The Fall of the heroes

On July 20th Argentina was defeated in the FIFA World Cup Final and Spain became the champions of 2026. 

Argentina fell short by one man when one of their men got a red card in the 90th minute. Game went into extra time and on the 116th minute Spain scored the goal they held and won the cup 1-0. 

Spain dominated the game, their victory was not a surprise. They successfully stopped Messi, he did not get much ball to play nor the opportunity to make play. 

Our hope was on this man, to see whether God had anything glorious for him in the way of second world cup, defending their titles. In his loss he became more human, more believable. 

For those who love him he will be our greatest to play football. He is a very good human too. 

Best Wishes Messi. 

Congratulations Spain, you played well. 

Quarter Finals FIFA World Cup 2026

A World Cup Morning

I had hoped to watch the 6:30 a.m. FIFA World Cup quarter-final between Argentina and Switzerland on the large public screen at the shopping mall near me. Instead, I discovered that the match was being shown only as a paid screening inside one of the cinemas in the complex, with tickets starting at ₹200 plus taxes. Unfortunately, I learned this only after arriving.

Rather than buy a ticket, I decided to ride to Vallarpadam where I had wrote a prayer request for our Messi. It seemed the most natural thing to do once the opportunity to watch the match live was not there anymore. The rain had eased for a while, making the journey peaceful. I reached much earlier than expected and spent the time attending two consecutive Holy Masses.

By the end of the morning, Argentina had secured a 3–1 victory. It was also the first match of this World Cup in which Lionel Messi did not score a goal. What began as a disappointing change of plans turned into a quiet and memorable morning of prayer, followed by good news for Messi and Argentina.

Messi

June 24

39 Years

Happy Birthday Leo Andres Messi

A Prayer for Messi

O God, by whatever blessings You have graciously blessed Messi, may You now lead him to the fullness and excellence of those blessings in these days.

Protect him from injury, deception, and every trap that may come his way. Be his constant guardian.

Bless Messi to remain steadfast, trusting in You until the very end.

Messi

The supersize cut out of our hero towards the east gate of our Vallarpadam Church

Thank you God for Blessing Leonl Messi to reach the peak of his talents and granting him victory at the FIFA World Cup. 

Long ago his country men won our hearts when they won the World Cup and one of them established himself as the greatest player of all times. He was hardly 26 of years of age when he became the hero of millions around the world winning fans for Football and FIFA. Yet, there was no consolation when our hero fell from grace and even got banned for the use of drugs from the 1994 World Cup when his team was pretty well poised after half way through the tournament. Our hearts were broken but we loved the guy for his sheer brilliance and the love of the game from his better days. 

Then from the ashes of the ruin of our hero arose a boy who was prophesied to win the world cup. We looked at him in awe as he grew in stature and mastery of the game. He won everything for the club in Europe he was playing for and became the hero he was destined to be. But he failed in every attempt to win the Cups and highest honour for his country in that blue and white stripes, the honour that mattered the most. Naturally, he became the joke of the world, talked about in contempt by his own countrymen even our now retired hero. 

Inspite of the humiliating circumstances the young man kept his heart and worked on his God given talents without saying or doing anything to destroy it. At the age when most of his contemporaries have either retired or had no more wind in them to kick a ball he came back with a young team who bonded and united under him as a team coached by a brilliant man who was a player himself.

Thank you God for blessing us with a Hero like Leonl Messi, thank you for giving us the opportunity to witness him peaking at the top of his talents and becoming victorious. We pray, God, help us too to do well with the talents you have blessed all of us with and become successful.