COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) -Sitting on the roof of a dark-colored pickup truck in the Reed Arena parking lot, Gisella Sericano had an otherworldly experience.
She used the magic of a cell phone camera and WhatsApp to video call family back in Argentina. The slight elevation the truck afforded her allowed for a slim view of a soccer practice taking place on Texas A&M’s Ellis Field.
Back in Argentina, her family received a grainy look at their home team, the Argentina national team, in College Station, Texas.
“They’ve been here to visit us, my family,” Sericano said. “But I never imagined that [Argentina] would be here in Bryan-College Station, playing at Kyle Field tomorrow. I never would have dreamed.”
Memories similar to this will be made for more than 100,000 fans Saturday as Argentina tunes up for the 2026 World Cup against Honduras at Kyle Field, home of the Texas A&M football team. As was the case Friday, all eyes will be searching the field for Argentina’s superstar forward, Lionel Messi.
In the shadow of Ellis Field’s west stand, emblazoned with various A&M logos, arguably the sport’s biggest name honed his craft. As Messi and his teammates played a massive game of keep away, there were moments of laughter and animated gesticulations, feigning frustration when a pass was stolen.
All the while approximately 100 fans strained their eyes to catch a glimpse of Messi over Ellis Field’s chain-link fence.
The Alanis family had never set foot on A&M’s campus before Friday, but made the nearly 400-mile trek up from McAllen to take part in the weekend’s festivities, including the game.
“I’m very surprised. I never thought I’d get this close to him,” young Diego Alanis said.
However, the question that sat at the front of everyone’s mind Friday was whether Messi will actually play on the newly laid soccer pitch at Kyle Field tomorrow.
In fact, it was the first question asked of Argentina head coach Lionel Scaloni on Friday.
Messi enters Saturday’s game nursing an injured hamstring he suffered in the 73rd minute of his final game with Inter Miami before the World Cup break.
Miami went on to win the May 24 match 6-4 while Messi was treated in the locker room.
Despite spending time training on his own in Argentina’s home base of Kansas City, Messi was back in full action with the team, Scaloni said Friday, as demonstrated in Argentina’s Ellis Field training session.
There is a chance Messi could feature for a few minutes in Saturday’s game, Scaloni said.
“Leo is doing well,” he said in his native Spanish. “He already trained part of a session with the group, which is important. He’s no longer completely separate, so he’s doing quite well. He might even be able to play some minutes in one of these two friendlies. We’ll see if that’s tomorrow’s game or the other one, but he’s much better and that gives us peace of mind.”
La Albiceleste will wrap up its World Cup warm-up tour on June 9 at Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium, taking on Iceland. With a pair of wins, they would carry a seven-game winning streak into their first pool-play match on June 16 against Algeria in Kansas City.
Argentina enters Saturday’s game with more injury concerns than just Messi. Forwards Nico Paz, Nico Gonzalez and Thiago Almada, defenders Gonzalo Montiel and Nahuel Molina, as well as goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, are all carrying knocks into tournament preparation. Some of those players have also been training away from the main squad.
“They’re improving,” Scaloni said of the separated group.
“When we named the squad, we knew each one’s situation and they’re doing well. Logically, we don’t want to risk them in these games and the idea is surely that they won’t take part in these two friendlies — in this one for sure not. In the second, there might be a possibility that one of them could play.”
Scaloni did not name the individual players who may not participate tomorrow. However, the head coach did name goalkeeper Juan Musso as Saturday’s starter.
On Saturday, Argentina looks for its fourth win over Honduras in as many matches. La Albiceleste last downed Honduras 3-0 in 2022.
Beyond Saturday’s game, Messi is now destined to participate in his sixth career World Cup, setting a new record for an individual player. He will most likely share the record with Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Mexico goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa.
However, the start of the World Cup is light-years away in the minds of fans like Sericano and Alanis, who could hardly contain their excitement when a bus carrying Messi pulled out of Ellis Field and whizzed by, just feet from their eyes.
“I don’t know if I’ll sleep tonight,” Alanis said with a wide grin.
KBTX sports director Tyler Shaw contributed to this report.
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