Defending champions Argentina will leave without their magical captain Lionel Messi in the starting line-up when they face tournament debutants Jordan in the final Group J encounter on Sunday.With Argentina already top of Group J, head coach Lionel Scaloni decided to wrap his crown jewel in cotton wool. Speaking on Saturday, just two days after Messi celebrated his 39th birthday, Scaloni confirmed the newly-crowned World Cup’s all-time top scorer would start on the bench, although he gave a heavy hint that the maestro would feature eventually.“Messi will start the game on the bench, but he will come on a little later,” Scaloni told reporters, keeping his tactical cards close to his chest without revealing the exact moment of his substitution or his starting XI.The decision comes as a calculated part of load management. Messi has single-handedly carried Argentina’s attack in North America, scoring all five of the team’s goals so far. He scored an old hat-trick against Algeria to equal the men’s all-time record before breaking Miroslav Klose and Marta’s tournament record with a clinical brace against Austria on Monday.Furthermore, Messi’s four-year run of great success was hampered by a nagging knee injury during his domestic season with Inter Miami. Although there have been no visible problems with fitness since the start of the tournament, the Argentine camp is fully aware of the physical marathon ahead of them.Argentina’s quest for a back-to-back world crown enters the business end next Friday in South Florida. If La Albiceleste reach the grand final on July 20, they face a grueling, relentless schedule of five matches packed into just 17 days.Given the high-intensity nature of modern knockout football, saving Messi’s legs against a badly mismatched Jordan side makes perfect tactical sense. While fans inside the stadium will be desperate to see the genius, Scaloni’s focus is firmly on making sure his chief strategist is at 100 per cent when the win-or-go-home margin arrives.
