LOS ANGELES, June 10 — Lionel Messi was set to feature yesterday as reigning champions Argentina played their final warm-up game for a World Cup overshadowed by off-field distractions, as the Somali referee refused entry to the United States said his dream was over.

Messi, edging closer to fitness with the tournament starting tomorrow and Argentina’s first match looming on June 16, began on the substitutes’ bench against Iceland in Alabama.

The legendary attacker, now 38, drove Argentina to their third World Cup crown in Qatar four years ago and is feeling his way back after injuring a hamstring playing for Inter Miami in late May.

Messi has not featured so far in his country’s build-up games but could make an appearance in the Iceland friendly.

Dream ripped away 

The biggest-ever World Cup, taking place in the United States, Canada and Mexico, has been dogged in the lead-up by numerous controversies.

Somali referee Omar Artan said the “biggest dream of my life” had been ripped away after he was turned back at the US border and then dropped from FIFA’s list of referees for the competition.

“I am very, very disappointed,” Artan told The New York Times from Istanbul, where he returned after being refused entry in Miami.

“I’m just simply a referee who’s trying to live his dream, the biggest dream of my life, to come to the World Cup.”

Artan said he was subjected to an 11-hour interview with border officials at Miami International Airport and then taken to a holding cell where he was detained for several further hours before being put on a flight back to Turkey.

“I had the right papers and everything. I had the right visa,” he added—an assertion confirmed to AFP by a Somali government advisor.

Mexico City protests 

Concerns were rising that the opening match of the World Cup in Mexico City on Thursday could be disrupted by social unrest.

A protest blocked an avenue leading to the Estadio Azteca, where Mexico will face South Africa in the curtainraiser, for hours yesterday. 

As international fans flooded into the three tournament co-host countries, Mexico is grappling with chaotic teacher protests in its capital.

Thousands took part in Tuesday’s demonstration following a week of action that President Claudia Sheinbaum has called a “provocation.”

“As if to say, ‘Look at how bad the situation is in Mexico,’” she told a press conference.

A police blockade prevented the demonstrators from reaching the stadium.

Sheinbaum has said that the opening match was “guaranteed,” though the left-leaning leader again ruled out using police to repress the demonstrations.

Don’t be too honest

With co-hosts the United States preparing for their opener against Paraguay in Los Angeles on Friday, one of their own players warned that they need to improve at football’s dark arts.

Following Saturday’s defeat in a friendly to Germany, coach Mauricio Pochettino urged his men to “learn to play right on the edge of the rules,” and midfielder Cristian Roldan echoed those words at the team’s training camp on Tuesday.

“I think that’s one thing that we can get better at, for sure,” he told AFP.

“I think being a little bit more savvy, understanding that being too honest at times is probably too much of a fault for us.”

When the US beat Paraguay 2-1 in a friendly in November the match ended in a stoppage time brawl. — AFP