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A spectacular 94th-minute winner sealed a dream debut for the Argentinian at Miami’s sold-out home ground, where Messi Mania has reached fever pitch.
s soon as I saw the free kick was given, I thought: ‘This is the way it’s meant to end,’” a teary-eyed Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham – who knows a thing or two about planting dead balls into top corners – said at full time.
It unfolded just as the owner foresaw, with the absurd inevitability of his new signing’s brilliance. In the 94th minute, the debutant Lionel Messi curled in a signature 25-yard strike to secure a 2-1 win over Cruz Azul in the Leagues Cup, a tournament between clubs from MLS and Liga MX.
Beckham was highly emotional in the stands at DRV PNK stadium, and the 21,000 fans who’d joyously gathered for a fútbol carnival were in rapture. “It was like a movie that will play on repeat forever,” added Inter’s new head coach, Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino.
Seconds later the game was over, crowning by far the greatest night in the short and, until this week, mostly unhappy history of Major League Soccer’s Inter Miami CF. The Messi effect was in full swing on night one, with LeBron James, Serena Williams and Kim Kardashian among the congregants bearing witness.
“It’s so exciting tonight for our fans. All these people who have come to see Leo step onto the pitch, let alone do what he’s just done,” Beckham added. “It’s a dream come true for everyone in this stadium and everybody around this country to see Leo step into the MLS and perform … It’s such a moment for this league and it’s such a moment for us.”
Locally, that moment had built all week, since Messi’s glitzy unveiling, and then for 54 minutes of a sideshow football match. For once, south Florida sports fans showed up early, keen to celebrate the magnitude of the event. They took perhaps the highest volume of smiley selfies ever recorded at a football stadium, waved pink flags bearing Messi’s image, and then they waited … very impatiently.
“Until I see him out on the pitch in that jersey it still doesn’t feel real. I have the shirt, I see the jerseys, but until I see him with the ball at his feet it won’t be real,” Daniel Granada, host of the Battered Herons podcast, said before the game.
Inside the temporary and recently expanded stadium in Fort Lauderdale, near constant chants of “Messi, Messi” echoed, as supporters eyed the home bench awaiting a sign of movement. There the new signing sat – mostly smiling – for the entire first half. When Inter defender Ian Fray suffered what appeared to be a serious injury, the fans chanted for their preferred replacement. Messi would later dedicate the win to his teammate.
The start of the second-half was ignored by fans as the famous substitute stretched and occasionally waved. Then it was time. Messi pulled on the same pink No 10 jersey sported by so many thousands in the stadium, his arrival coming much sooner than the pre-match hints of a mere cameo. He was joined by his former Barcelona teammate Sergio Busquets – another recent Inter Miami coup. For those wondering, the old telepathy remains. Inter will be worth watching for their link-up play alone, and Busquets remains imperious.
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By Sam Navarro/USA Today Sports, Full article (Click here)
