This is so stupid but I have to talk about that Messi two-touch goal against Nigeria for a minute. I’ve never seen anything like it before. I frankly don’t think many understand how impossible that was.
Messi’s first touch hit the outside of his left thigh, which he planned, as he swept his momentum forward. Momentum carries objects forward, which is 2nd grade science, but the way he artfully trapped momentum with a brute muscle just... doesn’t happen.
I want you to watch that trap again and then flex your left leg outward. Your range of motion is limited *at rest*. Control doesn’t exist. To play yourself into space with the outside of your thigh at a sprint also, perceptually anyway, does not exist.
But that wasn’t. even. the. entree. His touch with his left defies complete understanding. It fell - by his own goddamn thigh - to his left dorsum, which the hard part of the top part of the foot. If you reach down and feel it right now, it’s bony. Nothing but skin and bone.
The innovation of the modern boot has almost entirely revolved around cushioning and add texture to the dorsum for spin, accuracy and elegance. But it’s still just bone with thin fabric over top. Trapping with the straight top is art.
But the way Messi stops time with that trap just kind of changes the way you think about things. Watch the ball again. It just... dies. It’s like it’s communicating with his foot. I don’t know how to describe it. A passing eye of a tornado.
The finish at that point, as stupid as it sounds with pounding rivers of national angst at his back, was academic. It was like it didn’t even exist in relation. It was a finish you trust a handful of humans to hit in that circumstance. And for Messi, it was... air.
We see a lot of goals because we see a lot of soccer. It’s tempting to delegitimize things because you’ve seen every golazo more or less as it happened for the last 20 years. This Messi goal just reawakened the wonder in me. It’s important to retain the ability to be mystified.
