Messi in June: Good performances with the national team

With another month gone, it's time to review Messi's performance in it. After ending the 2020/21 season with Barcelona, Messi has played his first games with Argentina this year starting at the World Cup qualifiers and then the current Copa America tournament.

He played 6 games, scored 4 goals, and gave 2 assists. Other stats include: 17 SoT (27 in total), 30 dribbles, 2 big chances created, 15 key passes, 59/94 duels won, 20 fouls won, 8 tackles, 2 interceptions, 17 recoveries, and 461 touches. Amazing stats.

These were his best moments in June:

If you want to see my entries game by game, here they are: Chile (qualifiers), Colombia, Chile (Copa America), Uruguay, Paraguay, and Bolivia.

The goal for next month is to win the Copa America once and for all, after close calls in previous tournaments. There is a realistic chance of reaching the final, but we have to work step by step. Hopefully, the dream finally comes true for Messi and Argentina. That is all for today, so as always I hope you liked this entry and I'll see you in the next blog.

Argentina lose points in the last minute to Colombia

Yesterday, Argentine tied 2-2 with Colombia in Barranquilla. What seemed like an easy game at first with goals from Romero and Paredes turned into a nightmare as Muriel got a goal back via penalty and Borja scored the equalizer in the last minute. Messi's stats were: 3 SoT, 1 woodwork (4 shots in total), 3/5 dribbles, 1 big chance created, 3 key passes, 6/14 duels won, 1 foul won, 2 tackles, 6 recoveries, 2 long balls, 1 cross, 36/37 passes, and 63 touches, which got him a 7.9 rating according to SofaScore.

This was his heatmap:

This was his performance on video:

Argentina's still placed 2nd in the qualifiers with 12 points, 5 points ahead of Paraguay in 6th place. Now, Argentina's next challenge will be the Copa América, which, if played, will start for Argentina on June 14th at 6 PM (Argentina time).

I will do an entry detailing Messi's stats in the Copa América and where he stands in some statistics, so look forward to it. As always, I hope you liked this entry and I'll see you in the next blog.

Argentina equalizes with Chile and maintains a good position in the qualifiers

Yesterday, Argentina equalized 1-1 with Chile for the return of the Conmebol qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup, Argentina's 1st game since Maradona's death. The first goal came from a penalty from Messi, but Sánchez equalized not long after. Messi's stats were: 1 goal, 4 SoT, 1 woodwork (5 shots in total), 6/10 dribbles, 2 key passes, 13/17 duels won, 5 fouls won, 1 tackle, 5 recoveries, 1 long ball, 1 cross, 49/58 passes, and 87 touches, which earned him a 9.1 rating according to Fotmob.

This was his heatmap:

This was his performance on video:

Another thing to note is that he swapped shirts with Gary Medel, and Medel praised him calling him an alien.

And he also swapped shirts with Alexis Sánchez at the end of the game.

Argentina is currently 2nd in the qualifiers, 4 points ahead of 6th placed Colombia (who they'll be facing next in the qualifiers). That's the same amount of points as Paraguay and Uruguay (placed 4th and 5th). And Ecuador, who's 3rd, is 2 points away from Argentina with one game at hand, but they'll be facing Brazil tonight so we'll see about that.

As already stated, Argentina's next opponent will be Colombia, programmed for June 8th at 8 PM (Argentine timezone). So as always, I hope you liked this entry, and I'll see you in the next blog.

Messi in May: Best player of the season and in the world

After May ended, and the club season as well, it's time to collect all of Messi's stats in the last month. He has shown once again why many consider him one of, if not the best player in the world as of today, even when he's almost 34 years old.

He played 4 games in the last month of his club season, and his stats were the following: 4 goals, 1 pre-assist, 4 big chances created, 1 through-ball, 9 key passes, 8 SoT (22 in total), 50 duels won out of 69, 16 fouls won, 43 pressures (17 successful), 213 passes, 374 touches, 2 MoTM according to WhoScored and having an average match rating of 8.79 (according to WhoScored once again).

With his team, he ended up 3rd in La Liga with 79 points, which is disappointing but understandable considering the amount of mistakes that were made in numerous games (losing important points).

These were his highlights of the month on video:

The objective for June will be to focus on the national team, specifically in the upcoming 2022 World Cup qualifiers and the Copa América. That is all for today, so as always I hope you liked this entry and I'll see you in the next blog.

Messi vs South American countries

Having detailed Messi's performances against teams from the top 5 leagues, it's now time to look at Messi's performances against teams from certain continents/subcontinents, which is a good time considering Messi will return to the national team in a few days.

Overall, Messi has the following stats against South American countries: 79 games, 29 goals and 19 assists (22 counting non-Opta), which means that Messi has 48 (or 51) G/A, an average of 0.61 (0.65) per game, which is not bad.

Going country for country here are his stats:

Bolivia: 9 games, 3 goals, 1 assist. With U-20: 1 game, 2 goals.

Brazil: 11 games, 5 goals. With U-20: 2 games, 2 goals.

Chile: 9 games, 3 goals, 2 assists, 1 red card. With U-20: 1 game, no goals.

Colombia: 9 games, 3 goals, 2 assists. With U-20: 3 games, 1 goal.

Ecuador: 6 games, 5 goals, 1 assist.

Paraguay: 10 games, 5 goals, 5 assists. With U-20: 1 game, 1 goal, 2 assists.

Peru: 7 games, 1 goal. In U-20: 1 game, 1 goal.

Uruguay: 9 games, 5 goals, 2 assists. With U-20: 2 games, 2 goals, 1 assist.

Venezuela: 9 games, 4 goals, 6 assists. With U-20: In U-20: 2 games, 1 goal, 1 assist.

With this, he became the first Argentine player to score against all other Conmebol nations, and the 4th player ever to do it, which is quite an impressive achievement.

Clearly, despite the physicality that South American countries play with, Messi still performs well against them. Now with the upcoming 2022 World Cup qualifiers and the Copa America, Messi will hopefully further increase these numbers. That is all for today, so I hope you liked this entry and I'll see you in the next blog.

Messi returns to training with the national team

After landing in Ezeiza yesterday, Messi did some training alongside his Argentine teammates in preparation for their upcoming World Cup qualifier game against Chile.

Here are some more pics after the training:

That is all from the training. I hope you liked this entry, and as always, I'll see you in the next blog.

Messi lands in Argentina and will soon join the national team

A few hours ago, Messi landed in Ezeiza after around 16 hours of flight. Shortly after, he shook hands with Tapia (AFA's president), and soon enough, he'll train with the national team once again at the Julio Grondona Training Camp.

Here are some other pictures taken after landing in Ezeiza:

His next game will be against Chile on June 3rd at 9 PM (Argentina time) for the qualifiers of the 2022 World Cup. I hope you liked this entry, and as always, I'll see you in the next blog.