BUENOS AIRES, July 2 -- Argentina soccer player Lionel Messi told Sunday's Argentine newspaper La Nacion that he felt "destroyed" and "angry" because he had not been able to help the national soccer squad, which has been eliminated by Germany from the World Cup.

"I am young and I have a lot up front. All I want to do is play," Messi told the newspaper. "Argentina had an amazing team and some incredible players... only penalties could eliminate us from the Cup," he added.

He told the newspaper that people have said that he did not feel the team's eliminations because it seemed he did not feel anything.

Messi was the only one of the Argentines on the substitute's bench who took the news calmly. All the other players immediately began yelling at the playing team. The press was quick to describe Messi as a rock.

"My teammates known how I feel," Messi told the newspaper. "People who do not live locker-room intimacy I have with my colleagues do not understand how I fell. Those who are with me in the locker-room know that I could not hold back when the team united around (coach) Jose Pekerman."

Messi described the exit from the Cup as "a tough exit for all the boys... I remain sad because I saw the way that Argentina played and the didn't deserve to end up this way."