In front of a massive crowd of 53,885 at Soldier Field in Chicago, Argentina pounded 10-men Panama 5-0 Friday night. With the win, Argentina lead group D with 6 points and Chile and Panama battle for second with three points apiece.
Argentina collected a first half goal from Nickolas Otmendi, but the second half belonged to Lionel Messi, as the second half sub scored a hat trick, added an assist, and gave life to the Argentinian side in just under half an hour. Sergio Aguero also added his first of the tournament.
“The game was how we thought the it was going to be like, it was very physical,” Argentina head coach Gerardo Martino said of the match. “When Messi came in, things were taken care of.”
Argentina quickly hit for their first goal on the night, just minutes in as Otamendi contorted his body to head home a free kick from a perfect Di Maria free kick. Di Maria’s 40-yard kick came from the left side and curled into the six-yard box and the unmarked defender put home the lead. The South Americans took the early 1-0 in the sixth minute.
“I think that we after we scored the goal in the beginning, we relaxed. We played better in the game because of the goal. I’m happy and comfortable with the first half,” Martino added.
Facing the early deficit, Panama pushed to get their equalizer. With several key chances, they had the Argentina backline on their heels. Their squad had to make a change quickly as midfielder Valentin Pimentel suffered a grotesque left leg injury and was subbed off within the first 15 minutes.
In the 32nd minute, Panama suffered yet another blow, as midfielder Anibel Godoy (of MLS side San Jose Earthquakes) collected a red card for a second yellow. Godoy got the card for an unneeded elbow to the face of Argentina’s Nicolas Gaitan. In the half, there was a total of seven cards show, six yellow (Panama 4, Argentina 2) and Godoy’s red.
Angel Di Maria left the match in the 43rd minute due to injury. Martino said that they will wait to see what the extent of the injury is.
“I think the first half went well, but we have to analyze the opponent in the context in which it’s played,” Martino added.
With the goal and man advantage, the Argentinians sat on the ball and were able to dictate the play as they eased the ball up and down the field; creating chances from the run of play. In the match, Argentina completed 518 passes (94% accuracy) to the Panamanian’s 134.
At some point, Messi would enter the match, but the spectacle he would put on could not have been predicted. In the 61st minute, Messi came on for Augusto Fernandez. The forward had missed the county’s opening 2-1 win over Chile, due to a back injury. The celebration continued as Messi scored his first goal of the night with a left footed shot into the bottom right-hand corner. The assist goes to Gonzalo Higuain, as an attempted clear from Panama’s Roderick Miller blasted off Higuain’s face and bounced to Messi who calmly put it away. Panama now faced a 2-0 deficit with half an hour to go.
“If you make a mistake and Messi is there, you are going to pay for it,” Panama head coach Hernan Gomez said of the goal. “The first goal was our (Panama) mistake, second goal was our mistake, third was a goal, the four is a goal that Messi is going to score anywhere in the world. We were tired and we came apart.”
The gap would grow wider as Messi scored his second in astounding fashion. From 25 yards out, on the left side, the Barcelona star scored on a pinpointed a free kick as his left footed shot squeaked into the top left hand corner.
Panama goalkeeper Jaime Penedo drove to his left, just got a hand on it, but the pace and placement on the curved shot was just too good to stop. Aregntina now had the match in the books, leading 3-0 in the 78th minute.
Messi completed his hat trick with a slick step over, crossed up the tired Panamanian defender and slipped his left footed shot into the bottom right hand corner. 4-0 in the 87th minute, as his three goals now makes him top scorer in the tournament.
Argentina scored their fifth with help from Messi, as he lofted an excellent ball into the box. The pass got behind the Panama defense, found Marcus Rojo, who headed it to Aguero, who easily beat Penedo. That 90th minute goal seemed to give Group D to the Argentinians.
Argentina need a point from their final group stage match against Bolivia (June 14) to win Group D and the winner of the Panama v. Chile match (June 14) will continue in the tournament as the group’s runner-up.
