{"id":347158,"date":"2026-06-23T15:48:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T15:48:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/347158\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T15:48:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T15:48:29","slug":"messi-sets-world-cup-record-at-sold-out-game-in-arlington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/347158\/","title":{"rendered":"Messi sets World Cup record at sold-out game in Arlington"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scoring goals and breaking records is what Lionel Messi does, and it\u2019s what he did again Monday, June 22 at the FIFA World Cup<\/a> in Arlington.<\/p>\n

The Argentina captain, who many consider the greatest player of all time, scored two more World Cup goals on Monday in his team’s 2-0 victory over Austria<\/a>. That gave him a record total of 18 at the world’s biggest tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeyond anything I\u2019m so happy for the win,” Messi said. “It 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 Argentina-Austria group stage match at Dallas Stadium drew 70,649 spectators – an official sell-out crowd and the highest attendance yet for a World Cup match at the venue, officials said.<\/p>\n

The first goal against Austria came in the 38th minute and two days before Messi\u2019s 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

\"Lionel Lionel “Leo” Messi and Argentina came into the 2026 World Cup as defending champions. Leo Messi\/Facebook <\/p>\n

Messi had equaled Germany striker Miroslav Klose for the most goals in the World Cup at 16 with his first hat trick at the tournament<\/a> in Argentina\u2019s 3-0<\/a> win over Algeria in the Group J opener last Tuesday night in Kansas City.<\/p>\n

He first had a chance to set the record in the ninth minute against Austria on Monday, but he missed a penalty kick.<\/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, with Messi scoring all five of the team’s goals so far in his sixth World Cup.<\/p>\n

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

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

As the ball went into the net, 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 Dallas Stadium (AT&T Stadium) in Arlington, the sold-out home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.<\/p>\n

There had been a gasp from those same fans when Messi missed the penalty kick in the ninth minute.<\/p>\n

His left-footed attempt went just wide of the right post. He is now 4 of 7 on penalty kicks in regulation play at the World Cup with misses in three consecutive tournaments.<\/p>\n

Klose scored his 16 goals while playing in 24 World Cup matches for Germany, which wrapped up his fourth tournament by winning the 2014 final 1-0 in extra time over Messi and Argentina.<\/p>\n

In an interview published on June 12, Klose said he expected Messi to break the scoring record.<\/p>\n

\u201cI expect my record to fall in this tournament,\u201d Klose told German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung. \u201cWith the larger field of competing teams there are more games and so more chances to score goals. And I assume Argentina and France will go far. That\u2019s perfectly OK, the record will be broken eventually anyhow and Messi is welcome to be the one who does it. I\u2019m a big fan of Messi, always have been. Messi is a genius.\u201d<\/p>\n

Messi\u2019s hat trick in the previous game, in his 200th international appearance, came 20 years to the date of his World Cup debut in Germany, when he also scored. Monday was his FIFA-record 28th match in the tournament.<\/p>\n

The penalty kick came after Lautaro Martinez was running free in the box and was tackled from behind by Xaver Schlager and Stefan Posch, the defender playing with a broken jaw. Schalger got a foot on the ball, but Posch drew the penalty because he did not touch the ball as Martinez tumbled to the ground.<\/p>\n

Play continued for more than a minute with Martinez still on the ground near the goal. When the game was stopped for him, officials reviewed the play.<\/p>\n

Messi\u2019s father has been undergoing medical treatment for an undisclosed illness, the family said in a statement last week while not providing any specifics. The 68-year-old Jorge Messi has played a key role in his third son\u2019s soccer career, acting as his agent and managing his business affairs off the field.<\/p>\n

Lionel Messi was overcome with emotion after scoring his first goal against Algeria, and said after that match his tears came following some tough days not related to soccer.<\/p>\n

“Messi Mania” took over Dallas-Fort Worth for days surrounding the match, with passionate Argentina fans filling the Arlington Entertainment District, Fort Worth’s Sundance Square, Dallas’ Klyde Warren Park, and FIFA Fan Festival at Fair Park in Dallas.<\/p>\n

The Argentina-Austria game was the third of nine FIFA World Cup matches (more than in any other host city) to be played at AT&T Stadium in Arlington<\/a>. They started with Netherlands vs. Japan<\/a> on June 14, followed by England vs. Croatia<\/a> on June 17, Argentina vs. Austria<\/a> on June 22, Japan vs. Sweden<\/a> on June 25, and Jordan vs. Argentina<\/a> on June 27.<\/p>\n

The stadium will also host two Round of 32 matches (June 30 and July 3), one Round of 16 match (July 6), and one Semi-Final match (July 14).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scoring goals and breaking records is what Lionel Messi does, and it\u2019s what he did again Monday, June…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151,95926,18957,16597,73993,154],"class_list":["post-347158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-dallas-stadium","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-fifa-world-cup-2026","tag-lionel-messi","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347158","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=347158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}