India, July 8 -- Four scored. Four missed. That's Lionel Messi's record from the penalty spot across six World Cups. And after Tuesday's miss against Egypt in the Round of 16 in Atlanta, that statistic carries a new weight. Messi is now the first player in World Cup history to miss two non-shootout penalties in the same edition of the tournament, and no player before him had ever missed more than one penalty during normal time in a single World Cup.

Yet neither miss has ultimately hurt Argentina, yet.

Against Austria in the group stage, Messi failed to convert a 12th-minute penalty that would have broken the deadlock. He responded by scoring twice to overtake Miroslav Klose as the highest goalscorer in World Cup history. Against Egypt, ...