So I’ve got this new Vine app.  I’m not sure what exactly you’re supposed to do with this thing, but I’ve been spending my time watching how amazing Lionel Messi is.  You may have heard of him: with James Rodríguez out of the tournament, he might be one of the most talented players remaining in the World Cup.  I mean, he doesn’t play for a big domestic side like Arjen Robben at Bayern Munich, and his national team has really struggled thus far–they barely beat Iran–so it would be easy for you to have overlooked him.  But he’s actually pretty good.

Check out this incredible dribble he made in the Round of Sixteen against Switzerland.

Popping it down the line past one guy, cutting hard inside to leave another behind.  And look at that explosive pace!  Yet he still has the presence of mind to pass the ball as he’s entering the box.

Now that I’ve been watching Messi for a couple of games, it really seems like he’s a master passer of the ball.  Check out this assist to set up Angel DiMaría’s game-winning goal against Switzerland.

Messi really likes this DiMaría guy, and you can understand why.  He plays for Real Madrid, and they just won the Champions League.  That’s, like, a big deal.  Anyway, here’s another one of Messi’s passes to DiMaría, this one in a quarterfinal game against Belgium.

Those guys looked really good against the United States, so hitting a pass like this one, even to a star like DiMaría, is pretty impressive.  DiMaría got injured on this play and will be out for today’s game, so Messi will have to pick up his level of play if he wants to avoid a hiding from the Netherlands.  But with this kind of passing, you’ve got to think Messi has a bright future.  I mean, if he could add some goalscoring to complement his passing game, he might even be as good as James Rodríguez.