Lionel Messi is now out on his own as the top goalscorer in World Cup history, after he found the net twice in Argentina’s 2-0 win over Austria in Dallas.Messi missed an early penalty for Argentina, but strikes in either half moved him to 18 goals at the World Cup, two clear of previous record holder Miroslav Klose.Kylian Mbappe is hot on his heels, after he scored twice in France’s 3-0 victory over Iraq, the second half of which was delayed by two hours and 11 minutes after lightning and a fierce rain storm in Philadelphia.Erling Haaland bagged two goals as Norway survived a late scare to beat Senegal 3-2. Marcus Pedersen netted Norway’s other goal, but they were made to sweat in the closing stages after Ismaila Sarr scored his second of the game in added time.In the final match of the day, in Argentina’s Group J, Algeria came from behind to beat Jordan 2-1 in Santa Clara.Get free access to the most comprehensive World Cup coverage in The Athletic appCan Messi lift the one thing he hasn’t won yet?The honours section on Messi’s Wikipedia page is about the length of a short novel.He’s won pretty much everything there is to win: domestic titles in all three leagues he’s played in, four Champions Leagues, three Club World Cups, one World Cup, two Copas America, six Ballons d’Or, two World Cup Golden Balls and a chunky list of other slightly less prestigious titles.Pretty much the only thing he doesn’t have yet is a World Cup Golden Boot. But that could be about to change.Lionel Messi has scored all of Argentina’s five goals at the tournament (Charlotte Wilson/Getty Images)Messi’s two goals in the 2-0 win over Austria put him on five for the tournament, after his hat-trick against Algeria. That would have been enough to win the Golden Boot at four previous World Cups, and he’s only played two games.With at least two, potentially six more games to go, the 38-year-old is well on track to be the first player to reach double figures at a World Cup since West Germany’s Gerd Muller in 1970.He’s the first Golden Boot contender to reach five goals after two games since Just Fontaine, of France, in 1958, and only the second man to score his country’s first five goals at a World Cup, after Russia’s Oleg Salenko in 1994.And yet, this one isn’t in the bag, because of Haaland and Mbappe, who helped themselves to their second doubles of the tournament and are one behind Messi.The race for the Golden Boot is not only shaping up to be a classic, but a fantastic tussle between the biggest stars in the game. What more could we ask for?Could free-flowing France reach their third straight final?While Messi has been the standout player at the tournament, the standout team has been France.Not just because they’ve won both of their games at a relative canter, but because they have looked, at times, devastating in attack.This is in sharp contrast to their performances two years ago at Euro 2024, when they somehow contrived to make a team featuring Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele, Antoine Griezmann and an array of other fine attacking talents look stodgy and boring. They heaved their way to the semi-finals without managing a goal from open play, scoring only from penalties and own goals.Now, though, they look much freer, much more positive, much less constricted. They have discovered a way of fitting together their brilliant forwards, adding Michael Olise and a more developed Desire Doue to their arsenal.Five of their six goals have involved some combination of Mbappe, Dembele and Olise, the other scored by Bradley Barcola, shortly after coming on against Senegal. They have had most of these options before, but now the jigsaw pieces seem to be slotting together beautifully. Perhaps it is the astonishing Olise, now among the top five players in the world, a remarkable rise considering only five years ago he was playing for Reading in the English second tier.Ousmane Dembele celebrates his goal against Iraq (Dan Mullan/Getty Images)Perhaps Didier Deschamps has taken the handbrake off, allowing them more freedom. Perhaps not even his cautious approach can shackle the brilliance of this squad.Whatever it is, their next opponents are impressed. “Honestly, I don’t care too much (about the France game),” Haaland told Fox Sports after Norway’s win over Senegal. “They’re probably going to win against us, they’re probably going to win the whole tournament.”There remains a slight scepticism about Deschamps among some, a sense that he isn’t actually a great coach, and has just been lucky enough to have the job when some of the greatest players in his nation’s history have been at or near their peaks.But if he takes them to their third World Cup final in a row, something never before achieved by a single coach (West Germany reached three consecutive finals in 1982, 1986 and 1990, but under two different coaches), then surely even the doubters will have to concede he is one of the greatest in World Cup history.Is the weather the only thing that can spoil this World Cup?Well, not the only thing.The prices, the vast distances fans have to cover, the hijacking of the tournament by malign political forces, the environmental damage that all of this travel is causing… there is plenty to take the edge off the primal joy that the football has given us.But the extreme conditions are undoubtedly a complicating factor.The rain began towards the end of the first half of France vs Iraq, and quickly turned torrential, causing fans to scurry for cover in the open stadium in Philadelphia, and Deschamps’s nice suit to double in weight from the water it took on.The,n after nearby lightning strikes, the second half was delayed by two hours and 11 minutes. You could have squeezed another whole game into that time, including hydration breaks. At some points during that long delay, you wondered whether the game was going to restart at all.Eventually it did, and the second half passed relatively normally, despite some standing water on the pitch in the early stages, which will have done nothing for the surface’s reputation.Kylian Mbappe races through the rain in Philadelphia (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)There could be more disruption on Tuesday, with poor weather forecast for the north-east of America, where England play Ghana in Boston, then again in Miami on Wednesday and Philadelphia on Thursday.It turned out OK in France’s game, but imagine if the final, to be held in New Jersey on July 19, is disrupted. It would, in a literal and metaphorical sense, cast a cloud over what has been and will hopefully continue to be a magnificent tournament.What to know about Tuesday’s gamesIt’s been quite a week for Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal, having to deal with the fallout from their lacklustre performance in drawing with DR Congo, fallout that has spilled over into an unfortunate social media furore and tense relations between the team and the nation’s media.They face Uzbekistan in Houston, with a chance to kickstart their campaign. If they don’t win this one, then things could really get messy.England were really impressive in the second half of their 4-2 win over Croatia, and will now face Ghana — who started by beating Panama — in their second game, in Boston.The other game in Group L takes place between the two teams that lost their openers, Panama and Croatia. Assuming he starts — which actually isn’t a given, considering he only lasted an hour against England — then this will be Luka Modric’s 200th appearance for his country.Finally, in Guadalajara, one of the tournament’s many good-news stories, DR Congo, take on Colombia, who are fresh from a reasonably comfortable 3-1 win over Uzbekistan.Day 13 schedule:Group K: Portugal v Uzbekistan, 1pm ET (6pm BST)