Messi rules the World Cup – but are Argentina too reliant on him?

Argentina could not have asked for a happier start to the World Cup. Two wins, a place in the knockout rounds, and an outpouring of emotion at the greatness of Lionel Messi, who has scored all five of his side's goals – raising questions about whether the Albiceleste are perhaps too dependent on their eternal general.

At a tournament he himself doubted he would reach, Messi leads the scoring charts ahead of the most prolific strikers of the current era, Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland, who are 11 and 13 years his junior respectively.

After two matchdays, the Frenchman and the Norwegian – both in their physical prime – are one goal behind Messi, who on Wednesday blew out candles on his 39th birthday cake.

The Inter Miami star launched his sixth World Cup with a hat-trick in the 3-0 rout of Algeria, then a brace on Monday against Austria in a 2-0 win – performances that confirmed him as the tournament's all-time top scorer.

Unburdened by the emotional weight he shed at Qatar 2022, Messi is now driven purely by the hunger to savour one final appearance on the biggest stage.

"Right now, it's his World Cup," said Zlatan Ibrahimović, a pundit for Fox Sports at the tournament. "Five goals in two matches. I have zero goals in two World Cups. I don't know where this ends."

"He always wants more, and that will always be the case," agreed Thierry Henry alongside him.

The difference now, Henry observed, "is that he has already won it. You can tell he's not under the same pressure. He's playing this World Cup with joy – he's very relaxed." Henry, like Ibrahimović, played alongside Messi at Barcelona.

Lautaro and Julián still searching

Argentina is awash with pride over Messi and excitement at the dream of back-to-back titles, while the football world watches this unprecedented display in a mixture of astonishment and admiration.

His race with Mbappé for the all-time scoring record and the Golden Boot – one of the few prizes Messi does not yet possess – is one of the great storylines of the group stage.

In that standings, however, not one of his teammates features, and attention is beginning to shift to his attacking partners.

Lautaro Martínez, who has started both matches, remains scoreless at a World Cup: no goals in eight appearances across Qatar and North America combined.

The Inter Milan captain did win an early penalty against Austria, which Messi missed – extending his curious record from the spot at World Cups.

Julián Álvarez, Lionel Scaloni's trusted centre-forward, began the tournament on the bench with an ankle problem that had kept him out of action for a month.

Álvarez did manage to pull focus away from Messi briefly after the Austria win, when he stirred the transfer market by confirming his desire to leave Atlético de Madrid.

Between them at this stage of Copa América 2024, Lautaro and Álvarez had shared three goals for the national side – while also shouldering a heavy defensive workload to give Messi freedom. So far at this tournament, that burden remains without reward.

'Hard to think'

For now, Scaloni shows no sign of concern about a team that, 20 years on from Messi's World Cup debut, orbits around him more than ever.

For the first goal against Algeria, it was his close friend Rodrigo De Paul who found him in space to beat goalkeeper Luca Zidane.

Against Austria, fullback Facundo Medina delivered an assist from the left flank of the kind Messi received throughout his career from Jordi Alba.

Very much the centre of everything, the captain looked visibly exhausted as he left the pitch in Dallas.

"Right now I can't remember – I'm tired, I have little energy, and it's hard to think," he said when reporters asked about his favourites for the title.

Austria was only the second stop on a World Cup that, expanded to 48 teams, runs ten days longer and includes an extra knockout round.

On Tuesday, Argentina were already recovering at their Kansas City base, where a light morning training session had been scheduled.

With top spot in the group already secured, Argentina's key players will be able to rest during Saturday's final group game against Jordan – a welcome reprieve for a team that looks set to go as far as their extraordinary leader's legs will carry them.

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by Guillermo Barros, AFP