Football: Saudis hold Argentina in friendly

RIYADH: Lionel Messi drew a blank as Argentina could only labour to a goalless draw with Saudi Arabia in a friendly. Messi’s two goals for Barcelona in a weekend win over Real Mallorca gave the maestro 76 goals for 2012 to date, taking him to within nine of Gerd Mueller’s all time record total of 85 set in 1972. But he missed a chance to close down the deficit on Mueller as the Argentinians plodded to a stalemate in a match short on inspiration or major incident. Messi thus also failed to move ahead of his 12 goals for the year in his national shirt — a goal here would have taken him beyond the 12 he shares with Gabriel Batistuta. The Saudis could even have caused embarrassment to their illustrious visitors — only an offside decision robbed the hosts of a goal when Osama Al Harbi had an effort chalked off on 29 minutes. Argentina will now turn their focus back to the business of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil - the group leaders’ next qualifier is against Venezuela on March 22

Published in The Express Tribune, November 16^th, 2012.