Rich Reacts to Lionel Messi & Argentina’s Latest Thrilling World Cup Comeback to Oust England

Rich has watched the Lionel Messi cross roughly 20 times, and he still cannot explain how a human being does that.

The show opened on the man Rich called a legend and a goat, someone performing at the top of his game late in his career and telling Father Time to get out of here. Messi leads the World Cup all time in goals scored, and with Kylian Mbappé bounced, he will finish this tournament that way. He now leads the World Cup all time in assists too, including two against England.

The first one came in the 85th minute. Messi drew three English defenders to him on the right side of the Argentine attack, then slid it to an open Enzo Fernández, who darted it past Jordan Pickford. Pickford had been having a heck of a game. It did not matter.

Then came the pass everyone will be watching for years. Messi took one touch to get the ball far enough from the two defenders near him, then hit a right-footed cross over a line of six white shirts and found the forehead of Lautaro Martínez.

"He found the one forehead," Rich said. "He was picking out from that distance."

The word Rich kept reaching for was insane. One of the most insane passes you will ever see in your whole life, in any sport, was the framing, and the comparisons that followed came from basketball rather than football. Magic. Bird. Pistol Pete. The only thing missing, someone noted, was the NFL Films tight zoom and the slow motion pull out.

England did itself no favors. After scoring in the 55th minute, Thomas Tuchel emptied his bench with a half hour left rather than push for a second goal, and the general sense Rich found while prepping the segment was that the prevent defense parked the Messi bus in front of Pickford for 30 minutes and said good luck.

Jude Bellingham never got a touch worth remembering. What he did get was a moment jawing at Messi during the match, which has already been turned into a GIF that people will be sending their frenemies. He also smacked Valentín Barco in the back of the head after the final whistle, which Rich initially could not explain.

The explanation surfaced five minutes before the show. On the equalizer, Barco came running out onto the pitch and ran free through the entire English defense on his way to the celebration, and nobody bothered to tackle him. Kevin Harlan on the call: "Look at him go."

"So, I don't blame Bellingham for finding him after the game and going, dude," Rich said.

None of it is new for this Argentina team. In the knockout rounds they beat Cape Verde on a goal in the 111th minute, Egypt in the 92nd, Switzerland in the 112th, and now England. Four matches, four escapes.

Rich also spent a minute on the language of the sport, admitting he loves that a tie is called level and the tying goal is an equalizer. Nobody in America calls a ninth-inning solo shot a leveler, and maybe we should.

Spain waits on Sunday after a semifinal against France that Rich found far less scintillating, because Spain plays keep away. Argentina hangs around and wins it at the end.

As Rich put it, football is indeed not coming home.