MESSI v MARADONA: THE GREAT DEBATE

Messi almost looked sheepish going up to accept his award for player of the competition, on a night where the dogged Javier Mascherano and Bastian Schweinsteiger were the outstanding competitors on the field, and in a tournament lit up by the likes of James Rodriguez, Thomas Muller and Arjen Robben.
Messi has been brilliant at key moments, make no mistake. He has won games for his country off his own boot against Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iran and Nigeria. Despite not truly dominating any of Argentina’s seven games, he was decisive, with four goals, and a crucial assist for Angel di Maria in the round of 16 to knock out a gutsy Switzerland.
But in the big three games - Belgium, Netherlands, Germany - we yearned to see him cut the game open, like he does so often, and so decisively for Barcelona.
His father, Jorge, bemoaned before the final that Messi’s legs weighed 100 kilos, and it looked like he might have been carrying even more on his shoulders.
Alejandro Sabella’s side peaked for the biggest game on the biggest stage: Ezequiel Lavezzi was dynamic, Javier Mascherano was ably supported by the industrious Lucas Biglia and Enzo Perez, while the defensive unit continued to provide the backbone that it has throughout a stingy tournament.
 But still, Messi found the going tough, marked robustly, energetically and fanatically by Germany, who remained a well organised unit despite losing Sami Khedira and Christoph Kramer through injury.
There were glimpses.
Messi’s guilt-edged moment came in the 47th minute. He got in behind Mats Hummels and Jerome Boateng, latched onto a deft through ball from Biglia and was one-on-one with Manuel Neuer.
We all envisioned the ball rippling the back of the net. But he skewed it wide.
There were times we looked for him, wanting to see him inject himself. But the German midfield pounded forward again and again.
 He must have pushed himself to exhaustion, pictured vomiting on the pitch at one point.
With a difficult, but golden chance right at the death, winning a free-kick after being chopped down by his 120 minute shadow, Schweinsteiger, Messi floated a tame, limp free-kick into the grandstand.
And with that, went his final chance.
No one doubts his brilliance or his standing in the game’s pantheon.
“It is a very demanding tournament and it is drains everyone physically. He is already among the greatest of all time,” Sabella said.
But Messi will be 31 in Russia. When it comes to that well-worn debate about the two No.10s, only one sits on the World Cup’s mythical dais.