\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t Argentina men\u2019s national football team head coach Lionel Scaloni said captain Lionel Messi \u201cwill be the best for as long as he wants to\u201d after the superstar scored a hat trick in the Albiceleste\u2019s 3-0 win over Algeria to kick off its 2026 World Cup play.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to explain what Leo does,\u201d he added. \u201cHe\u2019s been doing this in every single game for 20 years. It\u2019s exciting to watch him. Not just for us Argentines, but for anyone in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Argentine coach insisted that, despite the result, the match was \u201ctricky\u201d and that the African team brought the heat to Argentina.<\/p>\n
Scaloni went on to highlight the importance of having built a closely knit squad since taking over as Argentina coach, even if \u201cwithout the results, nobody would think about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us, that\u2019s still the most important thing, because in tough times, it\u2019s your teammates who help you get through it,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always say that things are easier if you get along with the person next to you \u2014 and that\u2019s not going to change.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Argentina coach insisted that, even after the win at Qatar 2022 and back-to-back Copa Americas, his team doesn\u2019t need much motivating because they enjoy competing and have done so from a young age.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlgeria gave us a hard time, but the team showed resilience and found a way to overcome it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe know very well that anyone can beat us. If you get a little complacent, anyone can beat you, just like what happened against Saudi Arabia [in the past World Cup debut]. I think it makes us stronger to know that, if we do things right, it will be hard for anyone to beat us.\u201d<\/p>\n
A football \u2018god\u2019 who is just a \u2018lad from the neighborhood\u2019 Asked why Messi has found his best times with the national team under him, Scaloni admitted he hasn\u2019t given much thought to it. He insisted that the player with whom he shared a dressing room back when the superstar debuted at the 2006 World Cup has been this good since then.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess he found some homeliness,\u201d said Scaloni. \u201cHe\u2019s got a team of friends who see him as a god but also as a regular lad from the neighborhood. When they have to talk to him about something, they just do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Argentine coach said it\u2019s \u201chard to explain what [Messi] conveys\u201d and that you \u201chave to be there to feel the atmosphere\u201d when you\u2019re around him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the word is \u2018homeliness,’\u201d he insisted. \u201cHelp him understand that, in the end, we\u2019re all just people, that one day football will come to an end, and that, in the meantime, he should enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scaloni also thanked the fans for their support, admitting it\u2019s often the backing in the stands that helps the team through slumps in tough moments.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s exciting because, being away from home, it feels like there are so many more of us than there actually are,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope all Argentines could experience what I experience when I\u2019m on the bench. It\u2019s an incredible feeling that stays with you forever. Game after game, it\u2019s really wonderful, so I hope you enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cover image: Selecci\u00f3n Argentina Twitter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Argentina men\u2019s national football team head coach Lionel Scaloni said captain Lionel Messi \u201cwill be the best for as long as he wants to\u201d after the superstar scored a hat trick in the Albiceleste\u2019s 3-0 win over Algeria to kick off its 2026 World Cup play. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to explain what Leo does,\u201d he added. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":77812,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5063,69,66,1373,5309,67,339],"tags":[5307,6040,1368,1371,5308,1369,3576],"class_list":["post-77811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-2026-world-cup","category-argentina-mens-national-football-team","category-football","category-lionel-messi","category-lionel-scaloni","category-sports","category-world-cup-2026","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-argentina-mens-national-football-team","tag-football","tag-lionel-messi","tag-lionel-scaloni","tag-sports","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}