KAZAN: The Victors celebrated, as the vanquished stood together in the centre of the pitch, watching a river of sky-blue and white flow out of the Kazan Arena, heavy with sorrow.
Javier Mascherano stood a bit away from the circle, wondering how best to word his decision to walk away from his national team.
Next to him, Lionel Messi stood in silence, no one even daring to walk up and console him. As Kylian Mbappe led France off the field, Messi stole an envious glance at their parade before reverting his eyes.
It may not have been a passing of the torch moment — for all we know, a 35-year-old Messi might be setting the desert ablaze in Qatar in 2022 — but it sure felt like one. Exit battle-weary Messi, a player who had announced himself as a teenager in 2006 with a goal against Serbia.
Enter Mbappe, another teenager with speed and devastating efficiency. His goal against Peru in the group stages was just the preview.
After his first on Saturday — he tapped the ball to the left of a crowded box, outran everyone else and powered it past a hapless Franco Armani — Mbappe sprinted to the corner flag, went down on his knees, blew up his chest and folded his arms, as if to say ‘here I am!’.
There had been few louder announcements at the World Cup. It was not a goal he scored that showed just how devastating the 19-year-old can be, but the goal he won. Ever Banega, Nicolas Tagliafico, Mascherano, Marcos Rojo and the breeze blowing in from the Kazanka river flowing next to the arena — he outran them all.
As he knocked the ball past Rojo, it looked a touch too heavy. For someone else, Armani might have ventured up and attempted to collect the ball. But not with Mbappe, for there was no way for the Argentina keeper to know where he was. Mbappe was a blur.
Armani stood transfixed to his spot, looking on as Rojo wrestled Mbappe to the ground, thankful that the storm that was forming in the Frenchman’s wake never reached him. In the stands, a subdued Diego Maradona might have remembered what it felt like to outrun the world. For so long, all of Argentina had been waiting for Messi to recreate his 1986 goal on the grandest stage of them all.
And here was a 19-year-old pulling off a very similar trick to dump them out of the tournament. For his third, Mbappe finished off a wonderfully-crafted team move that ended with Antoine Griezmann playing him free on goal. His right-footed piledriver gave the keeper no chance.
No teenager had scored two in a World Cup game since Pele in 1958 final. No Frenchman had scored two in a knockout encounter since Zinedine Zidane in 1998 final in Paris. As for Messi, he had one last night left to play the tragic hero — that of Atlas condemned to carry the sky on his back, all alone. On another day, with another team, everyone would have been talking about how he created two goals from nothing.
He had once again been dealt an unfair hand by his coach Jorge Sampaoli, who stuffed his midfield, set his team up to counter and positioned Messi as a false nine. It was a thankless task, made even harder by the three French defenders shadowing him, almost at all times.
The first of his creations — Argentina’s second after Angel Di Maria’s sumptuous 30-yard strike — was somewhat fortuitous, his shot taking a deflection off Gabriel Mercado and slipping in past a betrayed Hugo Lloris.
The second was a touch of genius, a beautiful cross that Sergio Aguero — inexplicably kept on the reserve bench for so long — duly headed in. After the roads had been cleared following Mbappe’s victory parade, it was time for Messi to lead Argentina’s walk of shame.
As he slowly started trudging off the field, three cameramen, perhaps mimicking the three defenders Didier Deschamps had put on him, hovered around, filming every twitch of his brow. Elvis was leaving the building! vishnu.prasad@newindianexpress.com