Messi and the ‘Hand of God’ mark II

Lionel Messi has repeatedly said he will never be able to emulate Maradona but he is giving it his best shot, managing near carbon copies of Maradona´s most famous and infamous goals in the same season.

First was the run from the halfway line, on the right, skipping past defenders to score against Getafe, then Saturday´s “hand of god” copy against Espanyol, getting his small frame almost to the ball before keeper Carlos Kameni and sticking his hand out to make the extra centimetres.

Coach Alfio Basile now sees Messi as the player to lead Argentina to the Copa America title this year.

Basile is trying Messi out as a “media punta”, playing in the hole behind twin strikers. There was a marked improvement in the little genius over the 180 minutes of the recent friendlies against Switzerland in Basel and Algeria in Barcelona.

Messi laid on the goal for Carlos Tevez in a 1-1 draw in wet conditions which favoured the muscular Swiss, and then took out the magic wand to lead his country to a 4-3 win over Algeria.

“I hope he continues to convince me to put him in the position in which he played these two matches,” said Basile. ”But he’ll be there somewhere because cracks (geniuses) play
anywhere.”

Basile is building his team for the Copa America in Venezuela, starting in less than three weeks’ time. Basile has a good Copa America history, having won it in 1991 and 1993, Argentina’s last major international trophies.

Ronaldinho and Kaka, who on the night of Argentina’s 4-3 win were playing for Brazil in the dour 0-0 draw in Dortmund, will not be there to compare with Messi and Tevez. This is Argentina’s chance to prove they are the entertainers of the moment and that the loss of Juan Roman Riquelme is a minor glitch.