The GOAT in Magic City: Lionel Messi’s MLS Debut Goes Perfectly To Plan
As soon as Argentine soccer legend Lionel Messi announced his intentions to play in the United States, fans around the globe scoured the internet for the day Messi might play his first game for Inter Miami.
That day turned out to be last night, the twenty-first of July. It turned out to be an international match between Inter Miami and Cruz Azul of Liga MX: Miami’s first professional match against an international opponent. It turned out to be the first game of the first ever Leagues Cup.
It just had to be Messi’s day.
Like any good coach would do (and ex-Barcelona manager Tata Martino is a good coach), Martino benched both Messi and star midfielder Busquets. Inter Miami played a devastating first twenty minutes, the MLS side giving up more chances than I thought was possible from a professional soccer team. Somehow, after forty minutes, the game remained nil-nil.
Naturally, Miami ended the half by scoring a beautiful outside-of-the-box goal against the general run of play. Courtesy of Robert Taylor, who had only scored twice on the season.
Once the referee signaled for halftime, I was very surprised to see that Apple TV, the home of MLS soccer, did not switch to a commercial break like every other soccer game in my life. No- they stayed on the field to watch Messi warm up! It was almost laughable, how much media attention he was getting.
At around the sixtieth minute of the match, Messi was subbed on to a roar of cheers from twenty-two thousand fans in DRV PNK Stadium. A little more than ten minutes later, Cruz Azul tied up the game and silenced the crowd. Of course, the cameras turned to see Messi’s reaction to the goal: a slight tilt of the head downward. Were they expecting him to fall to the ground in tears?
After a few nice link-ups between Messi, Busquets and Venezuelan star Josef Martinez, the moment the crowd had been waiting for finally came. Deep into stoppage time, Messi fell just outside the box and won a free-kick, which he scored spectacularly. The crowd cheered and cheered as Messi smiled, fists pumped in the air. Inter Miami had won their first game in twelve MLS matchdays, and it was all because of Messi.
Want the uber-dramatic version? Read practically any other story about this. Trust me, the goal was not even that great compared to other goals from Messi, the best free-kick taker of all time.
Want proof? Just ask Kun Aguero, Serena Williams, Lebron James and Kim Kardashian– all Messi fans present at the game last night. Just don’t ask Lebron: while everyone else was glued to the game, he was glued to his phone. Then again, you can’t blame the GOAT of basketball from having his downtime.
Neither can you blame Messi for doing Messi things. After his incredible story coming from Newell’s Old Boys to Barcelona to PSG, you could only expect his legend would endure.
The GOAT is in Miami now, and the fun has only just begun.
Thanks for reading my story! You can read more about sports, especially the beautiful game, here: https://medium.com/@gianlombeyda
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