Lionel Messi could not have possibly been contained in the Copa America semifinal

Argentina beat the United States men’s national team, 4-0, on Tuesday night, and they made it look very easy. Jurgen Klinsmann is catching a lot of very much deserved criticism for picking an old, slow lineup that gave his team no chance to sneak a goal on the counter-attack in the event Argentina had been off their game. DeAndre Yedlin said his team “should have been better prepared” after the game, while Geoff Cameron admitted the USMNT “respected [Argentina] too much.” The Americans were bad in strategy, mindset and effort, to go along with their talent deficiency.

As good as this was, it wasn’t even Messi’s best moment of the night. Because while this showed off his individual skill, his contributions to two other goals showed off what makes him such a special player for both club and country. Messi’s brilliance lies in that he is equal parts a great goal scorer, one-on-one wide player, tricky No. 10 and deep-lying playmaker. His ability to do anything and everything opened up space for his teammates, and he found them in that space for goals.

The opening goal, just three minutes in, effectively ended the match. By performing the mere act of touching the ball near the top of the penalty area, Messi drew the entire defense towards him, leaving Ezequiel Lavezzi wide open. Messi found him with a perfect chipped ball.

There will be a long, painful argument about this game -- were the United States terrible, or Argentina just too good? And the problem with that argument is that it’s not an either-or. They are not mutually exclusive. Klinsmann had a terrible gameplan, but having a good one wouldn’t have mattered on this night either. Messi, the greatest player on the planet, was locked in. He showed off every single one of his skills. He could not have been contained.