Day 4; Goal-line Technology has Arrived, and so has Messi.

The dastardly football villain, Sepp Blatter, plots his plan to ruin the game.

Despite everything that has happened already, and all the words I've typed into iPad, iPhone and laptop along the way, only 4 whole days of World Cup action have passed. Day 4 produced a couple of firsts however, the loveable, inevitable, Hollywood-style, last minute winner made it's World Cup 2014 debut, and may there be many more. Perhaps something which has been strangely more anticipated than even injury time-tastic goals, is something we've all been waiting for for decades. The Goal-line Technology we've pined for has finally arrived and lifted football into the 21st Century, despite the best efforts of ultimate football villain, and hopefully soon to be 'disgraced Former FIFA President', rather than simply, FIFA President, Sepp Blatter.

The games providing such action were a climatised Ecuador, versus a Switzerland team, which although should be respected for their recent record in tournaments, and confidence in their own ability to field a team of almost a full eleven with questionable hairstyles, surely don't justify their FIFA ranking of being the sixth best team in the world. Also today was France against Honduras, a side whose physical/psychotic play has seen them receive some negative attention, in a game which was fittingly narrated by Johnathan Pearce, a man no stranger to violence thanks to his experience of providing vocal input to the work of real sporting bad boys; Sir Killalot and Sergeant Bash from Robot Wars. So unsurprisingly he wasn't phased by the likes of Wilson Palacios. The 11pm game was billed as 'Messi in the Maracana,' in spite of the fact 21 other professional footballers were also on the pitch situated in Brazil's most historic stadium as Argentina met Bosnia and Herzegovina, World Cup debutants.

Questionable hairstyles.

The first game's deadlock was unpicked by Ecuador, as a free-kick from out wide was warmly welcomed into the box by some of the worst set-piece defending seen since the dawn of time, when dinosaurs used to whip in free-kicks towards the heads of Brontosaurus'. The scorer was Enner Valencia, not to be confused with the imbecile who threatened to throttle little 19 year-old Raheem Sterling for making a fair tackle against himself, the 28 year old, somewhat of a powerhouse, Antonio Valencia, twice his width... tosser.

At half-time, Switzerland, the team who FIFA rate as factually and officially better than England, Italy and Netherlands, trailed Ecuador, a team who FIFA rate as factually and officially worse than Algeria and Slovenia and just one place above Scotland. But the combination of a classic super-sub and some of the worst set-piece defending since Jesus Christ, playing as an old fashion number 9, used to punish the poor zonal marking system of Bethlehem FC in 27 AD, lead to an equaliser off the head of the super-sub in question, Mehmedi. 

Then an open game emerged, the Swiss, boosted by nicking a goal back were using their momentum to take all three points which they and of course, FIFA, would've expected them to take. Whilst Ecuador were angered by losing their hard fought lead, and backed by many of their own fans which filled the stadium, creating another spectacular South Anerican atmosphere for an end to end game to occur in. And it was end to end until the very last minute, the 93rd to be precise. On as a sub, fresh legged tosser, Antonio Valencia broke into space out wide and lead a final attacking surge for his side, only for it eventually to breakdown as a result of a slide tackle ever so pleasing to the eye, from Behrami. The former West Ham underperformer, then broke with the ball himself, prancing from his own half to the next, going to ground after being fouled then tumbling back onto his feet and continuing with help of superb refereeing and text-book double hand pointing to signal to play on from the official, then play went wide, to the byline, where it was pulled back for the second #SuperSub of the game to become a national hero; Haris Seferović. Shades of the 'Tardelli Scream' of 1982 in the celebration, and possibly the odd goosebump for football fans onlooking.

France-Honduras commenced next, and with a tournament record of such inconsistency, the pressure and eyes, were on the French, and specifically their latest starlet, Paul Pogba. The ex-United midfielder must be keen to not just prove Sir Alex Ferguson how wrong he was to sell him, but also to prove that there's more to his game than just outrageous long shots that find their way onto Vine, accompanied with house or trap music that drops as the Juventus midfielder connects with the ball.

Pogba was fortunate not to be dismissed early on, fed up of being trampled on by Palacios over and over again, he appeared to lash out at the Stoke City player, who flew himself into the air and back down to earth again, so hard that a stretcher was called. Both escaped red, seeing yellow, but when Palacios pushed over the young midfielder inside the box, he was leaving the pitch again, this time without a stretcher in sight, as he saw and second yelp and red in a quick flash from the referee. Benzema netted the penalty, and also France's third goal in the second half, but it was the second goal of the game that had everyone's bums off their seat, and fingers tapping smart phones with Twitter apps open. GOAL-LINE TECHNOLOGY HAD ARRIVED. When Benzema's effort hit the inside of the post and trickled back out, the Hondurans must've thought they'd got away with conceding a goal which would surely fly open the floodgates. Yet some incapable ball collecting from their goalkeeper meant the ball actually re-trickled back over the line, just. OR DID IT!? Yes. It did, (See picture.) and France went on to win 3-0.

When 11pm arrived it was apparently the time that seemingly 'everyone', including allegedly, me, you, your mum, your cousin and Doreen next door, had been waiting for. It was time for Messi, and a wide range of other world class players, many of which are Champions League, Premier League and La Liga winners, but only Messi and Messi and Messi, Messi, Messi, Messi to the point where just hearing the word Messi didn't even sound like a word anymore, more of a noise that everyone was so obsessed with, in action. But in action he wasn't, not in the first half at all. Despite Argentina gaining an early lead from this tournament's early Golden Boot contender, 'Own Goal,' Messi struggled to manipulate the game like the billion watching had expected. Furthermore, many seemed to have written off Bosnia & Herzegovina before a ball was kicked, on a basis I can only imagine was due to people not being able to pronounce the latter part of their name. They're a nation that has been crippled by war after war, and less than 25 years old as an idependent nation, yet have already risen to 21st in FIFA's rankings, not that means too much, but they also boast top Premier League talent in Asmir Begovic and Edin Dzeko. But most impressive of all was Miralem Pjanic, who lovers of Football Manager and FIFA Career Modes, will know, is a class act. (90+ Overall potential ability on FIF/ 'leading star for most Premier League sides' according to scouts on FM.) His making of play, more commonly known as playmaking, caused an Argentina defence several problems before half time changes were made. Two half time changes involved personnel, as Higuain and Gago, who seem to do everything together, apart from excel at Real Madrid, entered The Fray.

See, he's decent. FM said so.

This gave Argentina a little more balance, and most importantly, allowed Messi to shine. A classic one-two and change of pace gave him space to unleash a trademark strike which beat Stoke City's Asmir Begovic, who like teammate, Wilson Palacios, wasn't enjoying World Cup 2014 as of yet. The so-called minnows did pull a goal back though, a goal which their play defintely deserved and they should go into their next fixture with confidence. The headlines, spotlight, limelight, flashlights, ALL OF THE LIGHTS, were on Messi however, as he helped his much favoured Argentines get off to a winning start, even if their performance left much to be desired.

This is what a man looks like whose just doubled his career tally of World Cup goals with one swift left-foot kick.