Messi fit for World Cup opener

IO DE JANEIRO: Two action-filled days into the World Cup here and an interesting trend has emerged. While a Barcelona-dominated Spain were decimated fair and square by a suddenly-rampant Netherlands, the other non-Spanish Barcelona players - many of whom have lived through uncertain seasons, mostly on the fringes of a Messi-centric system - have come into their own after returning to don their national colours and given the centrestage again.

On the opening day, Neymar, who spent most of his season on the Barcelona bench bemused by the absurdity of it all, quickly made the World Cup his own with an epoch-defining performance against Croatia.

A day later, Alexis Sanchez, relegated to the wide right wing at Barcelona and kept away from the decision-making, scored his country's first goal, provided an assist, completed 43 passes and generally called all the shots in Chile's tough win over the doughty Aussies.

The setting couldn't be more forbidding. Needless to say, the whole world and the whole of Brazil in particular, will be watching closely to see how this one unfolds.

Messi has not been having a great time in Brazil, and he's not even begun playing yet. He has been throwing up in training. His coach, Alejandro Sabella, tries to assuage the world's nerves by claiming it is an attack of nerves for the little, big man. That apart, he's being ribbed by Brazilian fans, who want nothing else but a Brazil-Argentina final in the final.

Things are not going well for the little, big man, and he's not even begun playing yet.

Leave him alone, just give him the ball when it starts, say Argentineans. "Oh, he will explode," says Rodrigo Diaz, a teacher. "He, like all of us, is just waiting for it. Do not mistake his aloofness for anything else."

Deep down, even Messi knows the significance of winning in Brazil. Messi needs Brazil's World Cup more than the World Cup needs Messi.