Messi double sparks Argentina
A double from Lionel Messi a day after his 27th birthday inspired Argentina to a 3-2 World Cup win against African champions Nigeria.
Nigeria’s defeat came with the considerable consolation that they still progressed to the second round as Iran lost 3-1 against Bosnia-Herzegovina in the other group game.
Off field, Japan lost its coach and Ghana flew in a plane-load of cash to pay its players.
The World Cup continues to deliver a mixture of good football and bizarre behaviour with fallout continuing over yesterday’s biting incident.
Argentina’s performance, as they started to turn on the style after low key wins against Bosnia-Herzegovina and Iran, should serve as a warning to the rest of the tournament, while Nigeria make their first appearance in the second round since 1998.
“I feel honoured, and happy it’s going our way, I want to thank the players and the fans and some of the media,” commented Nigerian coach Stephen Keshi.
On Messi’s impact he added: “Messi is one heck of a player, he’s blessed, but with due respect to Messi there are other calibre players in Argentina that are very strong, but Messi is from Jupiter.”
Argentina coach Alejandro Sabella observed: “As we advance we start improving our structure, in general I saw improvement today.
“We’ve got nine points, but we can always get better.”
The match got off to a stunning start as Messi fired home his third goal of the finals after two-and-a-half-minutes, the fastest goal of his career, to finally crack a Nigerian defence that had not conceded a goal in their previous two matches.
A telling pass by Fernando Gago found Angel di Maria only for the Real Madrid man’s shot to ricochet off the near post. As the loose ball bounced Messi magically appeared to slam into the roof of Vincent Enyeama’s net.
Argentina’s lead lasted all of 80 seconds when CSKA Moscow striker Ahmed Musa curled the ball artfully past Sergio Romero into the far post.
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Enyeama then did well to keep the scores level when keeping out di Maria’s thunderous low drive from 30m out.
On 38 minutes Argentina coach Alejandro Sabella was forced into an unscripted change of personnel when Sergio Aguero limped off to be replaced by Ezequiel Lavezzi.
As the interval approached Messi struck a peach of a free kick from outside the box, only denied by another fine save from Enyeama.
But the Lille stopper couldn’t perform the same heroics when from a near identical position shortly after, another Messi free kick thudded into the near corner for his fourth goal of the tournament.
Musa levelled only two minutes into the second half when, getting the better of Argentine defenders Federico Fernandez and Marcos Rojo, he clipped the ball past Romero.
In an at times breathtaking encounter Rojo bagged his first international goal three minutes later, knocking the ball home with his knee off a corner after Nigeria failed to clear Ezequiel Garay’s header.
With his work done Sabella rested Messi on the hour, Ricardo Alvarez coming on in his place.
Musa had ‘hat-trick’ flashing in front of his eyes in the final quarter of an hour when he cut inside Pablo Zabaleta only for the Manchester City defender to produce a superb tackle to deny him the scoring opportunity.
Bosnia-Herzegovina knocked Iran out of the Cup with their 3-1 win in Salvador.
Iran had needed to beat Bosnia and hope Nigeria lost to Argentina to keep alive faint hopes of reaching the last 16, but Carlos Queiroz’s side came up well short in the Group F clash.
However, Bosnia’s previous two losses mean they won’t progress either, leaving Argentina and Nigeria to represent Group F in the knockout phase.
“Congratulations to Bosnia. With all due respect to Nigeria and Argentina, the best team in the group (Bosnia) didn’t qualify,” said Queiroz.
“They have great players and they played at another level to us.
“My players went to their physical and mental limits today, but it wasn’t possible to get the result.”
A powerful strike by Manchester City star Dzeko, the man-of-the-match, gave Bosnia an early lead before Miralem Pjanic added a second just before the hour to settle a relatively dull affair at Salvador’s Arena Fonte Nova.
The game burst into life in the final minutes as Iran striker Reza Ghoochannejad netted his side’s first goal of the tournament, but Bosnia replied immediately with an Avdija Vrsajevic goal.
Bosnia are left to rue what might have been after refereeing mistakes contributed to their 1-0 defeat to Nigeria in their previous match.
“This was was very important for us, we had to leave a good impression behind and be able to come home with heads up high,” said Bosnia coach Safet Susic.
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“But it’s not a satisfactory end.
“We could have done more and should have made that extra step.
“Had we had more luck, played slightly better football and had a few less refereeing errors we’d be in the next round.”
Alberto Zaccheroni has stepped down as Japan coach following the side’s failure to qualify for the knockout stages of the 2014 World Cup.
“These have been four extraordinary years but it is now time for a change,” Zaccheroni said.
He admitted full responsibility for Japan’s failure to get out of Group C but said he would do it all again just the same way if he had the chance.
In an emotional goodbye at Japan’s Itu base camp. He said: “I would select exactly the same players and staff if I had another chance.
“I have offered my thanks to all the people that have supported the team in my time as coach. I am the one that decided the tactics and how we play and I want to take full responsibility.”
The 61-year-old, who joined Japan in 2010, became the second Italian coach to leave his post this World Cup after Cesare Prandelli vacated his position as Italy coach on Tuesday.
Ghana’s president has personally ordered $US3 million ($A3.25 million) in cash to be sent to its World Cup players in Brazil to settle a pay dispute – but Brazilian authorities say they may step in and seize the bounty.
The money, in cash, is expected to arrive in Brazil on a plane today to appease the players, who are unhappy at being denied bonus payments.
But it might not even get to the players, with customs officials in Brazil saying they could take the money away.
They say bringing in an amount as large as $3 million and not declaring it to authorities would be illegal and that the entire amount could be confiscated.
Individuals cannot bring in more than $4,500 each without having it subject to taxes, said Brazil’s Federal Police, who enforce custom and immigration laws.
The nation’s federal tax agency also said it knew of no exemptions for any individuals or entities, including Ghana’s World Cup team.
But Ghana’s players appear to be counting on the windfall.
Asked what the players will do with the appearance-fee cash – reportedly between $75,000 and $100,000 each – if they receive it as planned, midfielder Christian Atsu said: “I think we will keep it in our bags and we’ll just lock them. And we will transfer the money to our accounts.”
The issue came to a head when the players and team management had a meeting instead of conducting a training session.
President John Dramani Mahama “personally spoke to the players” to assure them they would receive the money, the Ghana Football Association said in a statement.
Ghana coach Kwesi Appiah said players aren’t being paid by electronic transfer because “the practice in Ghana has always been paying the money in cash.”
Like other African countries playing at the World Cup, Ghana’s government is financing the player bonuses.
Before the tournament, Cameroon’s squad refused to board a plane to Brazil until their demands for improved bonuses were met.
There have also been rumblings of discontent over pay in the Nigeria and Ivory Coast camps.
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