Die deutschen Fußballer haben bei dieser WM dermaßen viele Rekorde verloren, dass sie dringend Trost beim Dichter Friedrich Rückert suchen sollten.

The World Cup final is a classic clash of the process team against a side riding an emotional urge to fulfil Messi’s destiny

In the 37 minutes between England going ahead against Argentina and falling behind, they had 12% possession. It’s fair to assume that in the World Cup final Spain will provide a rather different challenge. They do not suffer the Mafeking tendency of the English, seeking to re-enact some famous siege every time they take the lead. The finalists have averaged 64% possession so far in the tournament. Spain could hardly be more different to England: their way is not of panic but of process.

There is a clearly defined Spanish style, as there has been since Vicente del Bosque replaced Luis Aragonés as Spain manager in 2008, and arguably before. In that, perhaps, there is hope for England. Spain once were even greater underachievers but Aragonés inspired the revolution against the furia roja orthodoxy. The result has been three Euros and a World Cup in the past two decades, with perhaps another to come on Sunday.

• Coach tells of first encounter when Messi was 16

• ‘I took man-marker off and Messi scored four’

Luis de la Fuente says he will not man-mark Lionel Messi in the World Cup final, even though the Argentina captain has scored eight times and provided four assists and the Spain coach’s own experience suggests it might not be a bad idea.

In the buildup to Sunday’s final in New Jersey, De la Fuente told the story of the first time he encountered Messi, 22 years ago, when the Argentinian was a 16-year-old coming through at Barcelona, he was the youth-team coach at Sevilla and the under-19 cup draw brought them together in the last 16 in May 2004 at the Miniestadi.

The boy in the baby bath has unbelievably become the successor to Messi at Barcelona and now, maybe, on the world stage too

“Maybe Lionel Messi has picked up lots of babies, maybe it’s chance, but for those of us who have faith, who believe in something beyond, ‘chance’ is God’s pseudonym when he doesn’t want to sign his name,” Luis de la Fuente says. “In life, everything happens for a reason. Sometimes it’s true that the circle isn’t closed, but in my view there’s something else, something … I don’t know, mystical, spiritual.”

Contemplate the scene, gaze upon the image of this World Cup, and you may be inclined to agree with Spain’s coach, to reach out and touch faith. How else to comprehend this? You will have seen the picture and will certainly see it again, and still it won’t make sense.

The little maestro has hitherto lived in the shadow of Maradona who has for so long coloured the soul and defined the passion of football in Argentina

It is time to consign Diego Maradona’s Hand of God to a museum piece. For 40 years that moment and Maradona’s unforgettable “goal of the century” coloured the soul and passion of Argentinian football. Today things are very different, and the main reason is Lionel Messi. By asserting himself over the memory of Maradona, Messi is establishing a new Argentina.

An impressive 2–1 semi-final victory over England showcased a revitalised Argentina who go into Sunday’s final against Spain relying on a simple, powerful weapon: excellent football.

It was a statistically weird game for Argentina’s talisman against England, full of outliers. It didn’t matter

Thomas Tuchel will have prepared for every eventuality before England’s match with Argentina. He will have considered how his team could prosper in attack while remaining solid in defence. What to change if they scored first or if the opening goal went against them and, like so many managers before him, he will have put plenty of thought into how best to deal with Lionel Messi.

For the first hour he was largely peripheral, with the data showing how England were limiting his involvement in dangerous areas. Messi’s only possession in the centre of the penalty area was snuffed out by an Elliot Anderson tackle shortly after Anthony Gordon had scored. The proportion of the distance he covered that was defined by Fifa as sprinting speed (at least 20km/h) was 4.3%, lower than against Switzerland (4.6%) or Egypt (5.4%) in the previous two rounds.

While England shrank away in Atlanta, Argentina’s No 10 was not finished making his mark on the biggest stage

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. Well, not to this lot anyway. On a day of ceaseless rolling noise under Atlanta’s vast refrigerated dome, England reached the end of the road, the end of their own capacities at this World Cup, the end of the gears within this team. Mainly they ran into Lionel Messi, who was not ready to be done just yet. Not like this anyway.

With 55 minutes gone England were actually winning this game, 1-0 up thanks to Anthony Gordon’s goal, the only real moment of clarity they produced all match. At which point they simply disappeared as an animate entity from the stage.

• Images of the pair from 2007 charity calendar resurface
• Photographer had no idea Lamine Yamal was in photo

When Joan Monfort took photos of Lionel Messi with a baby for a charity calendar almost 17 years ago, he knew the long-haired young man would make it big in football. He could not have imagined the little boy would as well.

The baby in the photos – which have gone viral – was none other than Lamine Yamal, the Spanish youngster, who at 16 is showing such promise that he is already being compared to the greats. The youngest to have played for Spain, he became the youngest player ever in the European Championship at the current tournament in Germany.

The image of the national icon has been ever present through this World Cup, in banners and songs and memory. It adds a fresh layer to Wednesday’s semi-final

Not two minutes after his side’s dramatic, extra-time quarter-final victory over Switzerland on Saturday, the Argentina head coach, Lionel Scaloni, was already getting asked about the semi-final. Looming on the horizon was a match against bitter rivals England.

“This won’t just be a special game from a footballing standpoint,” the reporter asked in Spanish, “but also in an emotional sense. How do you imagine you and the players will come out for this game and what message would you give to all of us Argentines that are …”

The Messi arc reaches a decisive point in Atlanta – passage to a third final or an exit to test the limits of Argentina’s love for their unassuming athlete-genius

Wednesday night, Atlanta Stadium, 101 games down, three left to play, and finally it makes sense. Bring on The Countdown, that moment just before kick-off in every one of those quietly fascinating World Cup matches where suddenly the world’s most excited man is bellowing over the PA system in a state of outraged, crowing transport, like the last voice you’ll ever hear before the American century explodes in a ball of inanity, fried chicken and porn.

“NAYYYN!! EEEIGHYYT!! SEEEVEERRN!! …” the world’s most excited man shouts, prelude to some cautious rolling possession, maybe an early back-pass, and an agreeable reminder that the game itself will not be stage managed. You want quiet bathos? This World Cup will deliver the greatest goddam quiet bathos the galaxy has ever seen.

Defending champions will pose a threat with Messi’s genius but their lack of width and energy in the midfield offers encouragement for Thomas Tuchel

Switzerland knew how to deal with Lionel Messi. They congested the centre of the pitch and made it impossible for him to find angles for threaded passes or rapier finishes. One of Messi’s trademark moves, when the tempo has slowed, is to go through the gears with a quick bounce pass off one of his teammates near the edge of the box. The idea is that Messi then has room to unwind his left boot and deliver the inevitable, but it did not work out in the quarter-final. Instead Messi ran into a formidable wall of red, only finding space to work Gregor Kobel moments before Julián Alvarez’s winner. Much of Argentina’s setup is designed to put Messi, whose non-contribution off the ball is priced into everything, in optimal positions to wreak havoc. Against Switzerland the 39-year-old had, by his stratospheric standards, a quiet game even if he still managed to assist Alexis Mac Allister’s goal from a corner. “Stop Messi” is a tactic that sounds good in principle but most have found impossible to execute. Maybe England have been shown the way.

• First competitive game between teams since 2002 World Cup

• Georgia braced for potential flashpoints in Atlanta buildup

It has been billed as one of the biggest grudge matches in the history of international football. After England’s players rode their luck against Erling Haaland’s Norway on a steamy night in Miami, they spent Sunday recuperating at their base in Kansas City as thoughts turn to facing Argentina in the World Cup semi-final on Wednesday.

Thomas Tuchel’s team will take on the reigning champions on what promises to be an emotionally charged occasion in Atlanta for the chance to play France or Spain in the final.

Close calls against Cape Verde and Egypt show Scaloni’s side are vulnerable, despite all the brilliance of Lionel Messi

It is among the defining moments of this World Cup: Lionel Messi wandering the pitch in Atlanta with tears rolling down his face. Minutes earlier, Argentina had been down two goals to Egypt and on the brink of elimination in the last 16. Messi had missed a penalty and was set to bear blame for the result. Instead, the Argentina legend created the same magic he always seems to, spearheading a miraculous, three-goal swing in just over 10 minutes and pushing the Albiceleste into the quarter-finals.

And now he was crying. And so were his teammates. And so was his head coach, Lionel Scaloni, who could not contain his emotion in a post-game interview. His own players, the coach says, have taken to calling him el llorón. The crybaby. “I can’t even look at you,” Scaloni told a touchline reporter, in tears. “I’m sorry. I’m obviously very emotional. What a group of players, brother. I’m sorry. That’s it, I have to go.”

The golden rule of football? Never write off Lionel Messi. Just when it looked like his dream of leading Argentina to the bicampeonato was in tatters, the 39-year-old came to his country’s rescue for the umpteenth time in spectacular fashion.

With 11 minutes to play and still reeling from Yasser Ibrahim’s early header and a second from Mostafa Ziko – named after the Brazil legend – Lionel Scaloni’s side were heading for the mother of all upsets against Egypt. Mostafa Shobeir – whose father, Ahmed, was the Pharaohs’ goalkeeper at the 1990 World Cup and whose time-wasting tactics against the Republic of Ireland resulted in the introduction of the back-pass rule two years later – seemed set to write a more positive chapter in his family’s history after a brilliant performance that saw him repel everything that the world champions could throw at him.

Argentina’s captain leads the way for veteran strikers at World Cup. They have different styles, but all have shown their worth

I would be shocked if the record for the most goals scored by a player in a World Cup – Just Fontaine’s 13 in 1958 – is not broken this summer. That is how elite the world’s top forwards are. They are all pushing each other to keep scoring more. We are so lucky to be watching them at the same time.

I also believe, because of the skill set required to be a world-class, modern-day finisher, we are going to see more and more playing into their 40s, so much so that it may be possible that Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo could go to another World Cup.

Wie schon nach der EM 2024 trägt der Spanier ein Ständchen über den Norweger vor. Südamerikas Fußball-Boss spricht sich für WM mit 64 Teams aus.

• Coach Bubista says campaign has been ‘source of great pride’

• Tiny archipelago nation bows out after 3-2 defeat to Argentina

Lionel Messi and Argentina will move on to Atlanta and a last-16 tie against Egypt next week after a thrilling 3-2 victory against Cape Verde, but this was still a wonderful night for the tiny archipelago nation, whose players left Miami Stadium having created their own moment of sporting history.

“First things, the pride I feel in my players and what they did, they did it with dignity and courage,” Bubista, the Capo Verde coach, said after his team had been edged out in extra time by Diney Borges’s own goal.

The Albiceleste’s last-32 match against Cape Verde will see the Inter Miami star’s paths for club and country meet at last

Take a walk around Miami’s Little Buenos Aires neighborhood, and nearly everyone there will tell you a story about meeting Lionel Messi.

There’s the bakery employee, working at the counter, who will tell you about Messi’s visitthere and how much the Inter Miami and Argentina captain enjoyed the medialunas. Down the street, someone at the coffee shop will talk of spotting Messi in traffic, behind the wheel of a luxury SUV. Messi, that person and others will tell you, will flash you a wide smile as he waits for the signal to change, and might even entertain the idea of an autograph.

Manchmal rücken einzelne Körperteile besonders in den Fokus, sei es das Sprunggelenk von Nico Schlotterbeck, die Hand der heiligen Anna oder die Hüfte von Markus Söder. Nun steht eine Operation an.

The irony of the superstar-heavy narrative is the way it embellishes rather than diminishes importance of the collective

“Cristiano Ronaldo’s record-equalling sixth World Cup got off to a disappointing start,” began the Reuters match report of Portugal’s 1-1 draw against the Democratic Republic of the Congo last week. And yes, OK: everyone knows how this game works and why everyone plays it. On one hand, perhaps the greatest sporting day in the history of the world’s 15th most populous country. On the other, 41-year-old man does not score. It’s no contest, really. Get those sweet keywords front and left. Harvest that delicious search traffic. Perhaps you even noticed how I just did exactly the same thing.

And yet something does feel qualitatively different this summer: a tectonic shift driven partly by events on the pitch and partly at the behest of the industry itself. This is a World Cup swimming in star names, and never have those star names been so unapologetically, unquestioningly invoked. France do not beat Iraq; instead Kylian Mbappé throws down the gauntlet to Erling Haaland, Harry Kane and the rest. According to Google, Miroslav Klose’s goals record has been searched more at this tournament than in the year he set it. At times the group phase has felt like an inconvenient distraction from the real business of the Golden Boot race. (Can Lionel Messi lift the one trophy he hasn’t won yet?)