The 2022 World Cup Golden Boot odds leave a lot of room for debate as the tournament sees Ballon d'Or finalists like Karim Benzema, Kylian Mbappé, Robert Lewandowski, Harry Kane, Vinícius Júnior and Sadio Mané all vying for the prestigious individual award that awaits the competition's top scorer.

Some big names won't be with us in Qatar after qualifying failure (Norway's Erling Haaland, Egypt's Mohamed Salah, Sweden's Zlatan Ibrahimović), but we've also got the usual suspects like Neymar, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to consider.

The overall opinion on Gregg Berhalter and the United States men’s national team has seen a dramatic shift after a heartless loss to Japan and mundane draw with Saudi Arabia. The team looked uninspired and flat, but Berhalter has tried to remain positive.

On Tuesday night at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey, Lionel Messi was limited to 34 minutes off the bench but again demonstrated why his form has Argentina firmly placed among the favorites in Qatar.

Messi scored twice — giving him nine goals in his last three international appearances — to continue his incredible start to 2022-23 (he has six goals and eight assists in 11 games for PSG).

The first was a 22-yard rip that skipped into the corner beyond a despairing Andre Blake in the 86th minute. 

Racism in soccer reared its ugly head on Tuesday during a friendly game between Brazil and Tunisia when fans of the African nation threw a banana at Richarlison while he celebrated a goal.

Fans Throw Banana At Richarlison

Richarlison scoring for Brazil today against Tunisia and a banana was thrown in front of him during the celebrations. Sickening stuff and no need for these type of racist fans at matches. pic.twitter.com/DQlKIBcMTm

The worst case scenario heading into September's international window, given the argument over Jordan Pefok's omission despite his incredible start to life in the Bundesliga, was that all three of Gregg Berhalter's selected strikers would fail against the modest defensive challenges posed by Japan and Saudi Arabia.

Oh boy. After getting played off the pitch against Japan last Friday, our USMNT vs Saudi Arabia player ratings from Tuesday's friendly in Spain aren't much better. 

Saudi Arabia entered the match having recently gone goalless against Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, and that lack of a cutting edge was evident against the U.S. — although the Americans did take it in turns to gift opportunities to the Green Falcons.

La Pulga (The Flea), El Enano (The Dwarf), Messías (The Messiah) and The G.O.A.T are some of the nicknames people use to talk about the incomparable Lionel Messi. Quite an array of options to which we have to add one more: La Comadreja (The Weasel).