Surely, Lionel Messi had to play. This was, after all, New York — well, New Jersey, which is just west of Eden. The match was being broadcast live in Times Square. Apple TV was filming a documentary on the guy. Messi had met very publicly with never-say-die Novak Djokovic, GOAT-on-GOAT. He was Messi! This was going to be his MLS league debut. This was why they paid him the big bucks, the $54 million dollars.
But then Messi wasn’t in the starting lineup, and a real sense of panic enveloped Red Bull Arena. Was this the ultimate con job, a no-refund rip-off by MLS? Didn’t Miami coach Tata Martino grasp the enormity of this occasion? Some fans had spent a month’s rent on this game. They would not be satisfied Saturday with load management and a 2-0 away victory by Inter Miami.
The record sellout crowd of 26,276 finally got its money’s worth in the end, however. Messi entered the match with a half hour to play. Then, In the game’s dying breath, in the 89th minute, Messi finished a tic-tac-toe combo that he had started, slotting the ball with his left foot from close range to seal the win.
It was his 11th goal for Miami in just eight games, lifting the sellout crowd to near hysteria. This one play altered the whole mood inside Red Bull Arena. Fans had been growing impatient, out-and-out surly, as the clock ticked along and Messi remained an observer.
“I am 100 percent disappointed,” Alvaro Garchi from Queens said at the half. Garchi paid $2,000, total, for tickets for himself and his wife. “I saw him once in Bolivia, playing for Argentina, but this is the only game I can see him here. And where is he? Not on the field.”
Messi finally warmed up early in the second half along the end line, waving to a frenetic audience. He entered the game in the 60th minute to roars of approval.
There was no immediate payoff. Messi’s first pass resulted in a turnover. He soon performed a few dipsy-doodles, to everyone’s delight. But his free kick bounced off the head of a defender on the wall and his passes did not result in goals.
Then came the goal, and the euphoria. Messi, to Benjamin Cremaschi, back to Messi.
Thirty minutes was just enough time to prestidigitate. Martino was vindicated for resting his superstar.
“Leo is going to miss at least three games, playing with the national team,” Martino said. “We know we have to learn to win without him. The response without him was great for the first hour. We knew we could win without him.”
Miami had taken the field for pregame warmups without Messi, fanning fears among the crowd. The Miami lineup went suspiciously unannounced in the stadium. “We Want Messi” chants began in earnest, anyway. It seemed only the home team’s supporter groups and season ticket holders had really come to watch the 11th-place side in the Eastern Conference take on the 15th-place team.
Messi, the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner, was used by Martino as a power reserve, along with Sergio Busquets, the Spanish national team veteran. Then, when Diego Gomez scored the go-ahead goal on a 10-yard, left-footer in the 37th minute, it seemed Martino had even less incentive to bring Messi into the match.
The chants grew louder, nonetheless, until Messi arrived.
“We didn’t want to get too involved in the spectacle that the night would be,” Red Bulls coach Troy Lesesne said.
It was quite a spectacle, nonetheless, even if the soccer was not always impressive. According to footballdatabase.com, neither Miami nor the Red Bulls rank among the top 1,000 clubs in the world. Messi has veteran internationals Busquets and Jordi Alba alongside him for support, but he also is practicing and playing with some MLS minimum-wage workers earning less than $70,000.
This combination of young and old, famous and not-at-all-famous, seems good enough to give the Herons a leg up on the rest of the league.
Messi’s early returns for Inter Miami had been nothing short of spectacular. He scored 10 goals, with three assists, in seven games, while leading Miami to the Leagues Cup championship and the U.S. Open Cup final. Inter was suddenly unbeatable. Sportsbooks now make the Herons the fourth favorite to win MLS Cup — which assumes they will make the playoffs, no easy task.
It will be even more difficult if Martino continues to rest the little genius.
Before the match, there was considerable concern whether Messi would be playing at all. Rumors were rife he might sit out, because of the jammed MLS schedule.
This did not go over well with fans outside the stadium, who had shelled out outrageous money for tickets that might normally sell for $45 tickets. The level of concern for Messi’s tired legs and mental health had a lot to do with the amount of money any given fan spent on this event.
“I’m very worried, but I think he will play a half,” said Manny Lizzarda of Newark, who paid $565 for his ticket. “We’re here just for him. I went to Europe to see him once, and he didn’t play there. So, this would be two times unlucky.”
Brendon McKeown, a coach at Hoboken United, had received a sharply discounted ticket from the Red Bulls. He could afford to be more empathetic.
“Messi has the right to rest, and the coach has the right to rest him,” McKeown said.
The other fans in Harrison, the ones who spent a fortune for this game? They got to see a Messi goal., after all What a bargain.
“Now, it’s worth it,” Garchi said.
