In today's entry, I'll talk about Messi's campaign at the 2010 World Cup, and I'll show that even though he didn't score, he was exceptional in that tournament.
Let's look at his game-by-game performances first. In his debut against Nigeria, he created a great chance for Higuaín, but he couldn't convert it. He later made a good shot which Enyeama sent to a corner, from where Argentina got its only goal. 37 minutes in, Enyeama pushed Messi's shot out by his fingertips, almost getting in. In the second half, Haruna got booked for a tackle on Messi, and Messi had a good chance later but Enyeama once again saved it. Overall, a good game where Enyeama kept saving his chances and he made a total of 6 goalscoring chances. He also made a lot of dangerous runs which put Nigeria's defense in trouble, and he also received 4 fouls.
Against South Korea, he received a yellow-card tackle from Yeom Ki-Hun, and then Argentina's 1st goal came from a free-kick from Messi that Chu-Young sent to his own net. For the second goal, Maxi made a connection with Messi and crossed it to Higuaín, and after it was flicked he ended up scoring Argentina's 2-0. Near the end of the first half, he dropped deep and then got the ball near the box, but unfortunately, his chip (which was marked by 6 different players) went just wide. In the second half, he made a good cross from his free-kick but neither Higuaín or Tévez could convert it. In Argentina's 3rd goal of the game, he hit the post and Higuaín scored the rebound, and finally, Argentina's 4th goal was pre-assisted by Messi to Agüero to Higuaín. Overall, Messi was a constant menace in the game, making 6 shots, 3 key passes, and receiving 2 fouls. He was Goal's MoTM alongside Higuaín with an 8.5 rating.
His last game of the group stage was against Greece. For the first time with the national team, he had the captain armband. There wasn't much action from Messi in the first half until the end where he made a good shot that was ultimately saved by Tzorvas. In the second half, he played a good ball that was sent to a corner, and from there Argentina got their 1st goal. He, unfortunately, hit the post later on, but near the end of the game he hit a powerful shot which was saved but Palermo scored on the rebound, giving Argentina the 2-0 win. He made 5 shots, 3 key passes, received 4 fouls and he got his 1st and only MoTM in the tournament on this game.
He then faced Mexico in the Round of 16. He assisted Argentina's 1st goal with a good lob pass to Tévez. In Argentina's 2nd goal, he blocked the path for a pass from Osorio to Torrado, and with the growing pressure on Osorio, Higuaín stole the ball and scored. Near the end of the game, he made a good play by getting rid of 2 Mexican players but his shot got saved by Pérez. In the end, Argentina won 3-1. And overall, he made 3 shots, 2 key passes, and he was the main target of Mexico's defense, receiving 5 fouls in total.
His last game was against Germany in the quarter-finals. He made a good ball to Tévez, but Neuer grabbed it first. Then in the second half, his shot got deflected to Higuaín who was close to the goal, but Lahm got to the ball first. The game ended in a devastating 4-0 for Germany. He played unusually deep in this game, having to drop deep often, which probably affected his performance. He made 7 shots and made 2 key passes, but it wasn't enough. He got a 7 rating from Goal, the best rating from his team.
As you can see, it was a good campaign. This left him sixth in the World Cup Golden Ball, which is a great honor. And he could have even finished 4th if his standards weren't so high, since some could say he made a better performance than Gyan.
His stats were: 1 assist, 321 passes, 31 shots, 15 on target, 31 dribbles (most in the tournament), and 16 key passes. If we use @BarcaStat's score metric, Messi had at least 29,025 points, which leaves him as the second-best player behind Sneijder, and if we are more reasonable with the tackles he made, he had at least 30,025 points, which puts him in first place in the tournament (ahead of Xavi too). That is a huge achievement, but there are still people who think he did a bad performance. We also have to note that he couldn't perform as usual due to the unique Jabulani ball, since it didn't allow him to produce the usual skills he did with normal balls, with Maradona making a complaint about it. There was also the vuvuzelas, which didn't allow him to communicate with his teammates and almost made him deaf due to them being very loud and present throughout entire games.
Thanks for reading, and hopefully you've learned more about Messi's underrated campaign at the 2010 World Cup.
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