{"id":7294,"date":"2026-07-16T04:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T23:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=7294"},"modified":"2026-07-16T04:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T23:42:12","slug":"englands-soul-is-crushed-again-this-time-by-more-messi-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=7294","title":{"rendered":"England\u2019s Soul Is Crushed, Again, This Time by More Messi Magic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p data-testid=\"paragraph-element\" class=\"rich-text mb-6 font-graphik text-body-large text-black-coffee mt-8 focus-visible:outline focus-visible:outline-black-coffee focus-visible:outline-2 focus-visible:outline-offset-2 focus-visible:shadow-focus-color text-left\">Can England take some consolation that, at least this time, it was Messi\u2019s sublime playmaking that felled them?\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p data-testid=\"paragraph-element\" class=\"rich-text mb-6 font-graphik text-body-large text-black-coffee mt-8 focus-visible:outline focus-visible:outline-black-coffee focus-visible:outline-2 focus-visible:outline-offset-2 focus-visible:shadow-focus-color text-left\">Doubtful. At least not yet. All this history, plus a pair of finals appearances, and heartbreaking losses, in the most recent European championships is just too painful right now. England, given the potential of ending the 60 years of futility, was a sentimental favorite to emerge from the final four powers at this World Cup, which also included Argentina (who last won in 2022), France (2018) and Spain (2010). \u201dI&#8217;ve suffered so many times,\u201d former England striker Gary Lineker, who lost at the Hand of God in 1986, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=64TVuVL8T1Y\" title=\"undefined\" target=\"undefined\">said on a recent podcast.<\/a> \u201cI just want us to win it before I die. Just once, just once, please\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p data-testid=\"paragraph-element\" class=\"rich-text mb-6 font-graphik text-body-large text-black-coffee mt-8 focus-visible:outline focus-visible:outline-black-coffee focus-visible:outline-2 focus-visible:outline-offset-2 focus-visible:shadow-focus-color text-left\">Poor Gary, and his fellow citizens of England. They will have to wait, and wait, and wait. <a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/article\/2026\/07\/07\/lionel-messi-world-cup-argentina-egypt-goal\/\" title=\"undefined\" target=\"undefined\">Messi<\/a>, meanwhile, moves on. He now has eight goals and four assists in this World Cup: he\u2019s contributed a goal or assist in each of Argentina\u2019s seven World Cup wins this summer. For the first time in a World Cup final, the reigning European champs (Spain) will face the reigning South American champion (Argentina). Messi and his mates will attempt to become the first team to win back-to-back World Cup titles since Brazil, who did it in 1958 and 1962.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can England take some consolation that, at least this time, it was Messi\u2019s sublime playmaking that felled them?\u00a0 Doubtful. At least not yet. All this history, plus a pair of finals appearances, and heartbreaking losses, in the most recent European championships is just too painful right now. England, given the potential of ending the 60&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static.time.com\/v3\/assets\/bltea6093859af6183b\/blt3537b6237d983553\/6a58113cc8a71d8065be6342\/england-argentina-world-cup.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}