It was a religious thing, you wouldn’t understand.
I know I didn’t understand it at the moment and I still don’t but mysteric religions are not there to be understood.
De Paul is a rascal, he’s regular to good in a club shirt, but then dons the Sacred Mantle of Argentina and turns into Beckenbauer.
I believe the law is still that if you have a parent or grandparent from a country that isn’t your own you also qualify to play for them (which is pretty mad). So in theory you could qualify to play for 7 countries if you think about it. On top of that, I think there is also the opportunity as Frodo says to play for the country you are naturalised in, but I think you have to have been a citizen there for a certain amount of time (five years rings a bell).
If you have played a friendly match then you can still play for another international side, but if you have played in a competitive match (either qualifying or a tournament proper) then you cannot play for another side, ever.
Pekerman was an idiot, whatever you say. Mysteric religion? Bullshit, man! All the talk about the Peker-Boys and he hardly let Messi play at all.
Messi could have played for Spain, if he had wanted to. Argentina, realizing this, set up a friendly in a hurry against Hungary (if my memory serves me right). Messi was so over the top that he saw a red card in the very first minute. But he had played for Argentina, so he would have to keep playing for Argentina, and the AFA was very pleased. It felt like a bad omen.
The Argentinian Football Federation claimed that the friendly above sealed Messi’s Argentinianness forever. He believed it, that’s all that counts.
Had Messi chosen Spain, he would have won three or four World Championships by now.
The German press claims that Messi should have seen a red card in the 31st minute for this foul
against Aissa Mandi. He did not even see yellow, of course.
Now we know why Frodo is against VAR. 
As a casual soccer fan, that seemed to me to be an uncommonly good pass to Messi. Assists don’t seem to get as much attention as they deserve.
On Messi’s second goal, the rebound from the keeper came right to him. Is that luck, or is that part of what makes him so good; he has the instinct to be in the right place for the ball to find him?
Talking about 2010 w/ Maradona as the coach. Who left off all of Inter’s Argentine players after they won the treble and then played the tournament without a midfield.
Messi on Spain would have been interesting. 2010 seems obvious they would have won since it’s a strict upgrade on a team that already won. '06, and '14 rosters are still significantly UCL winning Barca sides that Messi played with the entire time. I could see Spain winning 3 WCs and 4 Euros in a row, how wild would that have been?
On the red, I can see it either way. I think he was just stepping awkwardly, not kicking out, but I am a Messi fan and he did get him with the cleats.
Both.
But Pekerman wasn’t the coach in 2010, D10s was, thus the religious significance of the whole waste of prime Messi talent.
Not that Pekerman is blameless, if he had played Messi against Germany in 2006… who know what would’ve happened? but Argentinian Coaches have a thing about not putting youngster into high pressure situations for fear of “burning” them by having then fail and then lose their confidence.
It was a sub-20 against Paraguay IIRC, and while AFA fears where understandable it’s now clear that Messi wouldn’t have played for Spain in a million years, the man bleeds white and light blue.
The red card was in his first game with the main team, and ended with him being sent off, another eerie parallel with the career of certain other number 10 whose first game was also against Hungary and who was also sent off very quickly…
You don’t “choose” that kind of thing if you are Argentinian, there are videos of a very young Messi being asked what his dream was: “Jugar en la selección Argentina” was the answer.
If you ask any Argentinian if they’ll prefer to win one World Cup with Argentina or 10 World Cups for another country the answer is always going to be “one WC with Argentina”, winning for another country is just meaningless silverware, they are not going to paint walls with your face in your old barrio for that.
They are nuts, that’s a yellow at best, the picture is misleading, you have to see the whole action.
Nah I’m against VAR because it breaks the game flow and it can very easily be misused.
I’m on record as saying, after the 2 goals were disavowed, that I would much prefer the game to be 1-1.
In a battle of ‘who’s the best forward in the world’, Messi had 3 goals yesterday, Mbappe had two, and Haaland also had two.
France plays Norway on 26 June in Foxborough. That should be an epic game and will likely determine the winner of Group I.
Right now, France is #3 and Norway #10 in the ELO ratings.
C’mon now, any other player, a knee to the back of the opponent’s knee followed by a cleat with the studs up into the calf is at least a hard yellow, and often a red. The fact that no VAR was called is ridiculous.
MESSI RED CARD vs ALGERIA?! 
Shocking Tackle! (World Cup 2026)
I think Harry Kane also has a say in this matter…Let’s see how he does today against Croatia.
This is the first time I saw the foul. Yes, what we call “Dunkelgelb” (dark yellow), but not an automatic red. But I’m sure some Bundesliga refs would show red for a foul like this, Premier League refs rather not.
It was more in the way of trying to get a ball that was bouncing nearby, touching more than hitting, at least IMHO.
A yellow I can see, if you are strict, a red? no way. But I concede that I’m a bit biased.
Fair enough. And I’ve been saying that fouls are being judged more leniently this tournament.
I was shocked it wasn’t even looked at. But it is Messi, and it was definitely more accidental than malicious. Certainly could have been called reckless though, but I think “careless” is probably more accurate.
It was laughable as the US announcers very deliberately refused to say anything at all during the replay.
ETA: As @Frodo says, it’s the lack of force that saves him. He’s pulling out of the challenge even as his studs make contact with the calf.
Question (not about this specific Messi incident, but in general): is malice required for a player to get a red card, or does a purely accidental but still forceful collision also get it? Of course, whether it was intentional or not is heavily subjective on VAR or the ref’s eyes.
A purely accidental but forceful collision is likely to be judged to be “reckless disregard” for the other player safety and punished with at least a yellow.
Sometimes, in a high-speed and high-emergency situation, a defender does a high-risk tackle where it’s only a matter of millimeters/milliseconds if he hits and clears the ball or clearly his opponent. This is a situation where usually intent doesn’t matter, if the striker is rudely fouled, it’s a yellow or even red.
The laws are incredibly vague. There are 2 red card offenses for physicality: “violent conduct” and “serious foul play.” Violent conduct is off the ball, serious foul play is what would matter here.
It doesn’t say intent like it does for handball, but you might change your view of what counts as excessive.
I have a band practice tonight ! 
Might get to see the last 1/2 hour …
Hope storm Arthur doesn’t get involved …
On a quite different note, I just saw the last commercial on ZDF before the Portugal-Congo game: so Jürgen Klopp tries to pitch an American beer, Anheuser-Busch, to Germans? Good luck with that…