I think the reaction to Messi's performances have been a bit harsh to be fair. A sort of over-correction to the fact didn't deserve to win the Golden Ball.
For a start Messi did carry the team in the earlier stages, scored a great free kick to win against Iran, and did a good job to set up Di Maria to score the only goal against Switzerland. He was Argentina's top scorer and the 4th top scorer in the Tournament. A lot of that team was woeful for the group stages and no one, even yesterday, took advantage of the space created by Messi being marked out the game. He didn't manage to do in the later stages but it's not entirely certain, indeed maybe unlikely, they would have gotten that far without him. Even stats wise (i.e chances created/dribbles created) are pretty good:
http://www.whoscored.com/Regions/247...World-Cup-2014. His
passing was great for most of the tournament.
The fact that this is seen as a failure is the fact people were expecting so much from him. He only failed by his own standards. He didn't deserve the Golden Ball but he also doesn't deserve the criticism he is now getting because of it. People are acting as he was awful or one of the worst players at the tournament. There is nothing to justify that. Even yesterday he was one of the better players despite three or four German players being on him whenever he had the ball.