ESPN writing - Jones on lessons from his column & Pirlo and Thompson on Messi and Maradona

Three different pieces of ESPN writing recently struck me as particularly excellent with two short works by Chris Jones and a not all that long feature story by Wright Thompson.

The Thompson piece was from the ESPN The Magazine World Cup preview issue with "Shadowed by the Hand of God" on Argentinian soccer legends current and past Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona.

The other two pieces to note here were "Chris Jones' lessons learned," his final back-page column for ESPN The Magazine and "Another architect in Manaus," posted today to the ESPN World Cup blog and about a play made by Italian player Andrea Pirlo.