Lionel Messi's Anxiety Before The Goalkeeper

The goalkeeper describes what it is like to face a penalty: should he dive to one side, and if he does will the kicker aim for the other? It is a psychological confrontation in which each tries to outfox the other.

It was the great Austrian writer Peter Handke who captured the meaning of the critical existential moment in his novel The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter), which was also filmed by Wim Wenders, under the same title.

The moment came back live, after 45 years. It was the confrontation between Lionel Messi, the legendary forward of Argentina, and Hannes Halldorsson of Iceland. 

I know two things about Messi’s missed penalty. The first thing I know is that it doesn’t mean anything. The second thing I know is that it means everything. It was a statistical blip that says nothing about Messi as a player, and it was a total referendum on who Messi is as a person. 

In his short essay about the moment, in the second half of Argentina’s 1–1 draw against Iceland on Saturday in a Group D match of the World Cup, Brian Phillips describes it in moving details and observations, mentioning the panenka, and offers striking observations.

... the success or failure of a penalty kick depends less on the individual agency of either player than on the invisible subprogramming of the universe.

Perhaps it was a sharp curve in Messi's career, this kick, who knows?