Key events
95 min: HUGE CHANCE for Argentina and one of the best saves of the tournament. De Paul works the ball toward the right post and cuts it back diagonally to Gonzalez, who gets a nice open shot from 12 yards out only to see the scrambling Vargas dive and trap the ball to his body maybe one foot from the goal line.
94 min: Perhaps it’s the green shirt and shorts silhouetted against the green grass, but all I saw of Argentina’s goalkeeper Martinez as he cut out that through ball was a blur.
93 min: Zzzzzz. They can’t keep up the end-to-end action all night.
91 mins: Argentina press early. Colombia seem to be doing a bit of time-wasting already.
The cameras catch Messi’s ankle. It’s severely swollen.
Subs … we think. Juan Fernando Quintero is agitating like he’s about to come in, and at least, we see the sign – he’s replacing James Rodriguez. Pity. Each team has lost their most exciting player.
Zach Neeley wonders what has become of the fans who appeared to be climbing through a vent to get into the stadium. “Did they think those work like the warp pipes in Super Mario 3?”
Liz White insists that the best cover version ever is William Shatner’s take on Common People, and I will agree that’s in the top five. I sometimes hear Shatner yelling, “You’ll never FAIL … (dramatic pause) … like common people” in my sleep, and I don’t mind it.
End regulation time: Argentina 0-0 Colombia
Yes, we should all be in bed by now. But this game has had plenty of half-decent chances, and both teams have been committing to attack, so maybe this will be a watchable session of extra time.
90 min +4: How are Colombia leaving Argentina’s attackers this much space?
They manage to get the ball going forward but lose possession near the byline.
90 min +2: Di Maria, operating on the right, gets the ball in space and barrels in on goal. Colombia’s clearance isn’t convincing.
Argentina play it back in, and Lerma tries to pass it back to a teammate, only to see the ball bounce awkwardly about five yards short of that teammate. He hoofs it into the sky to concede a corner kick.
Di Maria takes that corner, and it’s headed to Gonzalez, who mishits it.
That was the second minute of the four we’re going to get in stoppage time.
89 min: First Colombia subs at last. Rios and Cordoba depart. Borre and Castano are in.
88 min: CHANCE for Argentina, as Gonzalez rises majestically to head a cross back across the face of goal. Alvarez will regret his hesitance in racing to that spot, where he could’ve tapped the ball into an acre of empty net.
86 min: Argentina press forward and force a bad Colombia pass to win a corner kick.
Di Maria will take it in Messi’s absence.
Mac Allister and John Arias are in a staredown with mild shoving, as if hyping a boxing match.
84 min: Things are just getting strange now. Colombia play the ball forward, but Luis Diaz drags down Romero to give Argentina a free kick.
82 min: Colombia free kick in a dangerous spot, 25 yards out if that. Rodriguez, though, blasts it into the wall.
80 min: Gonzalez knocks down Santiago Arias but draws no whistle. In some form of karmic retribution, Gonzalez trips before he can shoot.
End-to-end action! That was Argentina’s best chance since the disallowed goal.
78 min: Free kick for Colombia, about 35 yards out. Rodriguez puts it in a good spot, and Cuesta gets his head to it, but it’s wide.
Romero is down now for Argentina, but he straggled back to his feet and will continue.
Goal disallowed!
What a brilliant move from Argentina, but it’s coming back. The replay is obvious – Tagliafico, overlapping on the left, was clearly a yard offside when the ball was played to him. He then tapped it to the center, and the ball is poked past Vargas into the net, but the flag went up just after the shot. The VAR check is shorter than most.
74 min: VAR check for a possible penalty as bodies go flying in Argentina’s penalty area. No PK given.
69 min: The broadcasters are trying to capture Argentina fans reacting to Messi’s emotional departure. But every time they show some fans, they see themselves on the big screen and immediately smile and wave.
We have a free kick for Colombia deep in their own half, but now Montiel is sitting down on the field. Atletico Madrid’s Nahuel Molina comes in.
No idea what happened to Montiel. We saw what happened to Messi, and the bad news is that it’s a non-contact injury. That may sound strange, but when players are kicked, elbowed or otherwise banged into by opponents, it’s usually just a painful bruise. If a player has an awkward step and hits the ground, it’s sometimes a serious ligament injury. No need to speculate here, but the concern is obvious.
68 min: Messi is in tears on the bench.
The sub isn’t Lautaro Martinez, who leads Argentina with four goals in this tournament. It’s Nicolas Gonzalez of Fiorentina.
64 min: Messi is down, and this could be bad. Replay shows he tripped and may have twisted something.
That’s it. He’s subbed out.
60 min: Cordoba gets a bit too ambitious with a back-heel pass intended for an onrushing pair of teammates, but it goes behind them.
Mac Allister, fresh from winning a challenge with an impressive hockey check that was probably just inside the bounds of what most referees would allow, fouls James Rodriguez to concede a free kick near the center circle. It floats to the top of the penalty area and is shot over the bar.
57 min: CHANCE for Argentina – multiple chances, actually. Mac Allister storms through the middle to collect a pass, and he heads it down into a defender. There are half-hearted calls for a handball, but it would clearly be a harsh call.
The ball pings around the penalty area, goes back out, and then Di Maria rips a shot that forces Vargas to sprawl and punch out for a corner kick.
Everyone’s mad and yelling at the referee. Or, as I call it, Saturday.
53 min: CHANCE for Colombia. Jhon Arias takes a long shot that’s deflected out for a corner. The ball sails to the far post for Cordoba, who heads it back across to Sanchez, who rises to get his head on it but can’t keep the shot under the bar.
Just a reminder – this game would have extra time, even though previous rounds did not.
51 min: Everyone’s whacking each other with elbows and forearms, and everyone’s down injured. And some people are slipping on the wet turf where the sprinklers operated. Ugly stuff.
49 min: CHANCE for Argentina, with Mac Allister slicing through the penalty area. The ball ends up at Di Maria’s feet while Colombian keeper Vargas does all he can to chase while the ball is out of his reach. Vargas ends up cutting off Di Maria’s shooting angle and making the save.
47 min: CHANCE for Colombia, as a cross into the center is flicked on to the right flank, where Santiago Arias is waiting all alone to drill a diagonal shot just wide of the far post.
46 min: And we’re back.
Has it been 25 minutes already? Teams are taking the field. Sprinklers are running on part of the field – maybe the part where Shakira just played?
Now Shakira is dancing with creatures that look like the robots from Styx album Kilroy Was Here and the video for Mr. Roboto while large illuminations that look like rubies float around.
No matter what’s going on, though, Shakira manages to find the camera and strut towards it. I think she’s trying to tell us something.
A GIANT WOLF-LIKE CREATURE, SURELY ALIEN IN NATURE, HAS DESCENDED INTO THE MIDDLE OF THE STADIUM … oh … that’s the halftime show. How’d they do that?
The first shoutout to Colombia comes about one minute into Shakira’s opening song.
Matthew Richman points out a potential reason for Messi to roll around as he did: “ox commentary is not usually a great source of insight, but they pointed out that Messi’s rolls were to get back on the pitch so that play couldn’t be restarted. We’ll see how he’s moving in the second half!”
Speaking of crowd-related chaos, your highly recommended halftime reading concerns the “White Horse” FA Cup of 1923, in which mounted police methodically moved the surplus spectators off the playing surface at Wembley.
Halftime: Argentina 0-0 Colombia
The upstarts took the fight to the champions, with Colombia dominating statistically and in non-mathematical observations. They created a couple of good chances but put nothing into the net.
45 min: James Rodriguez takes a knock to the back of the leg, and the referee lets play continue rather awkwardly for a bit, while players on both teams stop because everyone knows that’s a foul. Finally, the whistle blows.
Only one minute of stoppage time despite the lengthy injury delays.
43 min: Tagliafico makes a foray forward from his left back position, and Santiago Arias gets him with a stray elbow/forearm to bring him down, yielding a free kick and a stern admonishment from the referee but no yellow card. The kick is played toward the center but headed over the bar.
42 min: Argentina turn over the ball, and Luis Diaz is briefly off to the races, but De Paul runs him down and wins it back. Quite the battler, Mr. De Paul.
40 min: Shot for Colombia – a Jhon Arias header that doesn’t have much on it.
And another shot, this one a worm-burner from long range that’s straight at Martinez.
39 min: Messi was briefly out but is back. He walks at a snail’s pace. Then the ball is played to him, and he puts on a nifty set of moves to free himself from a defender.
He’s still limping, though.
36 min: Messi is down. He rolls around for a while – which usually indicates that someone is not seriously hurt because it seems like a really bad idea to have repeated contact with the ground if you’ve just picked up a bruise or a sprain or a break.
He was hurt in a collision as he was going over the byline with the ball, a result of the Colombian defense swarming to shut off any path he had toward goal.
32 min: I’m going to say that was a weak advantage call from our referee – Colombia didn’t have the ball in a good spot, and they would’ve loved the free kick instead.
Colombia back with it, and Lerma unleashes a SHOT from more than 25 yards out that nicks off the outstretched hands of the Argentine goalkeeper Martinez and just past the post. Possibly a brilliant save, though he didn’t seem to affect the flight path that much.
30 min: The mesmerizing Colombian passing attack has given way to the jarring sights of fouls and pointless passes in midfield.
And just after I say that, Luis Diaz brilliantly back-heels the ball to keep it in play, and he sends it straight to a teammate.
29 min: This is a long break for on-field treatment. Most referees would only allow this for a head injury, which this is not.
27 min: Yellow card to Cordoba, who reached out his leg rather recklessly to try to get to a cross from the right. Lisandro Martinez is down and in some distress.
25 min: Colombia attack down the left, with Mojica coming up from left back to join the fun. A cross doesn’t find anyone in yellow, though, and Argentina take a goal kick.
And they quickly lose the ball again. This is astounding.
23 min: The Colombian press is targeting Argentina’s left flank, where Tagliafico has now struggled on more than one occasion to get free.
20 min: CHANCE for Argentina off some smooth buildup work. The ball winds up with Di Maria on the left, and he centers for his longtime running mate, Messi. But the Inter Miami man doesn’t quite hit it cleanly – which for a split second seems to be worse for Colombia because the ball moves unpredictably. Vargas has time, though, to reset himself and smother the shot.
17 min: Colombia still bossing this game, which I’m sure is a surprise to many. But when you’re in the form they’ve been in, your confidence is surely sky-high.
They take their feet off the gas pedal for a moment, though, allowing Argentina’s defenders to pad their pass-completion stats without actually passing midfield.
14 min: Rob Coughlin writes again to say he was referring to disorder at the Euro 2020(1) final at Wembley.
In other news of unruly behavior, Enzo Fernandez plows into James Rodriguez. Free kick from 35 yards out for Colombia. It’s overhit, and Martinez snares it.
The sound and video on the Fox broadcast (at least on what I’m seeing and hearing) are about three seconds out of sync, so I’m going to know what happens before it happens.
12 min: Santiago Arias overlaps on the right and puts in a dangerous cross that Argentina has to clear for a Colombian corner. From that, Martinez has to make his second save of the match already.
10 min: Argentina briefly break the Colombian grip on the game, but just long enough for a goal kick to sail down the field to allow Colombia to collect.
Zach Neeley writes: “The locals involved in stadium logistics for a match like this are people that run the stadium itself and local public safety, not the citizens of say Miami in general. It’s silly to be offended by expressing (mild) concern that this stadium will be hosting World Cup matches in not too long. Completely missing the important part imho.”
I think it is indeed mild concern. Would I worry as a fan? No. Would I be taking notes if I worked for the World Cup organizing committee? I’d better be.
8 min: At least 25 passes so far in this Colombian possession, but they’re going backwards.
7 min: OFF THE POST from Colombia’s Cordoba, who took a short cross and fired across the face of goal.
5 min: Colombia are also showing some interest in pressing, leading to a clearance that looks more like Olympic taekwondo.
Colombia win it back and get the first shot on goal, though it’s an easy one for Martinez to handle.
3 min: And that corner kick takes a bit of time as our officials try in vain to get players to quit shoving each other.