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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The nation of Argentina descended upon a midsize Midwestern city, and their hero gave them pure magic.
Lionel Messi, who turns 39 years old later this month, scored his first-ever World Cup hat trick in Argentina’s tournament opener against Algeria to tie Miroslav Klose as the men’s World Cup all-time leading scorer.
The captain of the defending World Cup champions played about two-thirds of the 3–0 win on a temperate summer evening at the Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium.
Argentina set up its base camp in Kansas City at the training center of MLS’s Sporting KC, a convenient landing spot with one match in Missouri and two in Dallas. Supporters began arriving earlier this month; three fans rode their bicycles all the way from Argentina.
“When Argentina was drawn into Group J as the Pot 1 team, we all took a deep breath,” Pam Kramer, the CEO of Kansas City’s host committee, told Front Office Sports. “The next day when the schedule came out and we saw that Argentina was here, the Netherlands, those are some pretty great matches. I could not be more excited about it.”
On the day before the match, Argentine supporters gathered in Mill Creek Park for their banderazo, a giant prematch celebration. Fans waved massive flags glorifying Messi, Diego Maradona, and the Argentine Football Association. They sang team songs and chants, and danced under a massive, fluttering blue-and-white flag. Golden World Cup trophy replicas snaked their way through the crowd of people enjoying something from bottles covered in brown paper bags. Babies and suitcases were hoisted into the air in time with the beat of Messi-and-Maradona-emblazoned drums.
Ahead of the match, baby blue and white shirts were everywhere on the streets of Kansas City and at the host committee’s Fan Fest. The vast majority of those jerseys said No. 10 on the back—mostly Messi, with the occasional Maradona sprinkled in. Argentine supporters broke out in song at the airport, at Jack Stack Barbecue, on the streetcar to the Fan Fest, on the concourse of the stadium, and in the stands at Arrowhead.
The match began with a quick Messi goal called back for offside, then the same for Algeria. When Messi found the back of the net again in the 17th minute, the building erupted in cheers.
“I’m going to take every chance I get to see him,” Mauricio, a fan from Santa Fe, Argentina, told FOS in Spanish after the first goal. “It never ceases to amaze. Every time it gets better. It’s like wine, as they say. The older, the better, and for Messi it’s the same.”
The historic night continued for Messi as he added two more goals, becoming the oldest player to score a hat trick in the World Cup. For a legend at the end of his career, who had said the 2022 World Cup would be his last, the Inter Miami player still looked stellar.
“Why did I cry? It was something completely unrelated to football,” Messi said of getting emotional after his first goal. “I went through some difficult days, but I’m grateful to the entire delegation and my teammates because they were always by my side, giving me a lot of strength to help me get through it.”
On Tuesday night, Messi became the first player to appear in six World Cups. Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo will match the feat Wednesday afternoon.
An Official Sell-out, But Pockets of Empty Seats
FIFA announced a sell-out for the match at Arrowhead Stadium’s World Cup capacity of 69,045 fans. However, clusters of open seats were visible throughout the stadium with their Chiefs-themed red and yellow backs.
The empty seats are a reminder of the fans who couldn’t come, either because they were priced out by FIFA or resellers, or because traveling to the U.S. wasn’t feasible. (Tuesday was also riddled by transit issues; many fans faced long lines waiting for the host committee’s $15 shuttle service and heavy traffic coming to the stadium.)
One Algerian fan told FOS they paid $1,000 for their ticket, as did an Argentine supporter from Venezuela.
A luckier fan from Colorado, George, said he paid around $400 each for tickets for himself and his Messi-obsessed son.
“He calls him the G.O.A.T.,” George said.
His son is not the only one saying it.
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