World Cup Day 13 awards: Lionel Messi finally makes a friend

France and Denmark made it out of Group C, Peru finally scored and Argentina, somehow, reached the last 16. Let’s hand out some awards.

Argentina’s World Cup horror show will continue thanks to Marcos Rojo’s heroics, Croatia ended Iceland’s dream and France and Denmark played out an awful 0-0 draw on World Cup Day 13. Let’s hand out some awards.

The Eder Award for Unlikely Heroes: Marcos Rojo

Argentina have spent much of the past four years becoming increasingly, self-parodically, sadly over-reliant on Lionel Messi. The reduction of team to individual appeared complete through the first two games of this World Cup, which had reduced the world’s greatest player to a sad, sulking husk. If the Albiceleste were going to do anything in this tournament, it was clear someone else was going to have to help. What wasn’t clear, or even in the realm of possibility, was that that person would be Marcos Rojo, whose two major contributions to Argentina’s 2-1 win against Nigeria were a header onto his own arm that almost gifted the Super Eagles a chance to win the game from the spot and a perfect, first-time volley into the bottom corner to win the game. Go figure.

The Ukraine 0-0 Switzerland Award for 0-0 Draws: Denmark 0-0 France

There are 0-0 draws and there are 0-0 draws, and there are also whatever fresh hell Denmark and France served up on Tuesday evening in Moscow. Given a draw would’ve guaranteed both sides’ passage to the round of 16, and that neither has been particularly thrilling viewing so far this tournament, perhaps we should have seen this coming. Then again, what kind of person considers the possibility so many exceptionally talented people might play for 90 whole minutes without producing even a single moment of inspiration or creativity or excitement or even, like, a red card or a gentle shoving match between the managers. As it was, devoid of anything to entertain us on the pitch, we had to soothe ourselves with the sweet, sweet sounds of the Luzhniki Stadium crowd reining down boos upon the players in the final few minutes of the match. The worst match of this World Cup so far.

The Morocco Award for Overdue (But Deserved) Goals: Peru

As Denmark manager Age Hareide said in the press conference following his side’s [redacted], Peru were arguably the best team in Group C this tournament. Unfortunately for them, being better than their opponents had yielded zero points and zero goals through the first two games, meaning Tuesday’s match against Australia was their final chance to score a first World Cup goal in 36 years in front of the huge contingent of Peruvian fans who have travelled to Russia for the occasion. And they delivered, Andre Carrillo drilling an excellent volley past Matthew Ryan in the 18th minute. Beloved captain and noted cokehead Paulo Guerreiro doubled the lead in the second half as Los Incos gave their fans the memory they deserved. A sad end for Australia, and Tim Cahill, but there are only so many good vibes to go around, and Peru certainly earned theirs.

Next: The best player on every team at the World Cup

The Zinedine Zidane Award for Touches: Lionel Messi

Lionel Messi hasn’t, it seems fair to suggest, had a particularly enjoyable World Cup experience, crippled as he seems to have become under both the enormous weight of expectation in his home country and the demands placed upon him by Jorge Sampaoli’s merry band of shadows of their normal selves. And yet! Even in his darkest hour, Lionel Messi is capable of the sublime, as he proved once more while scoring the opening goal in Argentina’s match against Nigeria, controlling Ever Banega’s pass with a touch so good they (someone, somewhere) surely considered calling off the rest of the match.

The Haiti Award for Small Countries in FIFA Competitions: Iceland

If you get your information about Iceland from the coverage of their World Cup team, you’d be forgiven for thinking there are only 23 people on that lonely volcanic rock, and that every one of them is a semi-professional soccer player who maybe also is an ice fisher or something. You’d be forgiven, but you’d also be wrong. Iceland, it turns out, is actually a nation of over 300,000 people, and way over half of them aren’t even soccer players at all. The ones that are lost again on Tuesday, this time to Croatia, but they exit this tournament with their increasingly proud national soccer tradition enhanced. They drew with Argentina, they didn’t show up against Nigeria and they were unfortunate to lose to Croatia in the final match. They’ll be back.