Argentina 6-0 Serbia: 25-Pass Move & Messi's World Cup Debut (2006)

# Argentina 6-0 Serbia: Twenty-Five Passes, and a Teenager's Debut

June 16, 2006. Gelsenkirchen, Germany. World Cup group stage. Argentina against Serbia. Argentina's second goal—twenty-five consecutive passes before they scored. The ball moved back and forth between the players, from the left flank to the right, from the front to the back and back again. Finally, Esteban Cambiasso received a delicate backheel pass and slotted the ball home. That goal was called 'a textbook example of team football.'

Then, the second half. An eighteen-year-old Argentine kid came off the bench. Long hair, skinny, with MESSI 19 printed on his back. It was his World Cup debut. He first set up a goal, then scored one himself—receiving a through ball, gently flicking it past the goalkeeper. He ran to the corner flag, buried by his teammates. In the embrace, only a pair of eyes was visible on that young face. Those eyes were smiling. No one knew what that kid would become next.