Messian

That to Earth's utmost lands I may set forth / Thy grace supreme, in sending her, else lost, / Messiah, saviour from the yoke of Hell; / And prove the pure Messian scheme, a scheme / Not mortal man's, but all throughout Thine own.

Every game, every attempted dribble, every pass, every goal (all of which, together, create the Messian mode of jouissance), is an “experiment” in which Messi seeks to conserve himself at the highest possible level, with the greatest amount of integrity.

This week Lothar Matthaus compared him to Lionel Messi. […] His goal was typically Messian, he dribbled to the edge of the box before presenting the ball to a team-mate, and telegraphing with his run where he wanted the ball played back to him before sending an unerring shot at goal.

There is a kind of melancholy to the final from a Messian perspective. Argentina are favourites to win their first World Cup since 1986, reaching this point after playing some of the most impressive and effective football of the tournament.