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Last Man Standing

The world watched in disbelief when Egypt took a 2-0 lead against the World Champion. Most of us here in Asia, even though most of us are Messi fans, started rooting for Egypt, hoping they would walk away with the greatest upset in World Cup history, in the same breath as Roger Milla and his boys upset Argentina and then the Saudis in the previous edition as well.

But Messi is the GOAT! Some of us thought this was the end of an era, with Ronaldo out and Neymar also announcing his retirement from international football after being shown the door by Norway. We thought the last man standing, the great Messi, was also out of his last World Cup!

Messi missed a penalty, and this was the second time, or else his tally would have been 10 goals by halftime. But Argentina came back, not bothered by the 0-2 deficit, and made one of the greatest comebacks in recent years. They scored 3 goals in the last 15 minutes to continue their ride in this World Cup. Messi made up for his missed penalty earlier with a goal to make it 2-2 and then a beautiful header by Enzo ended Egypt's luck in the final minutes.

Egypt, like Cape Verde, has won the hearts and minds of football fans with this game. And I think we will not see the big teams dominating the game in future World Cups, as even minnows have figured out a way to play disciplined defense and break-out offense against the giants!

With Switzerland edging out the Colombians in the other round of 16, we now have a complete quarter-final layout. The host nations are all out of the game, but it was a beautiful ride for them to come this far. France will face Morocco. Spain will face Belgium. Norway will face England, and Argentina has the much easier draw against Switzerland.

It seems that all the quarterfinal matches will likely end in a draw in full time and head for the extra time and penalty shootouts, but you never know what happens after the added time after 90 minutes.

Messi is the last man standing among the Buda players. Ronaldo could have won the World Cup if he had played for Brazil with Neymar, maybe. But both players will remain great players, but without that one coveted trophy, the World Cup, in their closet!

This World Cup has been the most exciting one since 1986, when Maradona became the 'Pele' of the 90s! Messi plays a beautiful game and is more of a playmaker as he is a great striker, and maybe that's why he is different from the rest, and the whole world loves him!

Let's hope someday, when we get the Japanese technical team in Nepal to train our 10-year-olds for a decade or two, then we can finally dream of playing in the World Cup and giving the giants a scare or even carry out the greatest upset in football history. Until then, let's cheer for our favorite teams. I am hoping for a France vs Argentina repeat, but it could be a Norway vs Spain too.

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