Messi's teammates failed to support him: Argentine media

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After a 1-1 draw with Iceland in their first FIFA World Cup game on Saturday, the Argentine national football team has received flak from local media.

Ole covered the game with the headline "Such a penalty" as a pun to make a point that Lionel Messi's missed penalty kick cost Argentina victory and advised the team to perform much better than on Saturday night. The paper also pointed out that it was the third time in a row for Messi to miss a penalty. Despite the first two were in friendly games, the pattern is still worrying.

Every time Lionel Messi had the ball, he had to face four or even five Icelandic players. /VCG Photo

Clarin spoke highly of Iceland's goalkeeper Hannes Thór Halldórsson who, as a professional director, orchestrated a great game for his country while refusing a penalty kick from Messi. La Nacion said Argentina failed to take down Iceland not only because of that missed penalty, but also because the whole team played terribly.

Enrique Wolff, former member of Argentina's national football team blamed Messi's teammates. Wolff said that it was not Iceland but rather Messi's teammates who had stopped him. It took them too long to deliver ball to Messi, which never happened in Barcelona. The team failed to provide enough support to Messi.

Both media agencies and veteran players agree that teammates failed to offer enough support to Messi. /VCG Photo

In an interview with Tencent Sports, former Argentine striker Diego Milito agreed that Messi needed more support from his teammates. "Argentina relies too much on Messi. He is the world's best football player and should carry such responsibilities, but he still needs enough support from the rest of the team," said Milito.

Also with Tencent Sports, former guard of Argentina, Walter Samuel expressed belief that Messi became more responsible than before.

"Messi is more responsible than before, but needs to shoulder more than before. He must go through this. As the world's best football player, he has to grow, change and shoulder more responsibilities. Argentina had many problems. Defense was not the only one to blame for the draw. Our offense did not score facing Iceland's blanket defense in the second half, that's the direct reason of why we did not win," said Samuel.