The clock had ticked four minutes into the red when, for a few moments in Fort Lauderdale, Lionel Messi stood over a free kick and time stood still.
This was it. The moment that Inter Miami supporters had been waiting for ever since Messi announced his move to Major League Soccer; the night that co-owners David Beckham and Jorge Mas had been dreaming of since before their team had even played a match; the day, if you believe the promises, that soccer in the United States changed forever. It couldn’t have been more perfectly primed.
With Inter Miami tied 1-1 with Cruz Azul, Messi took a couple of steps and sent a 25-yard effort towards goal. It was virtually the final kick of this Leagues Cup opener. It curled over the wall, under the bar and into the net. Cue carnage: fireworks lit up the Florida sky and down below, Messi was lost in a hurricane of pink jerseys and noise and emotion as 21,000 supporters lost their minds. Among them? LeBron James, Serena Williams, Kim Kardashian and Beckham. The co-owner’s eyes had soon glazed over.
Maybe, just maybe, Messi’s arrival might just change things, after all. As starts go? Oh my.
Tickets for the opening night of this tournament – involving teams from MLS and Liga MX – cost barely $30 a few weeks ago. By Sunday night, they were supposedly going for six figures. Messi, meanwhile, is set to pocket between $50-60million every year at Inter Miami. But on night one, the greatest of all time provided yet another priceless memory of a glorious career. He had only been on the field for 40 minutes.
Lionel Messi scored a sensational free kick to seal a dramatic 2-1 win for Inter Miami
It was the moment Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham (right) had been dreaming of
With Inter Miami tied 1-1 with Cruz Azul, the World Cup winner stepped up to clinch the victory
Messi was named on the bench by manager Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino. He came on early in the second half and thought he had won the game when he set up Josef Martinez, three minutes from tme, only for the offside flag to cut short the celebrations. It turned out that his coach, the officials, and Cruz Azul were simply delaying the inevitable.
Soccer in this country has not known anything like this in exactly 17 years, since Beckham made his LA Galaxy debut on this day in 2007. The dots between those seminal moments are easy to join.
A bolt of energy shot through this place when Messi began to warm-up at half-time, when he replaced Benjamin Cremaschi and took the armband, and every time he touched the ball thereafter.
He was followed on to the pitch by Sergio Busquets. Their former Barcelona teammate Jordi Alba signed recently, too. It is a mark of Messi’s majesty that they feel like such an afterthought. He offered flashes of his spell-binding skill immediately after coming on. But nothing could prepare this place for what came next.
When Messi first stepped out into this stadium on Sunday, after a violent storm had threatened to rain on MLS’ parade, he was met by a frenzy and pyrotechnics.
It was all rather more serene when he arrived on Friday night. Supporters, who had begun to gather in the hotels and bars around here at lunchtime, were still locked out.
The global superstar scored on a free kick from about 25 yards in the 94th minute
The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner started on the bench and entered in the 54th minute
Queues snaked down the road by the time the gates opened – 90 minutes before kick-off. There was still some fanfare, mind. Before the 36-year-old could head down the tunnel, he was stopped for a selfie by a middle-aged man decked out in Cruz Azul gear.
He obviously hadn’t got the memo – players for the Mexican side have been keen to stress that this was just another game. Against another team of 11 men. Who were they kidding? The flags, draped over every seat at DRV PNK Stadium, carried the name and silhouette of only one player.
In the club shop, a single DeAndre Yedlin jersey was lost among a sea of pink and black merchandise which read ‘Messi 10’ and cost up to $200. Small change compared to some of the tickets, of course.
No wonder, then, that as kick-off approached and the two teams warmed up on the pitch, all of the cameras and cameraphones were pointed towards the tunnel. They were waiting for the Inter Miami replacements to emerge.
Alas, they were left rolling – clearly neither Messi nor Busquets needed to stretch their legs quite yet. And so the scrum moved in front of the Inter Miami bench – sandwiched between the owners’ suite and a box housing celebrities like James.
Messi and LeBron James – two kings of sport, two kings of this city – shared a long hug
The 36-year-old sat on the bench alongside former Barcelona teammate Sergio Busquets (R)
The photographers were penned in by security and a rope and they were made to wait until midway through the national anthem, when the replacements finally shuffled out of the tunnel. It was all very low-key. All rather anticlimactic given the grandeur of recent days.
But the cameramen eventually got their shot: Messi and James – two kings of sport, two kings of this city – shared a long hug. Around them, a football match soon broke out and Messi’s name rang out, too.
On the bench, the 36-year-old sat next to Busquets and in front of Harvey Neville, son of Phil Neville who was fired as head coach last month. By Sunday night, this team’s winless run in MLS had stretched to 11 matches. This offered Messi a first chance to his see his teammates up close. They didn’t take long to illustrate the size of the task facing new manager Tata Martino and his new recruits.
Cruz Azul has not won in Liga MX this season. Across their first three games, this team has scored only one goal. And yet, on Sunday night, the visitors could have had three inside 15 minutes. Inter Miami was so ragged and so easily cut apart. Cruz Azul hit the post and missed an open goal.
After the Mexican side spurned another chance, TV cameras caught Messi shaking his head. A few minutes before half-time, however, the Argentinian was up on his feet, roaring his approval, after Robert Taylor curled Inter Miami into the lead.
The MLS side was still ahead when Messi came on. But barely 10 minutes later, Cruz Azul levelled through Uriel Antuna. It remained that way right until the end – penalties loomed, so did a nagging sense of anti-climax. We should have known. There were five seconds left of two added minutes when Messi was fouled. By the time the ball hit the net, a new era had begun with bedlam.
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