No point in Tuchel parking the bus when you give the keys to the greatest player of his generation
Messi v Yamal is the genius showdown this World Cup deserves
Cathal Dervan, Editor
Greatness is the ability to turn a game of football on its head in an instant. Genius is the ability to do it repeatedly, no matter the level of the game or the standard of the opposition.
Lionel Messi is a genius. Ten out of ten for stating the bleeding obvious Mister. Yeah, I know. He was a genius before he played England for the first time on Wednesday night and he will be a genius long after Sunday’s World Cup final against Spain has been consigned to the history books.
We’ve known he’s a genius for a long, long time. But at this World Cup he had shown greatness but not, it could be argued, genius as he walked around America like a man without a care in the world, switching on the greatness only when he needed to.
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On Wednesday, after Anthony Gordon scored the 55th minute goal that might shut up the Spanish press bemoaning his move to Barcelona for a while, Argentina needed the genius Messi to turn up. And he did.
For the next 35 minutes of normal time and an extremely long 10 minutes of added time, Messi was at his very best as Argentina enjoyed 88 per cent of the possession for the remainder for the game and England looked like headless chickens with a headless coach in charge of them.
The English media are already having a field day with Thomas Tuchel’s decision to park the bus with his team a goal ahead against the reigning world champions. And rightly so, it was a bizarre decision that stank of Gareth Southgate pragmatism, the very trait Tuchel was hired to remove from the English psyche.
But Tuchel didn’t just park the bus - they handed the keys to the highway to Messi and so England were doomed. Not just because Tuchel surrendered the ball after that Gordon opener but because he allowed Argentina the possession they needed to get the ball to Messi.
He played right into the hands of the nation that gave us the Hand of God goal all those years ago and the outcome was just as disastrous for England and maybe even for Tuchel who wants to see out his long term contract as the bus driver.
It’s debatable after this collapse whether or not Tuchel deserves to stay in charge of these under achievers. And it’s not really our problem so let’s park that one for now - like the bus.
Instead this morning, we should celebrate the genius that is Messi. He didn’t score in those final 44 minutes but I’d bet he ran more in that defining period of the game than he did in any of the previous matches as Argentina clawed their way to a final showdown with a Spanish side that has also done what it needed to do before switching on the turbochargers against France in their semi-final.
How will Spain fare against Argentina? That’s a mouth watering question but one thing is for certain - they will know better than England how to handle a genius like Messi. They train with one every day in the shape of Lamine Yamal. And he’s barely old enough to drive a bus, never mind park it!
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In another European special edition of the League of Ireland pod on Let’s Talk Football, Darryl Geraghty and editor Cathal Dervan look back at that record breaking result for Shamrock Rovers on Tuesday and look ahead to the big Thursday night tests for Derry City and Bohs.
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