Messi Shines in his Copa America Debut

Messi proved why he is the best in the world after netting three goals in 19 minutes as a substitute for Argentina in a Copa America group D game vs. Panama.

What a difference one player can make. Many in attendance at Soldier Field on Saturday night wanted to see Messi start, but his performance was certainly worth the wait.

After missing Argentina’s first group stage game against Chile on June 7 due to a back injury sustained in a friendly vs. Honduras last month, Messi came on as a substitute in the 61st minute in their second group D game vs. Panama.

Before coming into the game Argentina was only up 1-0 even though they had been playing against a 10 man Panama squad since the 32nd minute. The game ended up as a 5-0 Argentinian victory.

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He hadn’t even broken a sweat yet when a bad clearance from the Panamanian defense hit teammate Gonzalo Higuain’s face and bounced right to his feet inside the 18 yard box. From there, Messi did what he does best and tucked the ball into the bottom left corner for his first Copa goal in the 68th minute.

Only 10 minutes later Messi was able to use his technical skill to draw a foul just outside the box on the right hand side of the field. With the placement of the free kick perfect for the curve put on the ball by Messi’s left foot kicks, he promptly set up and ripped a shot into the top right corner in the 78th minute for his second goal of the night, putting Argentina up 3-0.

His last goal came nine minutes after that when a bad pass from a Panamanian defender was intercepted by Argentinian defender Rojo who played a beautiful ground pass to Messi at the top of the 18. From there, Messi started to his right before cutting back to the left, leaving the man who was trying to mark him in the dust. Then he let go a shot from the PK mark and found the left bottom corner of the net again and he completed his hat trick in a mere 19 minutes of action.

Unfortunately for Panama, Messi did not stop there. In the 90th minute he played an incredible long ball pass from right in front of the midway line on the right side all the way down to right outside the 6 yard box on the left side. There was only about a three yard space Messi had to fit into a streaking Rojo, and he hit the target perfectly. Rojo was easily able to get a head on the ball to play it back into the middle so Sergio Aguero could finish up Argentina’s scoring with a goal of his own, making the final scored 5-0.