Messi's magic tricks

On Feb. 26, with Barcelona tied, 1-1, against Atletico Madrid in the 81st minute, Messi curled a free kick from 25 yards with impeccable accuracy and clever timing. The opposing goalkeeper stood with his arms outstretched, baffled, incredulous. In another setting, he might have been a boy who had just seen a birthday magician pull a quarter from his ear.

On March 7, Messi had a day that no one had ever had in the Champions League, Europe’s premier club tournament, scoring five times for Barcelona in a 7-1 rout of Bayer Leverkusen of Germany. Twice, Messi lobbed shots over the head of goalkeeper Bernd Leno. A third time, he tapped in a rebound that had deflected off Leno’s hands. Two more of Messi’s shots were driven inside the left post on a day when Leno could do little more than hop and roll as if trying to smother an invisible fire.

“Messi is a joke. For me the best ever,” Wayne Rooney, the Manchester United and England star, wrote on Twitter.

On June 9, before an exhibition crowd of 81,994 at MetLife Stadium, Messi delivered a hat trick as Argentina subdued its rival Brazil, 4-3. He scored the game-winner in the 85th minute, driving at the defense and curling a shot inside the left post from 22 yards, leaving Rafael Cabral, the defeated Brazilian goalkeeper, on his knees as if searching for a lost contact lens.