CHESTER, PA. — Ahead of Tuesday night’s League Cup semi-finals between Inter Miami and host Philadelphia Union, I saw Lionel Messi play in person three times. I saw him participate in Argentina’s two victories as a fresh-faced 21-year-old in the 2007 Copa América in my home country of Venezuela, and the other time was when he and his Albiceleste crushed my poor Venezuelan Vinotinto in Foxborough in the 2016 Copa América Centenario. While the first two came before Messi was the real Messi, I saw him in his prime in the third game, just eight days before he suffered one last painful defeat in a final, ending a set of three in a row.
I made peace that I would never see Messi again. I don’t like friends enough to see him when Argentina plays one against the United States, and I think he will retire from the international game before the 2026 World Cup. (He probably still is.) However, one thing that never occurred to me was that Messi, the greatest soccer player and perhaps athlete I have ever seen, was a legend at my favorite club, who could play in the MLS. More to the point, I never thought I would see him play live in something called the Leagues Cup, a tournament I had never heard of before this summer, where it became a career launch. of Messi’s Inter Miami.
The statistics leading up to Tuesday’s game are a cosmic joke: Messi has played five games for Miami, scored eight goals, and saved them twice: First, he scored. a free kick that won the game in his debut with the team, and then he scored an equalizer free kick against Dallas in the round of 16. Everything that I thought could happen when the best player in the world came to the United States, just six months after becoming the best player in a World Cup, has happened. It was glorious to see him dominate, but almost as great was to see him clearly have so much fun against quality defenses in MLS.
So, when fellow Defectorite Dan McQuade asked me if I wanted to go to Tuesday’s game in not-so-Philadelphia, I immediately booked a train ticket to see the Messi carnival at the very its recent stop. “Carnival” is definitely the right word to use for the Inter Miami experience as it is today. Walking into Union’s stadium on the Delaware River, the parking lot was full of people wearing bright pink Inter Miami jerseys, mixed with Union’s blue. Children kicked balls in the grassy parts of the lots, vendors sold bootleg jerseys and Messi-printed buckets, and food vendors lined the streets around the stadium. It reminds me of the first time I saw Messi, in Maracaibo, Venezuela.
But then, Messi was not the main attraction as he was on Tuesday night. I got my first inkling that this was a more ferocious atmosphere than, say, Dallas, where it felt like the entire crowd, even the home supporters, were rooting for Messi’s moments of magic. The Union fans, at least in section 116, clearly enjoyed the role of rude hosts, booing anyone wearing a Messi jersey and mocking the legend when he came out for warmups. Hell, when Messi was practicing his free kicks and hit one against the post, the jeers were louder than anything I’ve ever experienced at a soccer game before. It felt like a wrestling show, but one where the crowd booed in the face. Messi, for one night, became late-2000s John Cena.
Those boos never stopped. Throughout the game, the Union faithful made it clear that Messi was not welcome, creating a contentious atmosphere that, for lack of a better phrase, kicked ass. The Leagues Cup is not at the level even of the CONCACAF Champions League, never mind the European edition, but these fans made it to the semifinal, playing on a heavy August night that even the wind of the river could not cool , will feel like a battle for the soul of soccer in the United States.
The game itself is a bit of a letdown. Perhaps unsurprisingly Inter Miami won 4-1. By bringing Messi and friends into the fray, the club has given itself three top-tier players (Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba are the other two) who can still play in Europe, if not in Barcelona. Miami came out hot, and Venezuelan Josef MartÃnez scored first, just three minutes in. Ukranian center back Serhiy Kryvtsov hit the perfect pass for the assist.
And then it was time for Lionel Andrés Messi. In the 20th minute, Messi found himself at the top of the box with the ball. When it came to him, heavy boos immediately followed, echoing from all corners of the stadium. However, there was also a breather, given by the part of Messi fans in the crowd (I would say that the split is like 60-40 in favor of the Union fans, although the noise fight clearly went to the supporters at home), as the Little magician did what he had done for two decades. The shot, when it came, looked great from my end of the field, on the opposite side of the stadium. Just watching the replay on my phone I thought, huh, that should be saved.
Not so fast, though. Although it looked at a second glance that this was another example of the strong opposition of MLS bowing to the iron will of Messi, the reverse angle, which I did not see after the game, proved that this is an example of Messi’s superhuman talent. In this case, he saw Union goalkeeper Andre Blake backpedaling and, in the briefest of moments, turned to check his position. At that exact moment, with the goalie vulnerable, Messi fired the golden left foot and put the ball into the far corner, where Blake had no chance to reach.
It was as good a decision and shot as Messi made, and more understandable than most players could imagine, and yet it just felt like Messi was Messi. You can blame the defense for this; Blake could have protected his far post better, and the backline could have left him less room to get the shot off. But this is Messi, this is all he does. He even made some history in the process: That goal was apparently his furthest everleading with a goal against Real Sociedad in 2018. And on Tuesday, most of everything he did.
To see Messi in person, in 2023 and with him about to turn 40, is to see a short burst of magic among the many standing around. A lot. Dan and I started joking about Messi’s little movement without the ball in Miami, and at the start of the second half, I recorded a minute long video of Messi standing in roughly the same ten yard spot as before . move a little. It’s so funny to see the greatest player of all time so clearly checked from the middle of the game:
To be clear, this is not something specific to MLS. Messi’s off-ball laziness has been notorious for the better part of a decade now, and it’s something his teams have adapted as the cost of doing business. A Union fan behind me, when the game sat at 2-0 after Messi’s goal, summed it up best: “Philly did a good job of stopping him, all things considered . Off the goal … off the goal.” On Tuesday, the goal, which technically served as the game winner, was worth all the standing around, and even an unusual miss in the box in the second half.
That loneliness revived the Union crowd, especially on my side, where it happened in front of us. Alejandro Bedoya’s goal also came to life, making it 3-1 (Jordi Albaof all people, scored a cross-goal shot himself before halftime for Miami).
There was nothing magical left for the Union or Messi after that, although that didn’t stop my entire section from whipping out their phones to try to record a celestial moment any time Messi got the ball into the middle that line. The second chance never came, but he wasn’t needed Tuesday as he has been in previous games in this ridiculous run he’s been on.
Messi did not embarrass the Union, nor did he have to activate his superpowers. He scored only one goal that, of all the players on the field, he was the only one capable of scoring, and then jogged a wonderful Tuesday exercise in a game. That didn’t stop the crowd, who roared and jeered at his every touch, nor did it stop the pink-shirted Messi faithful, there in worship at the feet of the D10S, from smiling at their out of the stadium and into the night. They got what they saw: a goal from Lionel Messi, wearing an MLS team jersey, live and in person.