Lionel Messi Shines in Argentina's World Cup Opener Against Algeria

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Lionel Messi stood alone for a moment on the Arrowhead turf, head bowed, jersey pulled to his face. The blue and white shirt, already dark with sweat, caught the tears before the cameras did.

Seconds earlier, he had lashed Argentina into the lead in their World Cup opener against Algeria. A familiar left-foot finish. An unfamiliar reaction.

Then he scored again. And again.

By the final whistle of a 3-0 win over Les Fennecs, the questions that had followed him into this tournament — the hamstring, the age, the weight of trying to drag a nation to back-to-back World Cups at 39 — felt almost insulting. Messi walked off with a hat trick, a standing ovation from 69,045 fans, and a share of the men’s World Cup scoring record.

He now sits level with Miroslav Klose on 16 goals at the tournament. One more record waiting to be broken, and it hardly looks safe for long.

Tears, then a torrent

“My tears after the first goal? I’ve had some tough days. It wasn’t related to football. And those feelings were because of that,” Messi said, declining to go into detail. “I thank my teammates, the coaching staff and the delegation for helping me.”

The goal that cracked him open came early. Rodrigo De Paul, his Inter Miami teammate and long-time national-team lieutenant, slipped a clever ball into space. Messi met it with the kind of ruthless composure that has defined his career, guiding it past the keeper and into the corner.

Argentina’s captain turned away, arms outstretched, then stopped. The emotion hit. For a player who has lived two decades under a microscope at World Cups, this felt different.

The second goal was uglier, and all the more telling. Early in the second half, Messi pounced on a rebound, reacting quicker than anyone in an Algerian shirt. One touch, one swing, and the ball was in again. Instinct. Hunger. No sign of a man supposedly managing his minutes.

The third was pure Messi. A crisp strike, clinical and clean, driven low just moments before he made way to thunderous applause. As he trotted off, the entire stadium — heavily painted in Argentina’s colors — rose to salute him. This was Kansas City, but it sounded like Buenos Aires.

“At a loss for words about Leo. What can I say?” Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni admitted. “He’s incredible.”

Twenty years on, still rewriting the script

The date carried its own weight. Exactly 20 years to the day since a skinny teenager from Rosario stepped onto a World Cup pitch against Serbia and Montenegro, scored, and announced himself to the world, Messi was still bending the tournament to his will.

He has now scored in five editions of the men’s World Cup, becoming only the second player to do so. This is his record sixth World Cup, and the numbers are staggering: 16 goals across those tournaments, 61 career hat tricks, 11 of them for Argentina, and this one his first on football’s biggest stage.

It was also his fifth consecutive World Cup match with a goal. Longevity is one thing; this is domination stretched over generations.

“It makes me very happy to have lived through everything that came my way. What I’m living though now is the cherry on top,” Messi said. “I’m very happy and grateful for this wonderful group. I enjoy it so much.”

On a night when Kylian Mbappé scored twice for France in a 3-1 win over Senegal to reach 14 World Cup goals, and Erling Haaland hit a brace in Norway’s 4-1 victory over Iraq, Messi still stole the show. Haaland watched and typed what millions were thinking.

“Messi is a madman,” he posted on Snapchat during Argentina’s game.

The hamstring scare that never was

For weeks, the conversation around Messi had revolved around a minor hamstring issue at Inter Miami. Was he fully fit? Could he handle the load of another World Cup? Was this one tournament too far?

The answers arrived in Kansas City with brutal clarity.

“This is my sixth World Cup, and I still feel like I’m in good shape,” Messi said. “Fortunately, I’m doing well, and today we managed to win a tough match. It’s important to start the tournament with a victory in the first game, as that’s never easy in a World Cup.”

He had already eased some fears in a sharp 20-minute cameo against Iceland in a pre-tournament friendly, scoring from the penalty spot. Against Algeria, there were no half-measures. He pressed, he dropped deep to knit play, he demanded the ball when the tempo dipped. Argentina still move to his rhythm.

This was also his 200th appearance for the national team, a journey that began in 2005 when he was 18. Only Cristiano Ronaldo, who is set for his 229th cap with Portugal, and Bader al-Mutawa, who reached 202 with Kuwait, have played more games for their countries.

Messi and Ronaldo remain the only men to have scored in five World Cups. Even in the twilight of their careers, they are still defining the record books.

“Class is permanent,” Algeria coach Vladimir Petkovic said. “He’s fortunate to have the privilege that the entire Argentina team works for him, and supports him, and for a number of years now — decades — he’s done incredible things.”

Heartland, hijacked by No. 10

Argentina chose the Kansas City metro as one of four base camps for this World Cup. The Midwest responded by turning itself into an outpost of Rosario and Buenos Aires.

For two weeks, Messi-mania has rolled through the Heartland. On match day, Arrowhead Stadium — home of the NFL’s Chiefs — morphed into a cathedral for La Albiceleste. Thousands of fans in No. 10 shirts streamed in, drums pounding, flags waving, voices hoarse long before kickoff.

Downtown, at the Power & Light District watch party, the spectacle turned literal. A goat, led onstage by former NFL quarterback and Fox broadcaster Jameis Winston, appeared in an Argentina jersey. The crowd roared at the joke, and an hour later Messi obliged with the kind of performance that makes the acronym GOAT feel less like a debate and more like a formality.

Every touch he took was greeted with a murmur, every goal with a roar that shook the concrete. These were not just Argentina fans. They were Messi fans.

“It’s an advantage to have Leo because of how he handles the group and pushes it forward. Because of who he is,” De Paul said. “He doesn’t care about individual records. He prioritizes the group, and for us it’s incredible.”

And yet the records keep falling at his feet. The World Cup has a way of humbling even the greatest. In Kansas City, it felt as if Messi was returning the favor, bending the tournament back to his will once more.

The question now is not whether his body will hold up or whether he still belongs at this level. The real question is how many more nights like this he has left — and how much history he plans to rewrite before he finally walks away.