{"id":347029,"date":"2026-06-23T13:39:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T13:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/347029\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T13:39:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T13:39:13","slug":"lionel-messi-becomes-top-scorer-in-world-cup-history-with-tw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/347029\/","title":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi becomes top scorer in World Cup history with tw…"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) \u2014 Scoring goals and breaking records is what Lionel Messi does, and he is already doing that again in his sixth World Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Argentina captain now has the World Cup scoring record all to himself after another standout performance, one that began with frustration after missing a penalty kick and ended in pure elation with another victory.<\/p>\n

Messi, who many consider the greatest player of all time, scored both goals in his team\u2019s 2-0 victory over Austria<\/a> on Monday. That gave him 18, six days after his first-ever hat trick<\/a> in the tournament had matched Germany striker Miroslav Klose’s previous record of 16 World Cup goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeyond anything I\u2019m so happy for the win,\u201d Messi said. \u201cIt was huge, tough and difficult. It would allow us to be relaxed to what\u2019s ahead. All matches in this World Cup are very even, very intense. I\u2019m enjoying this moment and craving to enjoy with my teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first goal against Austria came in the 38th minute and two days before his 39th birthday, and amid the concern of an ailing father<\/a> back at home. It was the sixth consecutive World Cup<\/a> game in which Messi has scored \u2014 joining France striker Just Fontaine and Brazil great Jairzinho as only players to do so.<\/p>\n

That was about a half-hour after he missed a penalty kick with a chance to match the record.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were moments when I was really angry about missing the penalty, but I was able to make up for it,\u201d said Messi, who has won a record eight Ballon d’Or awards as the best player in Europe.<\/p>\n

Argentina advanced to the knockout round by winning its first two group games. Messi also scored all of his team’s goals in a 3-0 win over Algeria<\/a> in Kansas City.<\/p>\n

Messi added his 18th World Cup goal in the waning seconds of stoppage time when he shot one through several defenders after the first attempt was turned away by goalkeeper Alexander Schlager.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew it wasn\u2019t going to be easy,\u201d Messi said in translated remarks. \u201cThe way things are going in the World Cup, the way it\u2019s being played, it\u2019s a very even game. No one is giving away anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

The goal record became Messi’s alone in the first half when he caught Schlager leaning the wrong way after Thiago Almada let Facuno Medina\u2019s pass go by him and directly onto Messi’s left foot from about 20 yards.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no more words to talk about Leo,” Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said through an interpreter. <\/p>\n

As the ball went into the net on the record 17th goal, Messi ran toward a corner and thrust his right arm into the air to celebrate the mark with the decidedly pro-Argentina crowd among the 70,649 fans in the sold-out home of the NFL\u2019s Dallas Cowboys.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone who is 39 years old and can score two goals, and five goals overall at the beginning of the World Cup, well, that makes a difference,” Austria coach Ralf Rangnick said through an interpreter. \u201cWe knew that he is on a level of his own, and Lionel Messi showed us today that he\u2019s one of the best, and he is the best.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) \u2014 Scoring goals and breaking records is what Lionel Messi does, and he is already…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151],"class_list":["post-347029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}