ARGENTINA SUPERSTAR LIONEL Messi said on Tuesday that his army of fans will see a different player at the World Cup than the one that underperformed this season with Barcelona.
“As I join up with the national team, the atmosphere is completely different. Lots of times in the past when I have gone back to Barcelona I have played well. Now I am hoping that the opposite happens,” he told journalists on arrival at Buenos Aires airport.
Messi took his time to transcend his talent with Barcelona onto the international stage and it was only at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa that he started to perform well.
The 26-year-old returned to his native city of Rosario on arrival before linking up with coach Alejandro Sabella and the rest of the squad next Monday at Ezeiza, the team’s training camp.
He vowed to train “with maximum energy in order to give his best like always”.
“When I return to the training ground with my teammates, with my friends, it’s going to change my mentality and it’s going to be another story.
He also revealed that along with the rest of the Barcelona team this season, they were suffering from a “lack of energy”.
Argentina will play friendlies against Trinidad and Tobago on June 4 before taking on Slovenia three days later.
Their opening Group F match will be against Bosnia on June 16 which proceeds Iran on June 21 and finally Nigeria on June 25.
Must say I love this new format. Three cracking games ahead today. You’d be waiting around for weeks to see a decent game any other year.
@Mike: for me it just doesn’t have the championship game feel. Not a lot of hype for the games. Much prefer the knockout format.
@Patrick Corbett: Ara things were gone very stale. The buzz was gone way back since the great days of 1995-2005. Even last summer, there was only a very small Clare crowd at the Munster final. Cork’s resurgent support made up for it. Two years ago, there was just 26,000 at the Munster Final in Limerick. The Clare-Waterford semi-final had 19,000. None of the two other games in Munster broke 30,000. People were tired of it. We’ve rose-tinted glasses when it comes to change. This new format is the job.
@Mike: we’re spoiled for games now mike. long may it last. another great Sunday of hurling!
Michael Ryan can relax, he has only one interview left for the year
Waiting for how long for a championship match in Galway and they produce a pitch like that
Anto Nash is some goalie
Would it be too much to ask to put the scores at the top of the page – jeez!
Do a usability course
That pitch in Salthill is very poor, what were they doing on it, ploughing?
@Victor Sonovich: Ed Sheeran was on it two weeks ago.
2 cracking games to look forward to, As a neutral it’s tipp and Galway for me to win today.
@Conor Noonan: Tipp look to have no interest,very disappointing first half from them,
Unfortunately it looks like we’ll be blessed to even get out of the round robin format this year – disappointed Waterford fan
Wasn’t so long ago they were calling for john meyler to be sacked after just a handful of games.now his corks prodigy in the championship