Messi scores hat trick as Argentina opens World Cup defense with 3-0 win
Messi struck three times in Kansas City, matched Miroslav Klose’s World Cup record and sent Argentina to the top of Group J in its title defense.
Lionel Messi turned Argentina’s World Cup defense into an immediate global event in Kansas City, scoring in the 17th, 60th and 76th minutes of a 3-0 win over Algeria that matched Miroslav Klose’s record of 16 World Cup goals. The performance came in Messi’s 200th full international and put the reigning champions atop Group J after the opening round.
FIFA named Messi the Michelob Ultra Superior Player of the Match, one of 104 such awards that will be handed out across the 2026 tournament, from the opening fixture on June 11 to the final on July 19 at New York New Jersey Stadium. That commercial frame matters as much as the scoreboard for U.S. audiences: the match was staged at Kansas City Stadium, a venue FIFA says is certified by Guinness World Records as the loudest outdoor sports stadium in the world.
Messi’s hat trick arrived exactly 20 years after his World Cup debut as a substitute against Serbia and Montenegro at Germany 2006, a timeline that underlines how long he has sat at the center of the sport’s modern era. FIFA’s match report also noted that Messi and Algeria’s Fares Chaibi each had efforts ruled out for offside, but Argentina’s control never really wavered once Messi opened the scoring.
The result gave Lionel Scaloni’s side a clean start to a title defense that now moves on to Austria on June 22. For Argentina, the night was about three goals and three points; for the tournament, it was another reminder that Messi remains the rare athlete whose milestones travel well beyond the sports pages, carrying weight in Buenos Aires, across Spanish-speaking communities in the United States and inside a World Cup built to command global attention on American soil.
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