BlattNews.site

By Wyatt Blatt

6/17/26

We’re not even through the first week of the group stage yet, but the World Cup has already produced more headlines than I could try to cover. From Messi scoring a hat trick in addition to Mbappe and Haaland getting braces all in one day, to a dominant USA win, and Cape Verde shutting out Spain, as well as Germany putting up seven on Curacao amongst other surprises and close matches. 

Messi, Haaland, & Mbappe

Yesterday, Tuesday, June 16th, kicked off with France v. Senegal as the first match of the day and despite the score being 0-0 at the half, would end in a 3-1 victory for France. In that win against the African champions, Kylian Mbappe scored twice, with the second being an especially nice strike from outside of the box that went in the top left corner to beat the keeper in the 96th minute to become France’s all time leading international goal scorer in his third World Cup.

On the other hand, Erling Haaland has only now made his much anticipated World Cup debut with Norway, who haven’t qualified for the tournament since 1998. Some debut it was too, as Haaland scored two before half time to become the first Norwegian player to ever score a brace in the World Cup en route to a 4-1 victory over Iraq. 

In contrast to the two younger superstars, Leo Messi is now 38 and participating in what’s his sixth World Cup after leading Argentina to victory in 2022, though he still looked to be on the same level in Argentina’s 3-0 win over Algeria. Of course it had to be him to score Argentina’s first goal of the tournament, as he hit a clean left footed shot on the run outside the box  19th minute. He would then pay homage to his favorite club of all time, DC United, in the 60th minute when he scored ‘Tai Baribo (prolific striker of DC United fame) -esque’ tap in after Alexis Mac Allister’s shot deflected off the keeper and fell to Messi. He’d finish the night off by completing his first ever World Cup hat trick in the 79th minute while tying the all time World Cup goals record with former German striker Miroslav Klose at 16 before being subbed off in the 80th.

A Surprise For Spain

Being one of the heavy favorites and my personal pick to win it all this year, Spain was largely expected to easily dispatch 67th ranked island nation Cape Verde in their first match of the tournament and even compete with Germany’s 7-1 demolition of Curaçao. That would shockingly not be the case though, as 41 year old Cape Verde goalkeeper Vizinha, who is a full time beach volleyball instructor, made seven saves to keep a clean sheet as he became the second oldest player to ever win man of the match in a World Cup game. The Spanish attack was also stagnant, with it being speculated that striker Ferran Torres may have actual fecal particles in his brain after missing several key chances, although Lamine Yamal looked good after being subbed on in the 70th minute as well as fellow young Barcelona stars Pau Cubarsí and Pedri being bright spots in a poor Spanish performance.

Conclusion

It can quite clearly be concluded that Messi could not have had the performance he had without the inspiration of Tai Baribo, as shown in his tap-in, but also without the legendary club DC United. It looks like that was the clear difference in Messi and Ronaldo’s performances so far, as the latter missed more than just a few big chances as he anchored Portugal in a 1-1 draw with DR Congo.

Thus it can again be concluded that DC United is the best club in the world and Messi could never do it without Baribo.