Messi Chases World Cup Record with Argentina

Lionel Messi stands on the brink of football’s most sacred record with the weight of a nation on his shoulders and something far heavier on his mind.

On Monday night in Dallas, the 39-year-old will walk out against Austria needing just one more World Cup goal to move clear of Miroslav Klose and stand alone on 17. One more strike to turn a shared record into his own chapter of history.

He arrives at this moment carrying everything at once: age, injury, emotion, expectation.

Messi’s record chase, and a nation behind him

Against Algeria, Messi looked like a man refusing to age on schedule. A hat-trick in a 3-0 win, the third World Cup of his life but the same ruthless left foot, the same sense that when he decides a game should bend, it usually does.

His first goal that night brought tears. The celebration, usually controlled, broke. Only later did it emerge that his father is recovering from a health issue. The context changed everything. Those tears were not just about football.

The build-up to this tournament had already been complicated. A hamstring problem had threatened to slow him, perhaps even to limit his minutes. Instead, his presence has lit up Argentina again.

“If anyone thought this group was better off without Leo, today it became clear that Leo is the most important of them all,” said Alexis Mac Allister after the win over Algeria. It sounded less like a compliment and more like a statement of fact.

Argentina’s task against Austria is simple: win, and they are into the next round. Win, and if Jordan fail to beat Algeria later on Monday, they finish top of Group J as well. It is the kind of scenario this team knows by heart now — pressure, permutations, and Messi at the centre of it all.

The record is waiting. So is the knockout phase.

Mbappe hits 100 as France eye another charge

On the other side of the Atlantic, another heir to the World Cup throne is chasing Klose from a different angle.

Kylian Mbappe will play his 100th game for France when they face Iraq in Philadelphia. A century of caps at 27, in the middle of a World Cup, for a player already carrying 14 goals at the tournament. This is not a normal career curve.

“There is nothing bigger — one hundred is a historic figure, and to have the chance to reach that tally here at a World Cup means it will be a special match for me,” Mbappe said on Sunday.

His brace in France’s 3-1 opening win over Senegal pulled him level with Gerd Mueller on 14 World Cup goals. Two behind Messi and Klose. Within touching distance of a record that once felt untouchable.

France, beaten by Argentina on penalties in that epic 2022 final, are expected to handle Iraq and secure their place in the knockout rounds. The only potential disruption might come from the sky, with thunderstorms forecast in Philadelphia and the possibility of stoppages hanging over the fixture.

Group I could be decided quickly. Norway, with Erling Haaland already off the mark with two goals in a 4-1 win over Iraq, will join France in the last 16 if they beat Senegal in New Jersey and the French do their job. Haaland is building his own World Cup narrative, but for now he watches Mbappe and Messi chase history from a step behind.

Spain respond, Lamine Yamal announces himself again

Spain’s World Cup had barely started and already the knives were out at home.

A laboured 0-0 draw with Cape Verde in their opener triggered familiar doubts about cutting edge, about whether possession without penetration would once again be their undoing.

Then came Saudi Arabia — and a very different Spain.

In a 4-0 win, the European champions looked like themselves again. Lamine Yamal, the Barcelona prodigy, made his first start in two months after recovering from a hamstring issue and wasted no time in shifting the mood. He opened the scoring, a reminder that his talent changes the geometry of games.

Mikel Oyarzabal added two more, and a Hassan al-Tambakti own goal completed the rout. The criticism from back home had clearly left a mark.

“When someone questions your work, it is only human that anyone with courage and pride reacts to prove people wrong,” said coach Luis De la Fuente.

Spain now sit top of Group H with four points from two matches. The early tension has not disappeared, but it has been replaced, at least for now, by something more useful: edge.

Cape Verde keep dreaming

If Spain restored order, Cape Verde kept the magic alive.

World Cup debutants, written off before a ball was kicked, they followed up that stubborn draw with Spain by going toe to toe with Uruguay in Miami and emerging with a 2-2 draw that felt like another statement.

They did not come to make up the numbers. They came to compete.

Their coach, Bubista, did not hide what this means.

“We want to show the entire world that we are in the condition to fight for qualification, and I think that that’s what we showed in today’s match,” he said.

Cape Verde now have two points from two games and a genuine shot at the knockout rounds — a scenario that would have sounded fanciful a few weeks ago. Now it feels like a live possibility.

Belgium stall, Iran send a different message

For Belgium, the story is very different. Another World Cup, another sense of something stuck.

A 0-0 draw with Iran in Los Angeles leaves the Red Devils still searching for their first win after another stalemate, this time following a draw with Egypt. They finished with 10 men, struggled to break down a disciplined Iranian side, and walked off with the sound of questions growing louder.

Iran, though, are living a more complex reality.

They are competing at this World Cup while their country and the United States are in negotiations to end their war. Against that backdrop, their performance and their behaviour in Los Angeles carried a weight beyond tactics and formations.

After the match, the Iranian players left a handwritten message in the dressing room at Los Angeles Stadium.

“May peace, respect and friendship prevail among all nations,” it read.

“Thank you, Los Angeles for your hospitality. And thank you to every Iranian who gave their heart, voice and soul for Iran throughout these 180 minutes.

“We came to Los Angeles with pride, competed with honour, and left with dignity. May peace, respect and friendship prevail among all nations.”

On a day when Messi chased history, Mbappe eyed a century, and Spain roared back into form, Iran’s words cut through the noise. The World Cup keeps moving, the records keep falling, but some messages linger long after the final whistle.