Messi Hits Seventh Straight World Cup Match With Goal as Argentina Beats Jordan 3-1

ARLINGTON, Texas — Lionel Messi had limited minutes to chase history, yet the Argentina captain still became the first player to score in seven World Cup matches in a row.

Coming on as a second-half substitute, Messi netted his 19th men's World Cup goal in a 3-1 group-stage win over Jordan on Saturday night, adding to the all-time scoring mark at the tournament.

It was his first outing since turning 39 three days before the match. In the 80th minute, he was fouled just outside the box and converted the resulting free kick, sending a low shot along the ground past two Jordan defenders and into the left side of the goal.

The strike was his 72nd free-kick goal in his career and his 12th for Argentina. He has now scored 123 times for his country in 202 international appearances, trailing only Cristiano Ronaldo's 145 on the global list.

Before Saturday, Messi was one of just three players to score in six straight World Cup games, alongside France's Just Fontaine and Brazil's Jairzinho.

"What you're seeing, I'm seeing the same thing," coach Lionel Scaloni said through a translator. "It's a little bit of an uncomfortable situation every single time people ask because I no longer know what to say."

Messi had previously scored from a free kick against Nigeria at the 2014 World Cup. He is now one of six players, in records dating to 1966, to have scored twice from direct free kicks at the World Cup, joining Pelé, Rivellino, Téofilo Cubillas, Bernard Genghini and David Beckham.

"I am very happy for him, for the moment he is having," Giovani Lo Celso said in translated remarks after becoming the first Argentine other than Messi to score in this tournament, also on a free kick in the 19th minute. "The truth is that seeing him every day excites, excites and infects a lot. So obviously seeing him like that for us is very important."

Messi entered in the 60th minute for Lautaro Martinez, who had opened the scoring from the penalty spot in the first half.

Despite winning the Ballon d'Or as Europe's best player eight times, Messi has never claimed the World Cup Golden Boot as the tournament's leading scorer. This edition is his sixth World Cup.

He now has six goals at this tournament, two more than Kylian Mbappé, Vinicius Júnior and Erling Haaland.

Argentina's knockout campaign starts Friday in South Florida. In the expanded 48-team format, La Albiceleste would need five matches in 17 days to reach the final on July 19.

"Today he could have played 90 minutes," Scaloni said. "He wanted his teammates to have time on the pitch and to save himself also for what's coming up now. He doesn't think so much about the numbers that people are talking about."