Two men in particular came into the World Cup with a weight of expectation upon them, the risk that they would not once again deliver for their country on the international stage and a point to prove. After two games, their fortunes could not be more different.

Lionel Messi has scored twice and both of his goals have proved decisive, bringing two wins for Argentina and with them qualification to the second round of the tournament. Wayne Rooney, on the other hand, has scored one and set up another but England are out and have one game remaining to prevent leaving pointless.

Both strikers top scored for their countries in qualifying, Rooney with seven and Messi with 10. However, they never seemed to perform as expected on the international stage, before this World Cup Messi scored his only tournament goal eight years ago and Rooney had never netted on soccer's biggest stage.

Sadly for Rooney, this is where the similarities end.

Both broke their embarrassing goalless runs but to very different effect. Messi notched the winner against Bosnia-Herzegovina after a trademark run and before breaking the deadlock against Iran deep into injury time and coming out with another three points.

Despite looking sharper than he had for England in many years, Rooney's single goal came after many wasted opportunities and was made redundant when Luis Suarez put Uruguay ahead to effectively knock the English out.

The verdict is that Messi has finally arrived.

Here is the player that Maradona said of as an 18-year-old, "I have seen the player who will inherit my place in Argentinean football and his name is Messi." He is now playing the PlayStation soccer for ­Argentina that he has played for Barcelona over the past nine seasons. This is the imposition of his skills at the very highest level that the soccer world had so long demanded.

Meanwhile, the prognosis for Rooney is that he may have now departed. He has scored just once at three World Cups and England have crashed out spectacularly. His former teammate for both club and country, Paul Scholes, contends that Rooney may have already peaked after playing for 12 seasons since his explosion onto the scene as a 16-year-old at Everton. 

Both men remain on course to become the record scorers for their countries but it seems that, of the pair, only Messi's international goals will have any lasting impact. That impact may yet include leading ­Argentina to a World Cup.