EAST PALO ALTO — The best soccer player on the planet practiced 25 miles to south at San Jose State.
But Leo Messi’s larger-than-life presence cast a huge shadow over Chile’s soccer team Saturday during a news conference with La Roja’s media at an East Palo Alto hotel.
The situation is understandable with the Copa America Centenario showdown between rivals Argentina and Chile unfolding Monday night at Levi’s Stadium in what will be the most meaningful soccer game in the Bay Area in 22 years.
Messi, 28, captured the attention although just arriving in San Jose from Spain after testifying in his tax trial.
Chilean goalkeeper Claudio Bravo — Messi’s teammate at FC Barcelona — repeatedly was queried for nuggets about Messi. Not surprisingly, he offered little insight.
“I don’t know his situation,” said Chile’s captain and a star of the 2014 World Cup. “I don’t know if he is injured or a situation where he cannot compete. For us, for Argentina, it would great that if he can. I would prefer he plays.”
Messi suffered a back injury a week ago in a friendly against Honduras before returning to Spain for his trial. He trained separately this weekend, and teammates Augusto Fernandez and Nahuel Guzman acknowledged Argentina might have to face its toughest test Monday without their star.
“It is logical that being the best player in the world, it is clear that we all want him to be fit,” said Fernandez, a midfielder for rival club Atletico Madrid.
He added the rest of the superb Argentine squad is up for the challenge if Messi can’t go.
Bravo, who presumably has studied Messi’s alchemy as much as anyone, emphasized that the Argentine midfielder’s availability doesn’t change Chile’s plans.
“We’ve been playing the same way for a while independently of what the rival is,” he said in Spanish. “Whether Messi plays or doesn’t play our soccer will not change. As far as myself, I would hope he plays because he provides a lot to the match.”
Bravo is certain Messi wants to appear Monday in a rematch of the Copa America finalists last year won by the Chileans on penalty kicks.
“Knowing Leo, of course, he wants to be present, especially Argentina’s first game for Copa,” Bravo said. “Argentina is a great candidate to win but so are other teams.”
Argentina has never been just about Messi, the five-time world player of the year who has never won a major championship with his country.
La Albiceleste has finished second in the past two big championships — the 2014 World Cup and last year’s Copa. Argentina, considered one of the great soccer powers, has not won a major title since 1993. “It’s important that we end that streak,” Messi wrote in Sports Illustrated.
Chile is hoping for a fast start Monday in the Group D opener that is expected to sellout.
“I don’t think we will go out on the field looking for a draw,” Bravo said. “That’s just not the way we play. We don’t park the bus.”
New Chilean coach Juan Antonio Pizzi has plenty of talent to match against his all-star neighbors. It starts with Arsenal striker Alexis Sanchez, Chile’s leading scorer with 31 goals.
Forward Eduardo Vargas of Hoffenheim led the scoring in last year’s Copa.
“This could be a very important game,” fullback Enzo Roco said. “I have confidence. We believe in the team we have, we believe in the strategy we have.
“For a long time, our strategy has been to think about ourselves not to think about what teams are favored or what teams play better than other teams or what teams have the best forwards.”
But it seems one sublime forward, one Lionel Messi, is all anyone could think about Saturday.
Contact Elliott Almond at 408-920-5865. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/elliottalmond.
