IRVINE, Calif. — Tuesday night at the United States men’s national team hotel in Laguna Niguel, the pressure to carry the nation to a home World Cup faded into the background.
During the team dinner, players gathered around the television to watch reigning champions Argentina open their 2026 FIFA World Cup campaign against Group J side Algeria.
But by the end of the game, America’s top players looked less like their World Cup rivals and more like kids watching their favorite hero save the day.
This is because the greatest player in the world, Lionel Messi of Inter Miami, recorded his first ever hat trick in the World Cup.
The 39-year-old Argentine forward scored all three goals in the 3-0 win, equaling Germany legend Miroslav Klose’s record haul of 16 World Cup goals.
“Messi played very well and scored a hat trick. Argentina continues to show that they want to defend their trophy. We were happy to be fans,” said left winger Antonee “Jedi” Robinson, when asked about the team’s time together. “I think for the fans watching, it’s obvious that Messi is the greatest football player who ever lived. He’s still going, he’s still showing a high level. As a fan, it was amazing to watch.”
That word kept appearing during the US team’s press conference on Wednesday: fan.
Not an opponent. Not a competitor. A follower.
Because even in the World Cup games, when every player dreams of lifting the trophy himself, there are times when great sports legends remind everyone why they started to love this game.
According to midfielder Brenden Aaronson, the admiration in the American camp was hard to hide after Messi completed his hat trick.
“A fan boy comes out of us watching Messi score a hat trick,” Aaronson admitted. “But when Argentina comes, we’ll all be ready to go. It’s fun to watch all these games.”
One can imagine the incident at the Team USA dinner. The forks are suspended in the air. Conversations were interrupted and heads turned to the television every time Messi touched the ball and danced for the defenders in the same simple way that he showed in the last six Ndebele World Cups. A room full of soccer junk suddenly transforms into fans who want to go down in history.
That’s Messi’s strength. That’s his magic.
Every FIFA World Cup game will air on FOX or FOX Sports 1. If you don’t have cable, you can take advantage of a free DIRECTV trial to stream it all.
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The strange thing is that many of those US players may end up sharing the field with him later in the tournament. If the US continues to play like it did against Paraguay last Friday, the knockout bracket could bring a meeting between the US and Argentina.
There will be no fan boys at that time.
Only the difficult task of stopping the myth that has caused many players to retire from international football, is still rewriting the record and reminding the world why every World Cup ends up being part of its legacy.
But first, Australia on Friday in Seattle.
