Lionel Messi helped set up both goals and Inter Miami survived prolonged second-half pressure from Real Salt Lake to earn a 2-0 victory in the opening match of the Major League Soccer season on Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. .
Robert Taylor scored late in the first half, and Diego Gomez added another in the second for Miami, which was dominant before the break but inferior afterward and was probably lucky to still lead when Gomez added.
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Messi was in top form midway through the season, weaving through and around defenders, almost giving the sellout crowd what they wanted to see with a free kick goal and then a corner kick midway through the first half.
“I think the eyes of the world are on Inter Miami, and I hope they're able to live up to that and whatever expectations people have,” said MLS commissioner Don Garber, who was at Wednesday's game. “Above all, I would like their experience to be good, for the team's experience to be successful, how they are positioned here in the league but also around the world.
“That's the story that I think is most important to us.”
Messi scored 11 goals in 14 total games for Inter Miami last season, leading the team to a Leagues Cup championship, its first trophy, shortly after surprising much of the soccer world by signing a two-year contract. and a half. valued at about 150 million dollars. He appeared in only six MLS games in 2023 and scored one goal. Injuries slowed him down at the end of the 2023 season and Inter Miami, who were well outside the postseason when Messi joined last summer, did not make the MLS playoffs.
But the madness that surrounds him does not fade. The lines for fans to buy his jersey, which was the best-selling jersey in MLS last year and has a new sponsor design this year, were outside the team store. He had the assist on the first goal and set up Luis Suárez, one of his former Barcelona teammates, as well as fellow Inter Miami stars Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, with the pass that Suárez converted into the assist on the goal. of Gomez.
“I'm very happy,” Suárez said after the game in which his new team looked like a contender. That was not the case in the exhibition season.
Inter Miami began their season with an international pre-season tour with seven matches in five different countries, covering approximately 25,000 miles, a total of eight goals, multiple apologies to fans who requested refunds after Messi missed a match in Hong Kong due to an injury. and only one victory.
But they completely controlled the first half of Wednesday's game against a team that comfortably made the Western Conference playoffs last season. Messi even threw the ball around injured Salt Lake defender Andrew Brody and landed near the top of the penalty area at the end of the half, dodging it with ease. Brody was able to stay in the game.
“If anyone had been skeptical about what this team can do, I think the first half showed it,” said Inter Miami coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino. “I saw [Messi] playing freely in the field. And with the same fine touch as always. And he showed some speed too.
“He has a characteristic that no other player has. He grabs the ball very far from the rival goal and the feeling he gives is that he is going to generate something and end up in a goal situation. The play he made only against two players on the field” end of the game is a sign that he is physically well and also happy to be on the field.
It should be noted that the club has not yet won any playoff games. Inter Miami has been to the playoffs twice, being eliminated immediately on both occasions, both by a score of 3-0.
“There's no need to rush,” Martino said. “It was just a game.”
But Messi moves the needle, every needle, up to that point. He will turn 37 in June and the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner still turns heads on and off the field like almost no one else in the sport. Apple TV released the first episode of “Messi's World Cup: The Rise of a Legend” on Wednesday, and the streaming service (which has a 10-year deal worth at least $2.5 billion with MLS) was part of the group that pitched Messi during his process of deciding whether to join the league last year.
Apple has not released figures, but senior vice president Eddy Cue said Wednesday that he was “surprised” by the success of Messi's first year in MLS.
“We had a tremendous first season,” Cue said. “The viewership far exceeded what we expected. The amount of time people spent watching the games is greater than any sport I've ever watched.”
