Lionel Messi scores free kick to break another World Cup record as Argentina beat Jordan: Live updates and reaction – The New York Times

The Athletic Live Team

June 28, 2026 at 1:29 AM EDT

Lionel Messi became the first player in history to score in seven consecutive World Cup games.

The 39-year-old scored with a free kick after coming off the bench as Argentina won 3-1 against Jordan. It was Messi’s sixth goal of the 2026 World Cup and he leads the Golden Boot race by two goals.

Giovani Lo Celso and Lautaro Martinez scored the other two goals for Argentina as they finished their Group J campaign with three wins from three.

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So, Lionel Messi is heading back to Miami — this time with Argentina, as they take on Cape Verde in the round of 32 on Friday, at Hard Rock Stadium.

See you there!

Time to go home, Jordan — but make sure you also celebrate a worthwhile World Cup debut.

Fellow debutants Uzbekistan also go home pointless, while Curacao did at least manage a draw with Ecuador.

The fourth World Cup newbies, Cape Verde, march on into the knockout stage having finished second behind Germany in Group H — even after being thrashed 7-1 in their opening group match by the Germans.

Next up for Cape Verde? Argentina in Miami. Deep breaths.

Are Argentina the best team at this World Cup? We will find out.

But one thing they definitely are is the slowest.

Argentina have completed the fewest high-intensity runs of all 48 World Cup teams through the group stage — 2,145 of them compared to the United States, who lead all teams having made 4,388.

Argentina also made the fewest sprints — 732 — with Germany leading that field with 1,518.

It’s going to be interesting to see when Argentina come up against a high-quality side that also likes to play with pace. It could yet be their undoing.

Let’s be honest about the nature of this game. Argentina had qualified as group winners, while Jordan were already eliminated. There was nothing riding on this whatsoever.

And given the sheer number of Argentines here — it looked and sounded like about 95 percent of the crowd were behind the defending champions – it didn’t really feel like a World Cup game at all. More a send-off friendly ahead of a World Cup.

Dallas, where Argentina have played twice and many fans have used as their base for the tournament, has become their second home.

Overall, the third round of group games has worked out excellently for Argentina. Not only did it have this gentle group finale, Argentina also had the good news that its round-of-32 match in Miami will not be a high-stakes, aggressive scrap against their great rivals Uruguay — but a much less intense fixture against Cape Verde.

The African side has been one of the feel-good stories of this competition but this is as kind as you could hope for from a World Cup knockout match — let’s not forget, Cape Verde hasn’t won a game at this tournament.

After that comes Australia or Egypt. The former caused Argentina problems in the last World Cup and the latter does boast Mohamed Salah, one of the few players in the competition who, at his peak, recorded Messi-like numbers from the right flank. But neither should trouble the world champions.

Then, their most likely quarter-final opponents would be Colombia or Switzerland.

Argentina not only had an easy group draw. The bracket has worked out very well too — they might reach the semi-final without facing anyone who has a genuine chance of following them as World Cup winners.

A few milestones to round things off. Lautaro Martinez’s penalty was, remarkably, his first World Cup goal — arriving in his ninth appearance and with his 17th shot in the competition — and his 38th for Argentina overall, which lifts him to fourth on his country’s all-time scoring list.

He is now in seriously illustrious company: only Lionel Messi, Gabriel Batistuta and Sergio Aguero have scored more goals for the three-time world champions.

The win also extended a quietly imposing record against Asian opposition: Argentina have now won six of their seven World Cup meetings with AFC nations, the lone defeat that famous opening 2022 stumble against Saudi Arabia.

And spare a final, fond word for the vanquished: Jordan became the first team to score in each of their first three World Cup matches since Cote d’Ivoire in 2006. Not a bad way for the debutants to bow out.

Speaking of direct free kicks, here is a great observation from Giovani Lo Celso’s opening goal.

In this image you can see the three Argentina players scrambling to get out of the way of Lo Celso’s shot. Well, those three players had lined up in a wall near the Jordan defensive wall.

Even better, that wall had been set in position by Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, who was stood near halfway but directly behind the line of the shot, telling the three players where to stand so they were perfectly lined up — and could then move out of the way just before the strike, to leave a huge part of Yazeed Abulaila’s goal unprotected.

It is the first time I’ve seen a goalkeeper line up a wall at an ATTACKING free kick!

Argentina didn’t just win this one, they bent it to their will. Goals from two direct free kicks — Giovani Lo Celso’s opener and Lionel Messi’s late curler — made them only the fourth team since 1966 to score multiple direct free kicks in a single World Cup match, after Japan (2010), Yugoslavia (1974) and Brazil (1966).

It fits a wider pattern of dead-ball dominance: since the start of Qatar 2022, Argentina have been awarded seven penalties in 10 World Cup matches, comfortably more than England (3), France and Portugal (both 2) over the same span.

The control piece? Everything ran through Leandro Paredes, who completed 154 passes — a record for any Argentine in a single World Cup match, and the sixth-highest tally by any player in the competition since 1966.

Giving away a free kick within 30 yards of the goal often feels terminal when Lionel Messi is on the pitch.

And that is exactly what the Jordan players found out this evening. The 39-year-old used his extraordinary football brain to hide his strike behind the wall, outfoxing goalkeeper Yazeed Abulaila to break another World Cup record.

One fears for Cape Verde in the round of 32, as romantic as their story has been to this point.

A night that belonged to the veterans rewriting the record books. Lionel Messi’s free kick meant he has now scored in seven consecutive World Cup matches — a record in the competition’s history.

It is also a run that has brought him 11 goals in total: five across his last four games in Qatar, and six in three this summer.

He wasn’t the only 40-something-in-waiting making history. By starting both Messi and Nicolas Otamendi, Argentina became only the second side to field two players aged 38 or over in a single World Cup edition, after Brazil’s Thiago Silva and Dani Alves in 2022.

Otamendi added a record of his own too: a 17th World Cup appearance taking him past Oscar Ruggeri as the most-capped defender in Argentina’s history.

Age is just a number — preferably one in the record column.

One nice touch from tonight? The man who finally made his well overdue World Cup debut was also named player of the match.

Giovani Lo Celso didn’t play on the pitch at Russia 2018. He was then ruled out by injury ahead of Qatar 2022.

Tonight he started, scored and had two goals ruled out for offside to boot.

Here are the other nine fixtures in the World Cup round of 32 that will be played next week, and decide who makes it through to the last 16.

Wednesday

• England vs DR Congo — 12pm
• Belgium vs Senegal — 4pm
• USA vs Bosnia and Herzegovina — 8pm

Thursday

• Spain vs Austria — 3pm
• Portugal vs Croatia — 7pm
• Switzerland vs Algeria — 11pm

Friday

• Australia vs Egypt — 2pm
• Argentina vs Cape Verde — 6pm
• Colombia vs Ghana — 9:30pm

All times ET

So the bracket is set and we have our 16 ties for the round of 32 as the World Cup knockout stage begins. Here are the first seven of them.

Sunday

• South Africa vs Canada – 3pm

Monday

• Brazil vs Japan – 1pm
• Germany vs Paraguay – 4:30pm
• Netherlands vs Morocco – 9pm

Tuesday

• Ivory Coast vs Norway – 1pm
• France vs Sweden – 5pm
• Mexico vs Ecuador – 9pm

All times ET

Jordan goalkeeper Yazeed Abulaila is rooted to the spot. The ball is heading his way but he cannot avoid the irresistible force.

Lionel Messi is behind the wall but the chief instigator again, as he scores goal No 19 of his World Cup career with Argentina.

And there will surely be more on the way before this tournament is done, whenever that proves to be for the defending champions.

📸 Paul Ellis / AFP via Getty Images

Some songs just refuse to fade. Twelve years on from 2014, when Argentina’s fans turned “Brasil, decime que se siente” into a generation’s anthem, it remains the heartbeat of every Albiceleste gathering going.

Here at Javi’s Empanadas in Oakland a hundred-odd fans packed in, baby blue and white everywhere, to roar yet another Lionel Messi goal and belt out every curse word imaginable.

A dead rubber half a continent away, in a Bay Area empanada joint — and they still treat it as a final.

Argentina fans remain in the concourse, belting out their chants that haven’t really stopped since the first minute.

From my experience and in my opinion, the best singers at the tournament.

That game in Kansas City had implications for Iran, because Algeria finishing third meant Iran would finishing outside the best eight third-place finishers.

Som Iran head home, while South Korea’s fate was sealed earlier today.

DR Congo’s 3-1 win over Uzbekistan earlier means they finished with the best record of all the third-placed teams. Uruguay’s was the worst.

So, this is how it finishes in Group J.

Algeria took a late lead in Kansas City before Austria equalised. It finished 3-3, Austria reclaimed second spot and Algeria still qualify as one of the eight best third-placed finishers.

Jordan were already out before tonight’s matches, just like Argentina has already sealed the group.

He only spent a little over half an hour on the pitch, but Lionel Messi left every fan inside AT&T Stadium with something they will remember for life.

Questions will be asked of the goalkeeping but it was still pure quality from the Inter Miami star — who heads to Miami next.

I do not envy the Cape Verde defenders who have to deal with Messi in that round of 32 tie.

So much for putting him in bubble wrap. Lionel Messi emerged on the hour and needed just 20 minutes to do his thing — a low, scuffed free kick that goalkeeper Yazeed Abulaila somehow didn’t stop going into his own net, but they all count.

It was Messi’s sixth goal of this tournament and his 19th at the World Cup, three clear of Kylian Mbappe and MiroslavKlose, extending a record that now includes scoring in seven successive World Cup matches.

The numbers are absurd but the bigger takeaway is the rhythm: rather than rust on the bench, the 39-year-old got 30 minutes in the legs and a goal for the confidence, leaving Dallas sharp and ticking over nicely ahead of Miami and the round of 32.

Exactly the cameo Lionel Scaloni would have ordered.