Break deadlock
But it took less than four minutes of the second half for Argentina to break the deadlock — Messi threaded a pass through to Mac Allister, who was brought down by Crepeau, but before the referee could blow his whistle Alvarez had slotted home the loose ball.
Within moments, there was another chance for Alvarez, but this time denied by the diving Crepeau and Canada could live to fight on.
They did so with more urgency and a little more risk after Marsch introduced winger Jacob Shaffelburg and switched to an attacking 4-3-3 formation.
Suddenly the Argentine defence was under pressure and didn’t look at all comfortable as Canada got men forward and exploited the wide areas.
But they were almost caught out with a classic counter-attack as Martinez launched a quick long ball towards Messi, who broke way goalwards but with the crowd expecting to see the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner on target he made a hash of the chance.
His initial effort was parried by Crepeau and although Messi latched on to the loose ball and sought to go round the keeper, his shot was easily cleared by the covering Derek Cornelius.
Incredibly there was another great opportunity for the former Barcelona star to find the target and again he was unable to convert — cutting in from the right with only Crepeau to beat, Messi opened up his body but slid his shot wide of the post.
Crepeau was at his best again to keep out substitute Lautaro as Argentina struggled to put the game to bed but with two minutes of normal time remaining they did just that.
Messi produced another clinical, defence-splitting pass and this time Lautaro made no mistake, slipping past the advancing Crepeau to make it 2-0.
Argentine coach Lionel Scaloni was pleased with his team’s spirit but upset with the temporary grass surface placed on top of Atlanta’s artificial pitch.
“We had to dig in and close out the game, which is what it’s all about in the end,” he said.
“Sometime you can’t play your game, as I always say, there are times when the opponent won’t let you. In this case it was the opponent and the pitch. We had to play differently and the important thing is that we won,” he said.
Marsch was pleased with his team’s willingness to go toe-to-toe with the world’s best.
“We played fearlessly. I think we learnt a lot from it — mostly that we can play with these dudes,” he said.