Perfect assist: 72 hours later, Messi shines again

In Argentina's 6-0 friendly match against Puerto Rico, Messi once again put on the blue and white jersey and played the entire match. He was directly involved in 5 of the team's 6 goals and contributed 2 assists, continuing the legend with his impeccable performance. No matter what, he never disappoints.

Although the opponents are disparate in strength and the competition stage is not top-notch, the tacit understanding between Messi and football has long transcended all environmental restrictions. For other players, they might just go through the motions and deal with the situation. But for Messi, as long as he wears the national team jersey, he will devote himself fully and focus on the game. And this time, he did it again.

In this game, Messi's influence was throughout the game:

For the first goal, he hit the crossbar with a powerful long-range shot from outside the penalty area. It was intercepted by Nico Gonzalez after the rebound, and then McAllister scored with a header. Although Messi did not assist directly, he was the key to the attack.

For the second goal, he sent a "scalpel"-like through ball, easily passed the defense, and accurately found Montier, who calmly pushed the shot into the far corner and succeeded - this was a textbook perfect assist.

For the third goal, he moved widely from the midfield and accurately found Nico Gonzalez on the right. The latter passed the header to Flaco Lopez, and then Lopez took the ball. McAllister outflanked and scored twice. Messi was the organizer of this smooth attack.

For the fifth goal, he launched an attack again, passing through Nico Gonzalez, and Lautaro scored with a header.

For the sixth goal, he even sent a stunning heel pass that penetrated the entire defense line and helped "Bull" Alvarez score twice.

With these two key assists (the second goal and the sixth goal), Messi's total career assists for the national team reached 60, officially surpassing Landon Donovan (USA) and Neymar (Brazil), who previously tied for the first place in history with 58 times, and became the player with the most assists in the history of the world football national team!

But that's not all. Throughout the game, Messi, as captain, was always actively organizing the offense, constantly looking for teammates, cooperating in series, and striving to inject rhythm and vitality into the team. Even though the strength gap between the two sides was huge, he never relaxed.

In fact, Messi had a chance to score:

Not long after the opening, his long-range shot hit the crossbar, just a hair's breadth away;

At the beginning of the second half, DePaul sent a wonderful through ball, and Messi's header was bravely saved by goalkeeper Cutler;

In the 28th minute, he received a pass from DePaul again, continuously changed his left foot shot, and was once again resolved by the opponent's goalkeeper.

It is worth mentioning that Messi did not play in the last game against Venezuela. But just one day later, he played for Inter Miami in MLS, scoring two goals and playing 90 minutes against Atlanta United. Facing Puerto Rico this time, he not only took the initiative to challenge, but also insisted on playing the entire game, as if he was using actions to make up for his previous absence.