:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T04:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/?p=4927"},"modified":"2026-06-17T04:56:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T04:56:07","slug":"at-a-loss-for-words-from-haaland-to-mahomes-everyone-is-in-awe-of-lionel-messi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/?p=4927","title":{"rendered":"&#039;At A Loss For Words&#039;: From Haaland To Mahomes, Everyone Is In Awe Of Lionel Messi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"subnav-title ff-ffc bold fs-23 lh-25 uc pd-b-10\">\n            POPULAR SEARCHES\n          <\/p>\n<p class=\"subnav-title ff-ffc bold fs-23 lh-25 uc pd-b-10\">\n            BROWSE BY\n          <\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Lionel Messi delivered <u>his first World Cup hat trick<\/u> while matching Miroslav Klose\u2019s career tournament scoring record Tuesday night, giving thousands of Argentina fans packed inside of Arrowhead Stadium for a match against Algeria a moment they will never forget.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Messi <u>scored his first goal<\/u> in the opening minutes off a nifty feed from Inter Miami teammate Rodrigo De Paul, <u>the second<\/u> off an opportunistic rebound early in the second half, and <u>the third<\/u> on a crisp strike moments before subbing out to a standing ovation, as La Albiceleste begin the defense of their World Cup crown with <u>a dominant 3-0 victory<\/u> over Les Fennecs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>&#8220;At a loss for words about Leo. What can I say?&#8221; Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said. &#8220;He\u2019s incredible.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span>(Photo by Tom Weller\/picture alliance via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>His incredible trio of goals came 20 years to the day that Messi made his <u>World Cup<\/u> debut in a match against Serbia and Montenegro \u2014 he scored in that one, too \u2014 and made the pride of Rosario only the second player to score in five editions of the tournament.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Messi has 16 goals in his six World Cup appearances, and it seems inevitable that Klose\u2019s record will fall in the coming weeks. The hat trick was the 61st of Messi\u2019s career and his 11th while playing in the blue-and-white kit of the national team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>It also was the fifth straight World Cup game in which Messi has scored.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>&#8220;It makes me very happy to have lived through everything that came my way. What I\u2019m living though now is the cherry on top,&#8221; Messi said. &#8220;I\u2019m very happy an grateful for this wonderful group. I enjoy it so much.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span>(Photo by Chris Brunskill\/Fantasista\/Getty Images)<\/span> <!--&gt;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Messi\u2019s hat trick upstaged two of soccer\u2019s other stars \u2014 Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 of France and Erling Haaland of Norway \u2014 who had big games of their own on Tuesday. Mbapp\u00e9 <u>scored twice in France\u2019s 3-1 win<\/u> over Senegal to move into a tie for fourth on the World Cup goals list with 14, while Haaland scored twice for Norway in its 4-1 victory over Iraq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>\"Messi is a madman,\" Haaland said amid his hat trick in a post on Snapchat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Inter Miami that had slowed him in the lead-up to the World Cup. But the eight-time winner of the Ballon d\u2019Or, which honors global soccer\u2019s best player, had no problems in a tuneup last week with Iceland, scoring on a penalty kick while playing 20 minutes in a sharp performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>\"When I\u2019m in good shape,\" Messi said, \"I give it my all.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Messi\u2019s appearance against Algeria was the 200th of his international career, which began in 2005 at age of 18. The only players with more are Portugal\u2019s Cristiano Ronaldo, who will play his 229th on Wednesday, and Bader al-Mutawa, who played in 202 for Kuwait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Messi and Ronaldo are the only players to have scored in five World Cups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Argentina is among four national teams making their base camps in the Kansas City metro. And much as it has the rest of the world, Messi-mania has swept through the area ever since La Albiceleste\u2019s arrival in the Heartland about two weeks ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span>(Photo by Alex Pantling - FIFA\/FIFA via Getty Images)<\/span> --><\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>On match day, <u>thousands of fans<\/u> wearing his No. 10 jersey trekked into the home of the NFL\u2019s Chiefs on the outskirts of Kansas City, singing odes to their hero. Meanwhile, during a watch party at the downtown Power &amp; Light District, a goat accompanied by former NFL quarterback-turned Fox broadcaster Jameis Winston came on stage wearing an Argentina jersey.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>The humorous moment seemed to have foreshadowed a big night for Messi when he scored an hour later, and the argument that he\u2019s soccer\u2019s GOAT \u2014 the greatest of all time \u2014 is becoming no argument at all with every match he plays.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>&#8220;It\u2019s an advantage to have Leo because of how he handles the group and pushes it forward. Because of who he is,&#8221; De Paul said. &#8220;He doesn\u2019t care about individual records. He prioritizes the group, and for us it\u2019s incredible.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14><i>Reporting by The Associated Press.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY Lionel Messi delivered his first World Cup hat trick while matching Miroslav Klose\u2019s career tournament scoring record Tuesday night, giving thousands of Argentina fans packed inside of Arrowhead Stadium for a match against Algeria a moment they will never forget. Messi scored his first goal in the opening minutes off a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}