Walking towards the Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC) stadium, in the heart of the city of Los Angeles, Silvia Goldman gave her friend Jeff Rusk a brief and fast course for beginners on Lionel Messi. This New Yorker recounted the path of redemption that the player made with the Argentine team until he became world champion a few months ago. Of her stellar passage through European soccer and Barcelona, the city where Goldman studied her mastery and became fond of this sport. To close her, she summarized the summer soap opera that made the best player in the world leave Paris, say no to Saudi money and land in Miami.
-“Oh, is it so good?” replied Jeff, who at 26 years old attended the first soccer game in his life wearing the pink Inter Miami shirt.
Jeff lived his initiation ritual to a world religion tonight with a 1-3 victory for Miami. Already inside the BMO stadium, there was some solemnity in the atmosphere. Despite being a visitor and their low position in the MLS table, Miami managed to have a great representation in the stands with team, albiceleste and Barcelona jerseys. All because of the phenomenon that Messi has caused. For some, being here tonight was akin to winning the lottery. Alexis Escobar told the service in Spanish of Los Angeles Times I had paid $12 for the tickets. This is because he bought them before the signing that revolutionized soccer in the United States was announced. When it became known that Messi had chosen MLS, prices skyrocketed. The cheapest ticket this Sunday was $900. There are people who paid more than 3,000 dollars to see the Argentine.
Los Angeles fans greeted the teams by raising their black and gold scarves. sounded in the field ecstasy of gold (Ecstasy of Gold), the theme that Ennio Morricone composed for the good, the bad and the ugly. The moment came as the sun was setting, turning a golden hue to the buildings of downtown Los Angeles, which serve as the backdrop to BMO Stadium. It was a Hollywood sunset in a city that showed off its celebrity muscle. Britain’s Prince Harry, Leonardo DiCaprio, actors Toby McGuire and Owen Wilson, Oasis singer Liam Gallagher and Dodgers stars, among several other stars, watched the game from boxes in a packed stadium.
Messi did not disappoint in his role as antagonist. In the first minutes of the second half, he received a ball from Sergio Busquets in midfield. With just a couple of movements he saw how Jordi Alba stood out on the left flank and launched a huge pass. Alba found herself alone in front of Irish goalkeeper John McCarthy and fired the ball near the left post. In this way, Alba scored his first goal since his arrival in the MLS, on July 20, five days after Messi. The Argentine made his first assist of the regular competition. The public saw what they were waiting for: the three former Barça players doing some of the old magic that mesmerized thousands for so many years.
Argentine Facundo Farías had opened the scoring for Miami at minute 15 of the first half. He did it surprising everyone after Los Angeles knocked on Inter’s door with insistence, but without being able to convert. Farías reached the ball in a long run down the right wing. The striker swept in for a cross shot to the left post that McCarthy missed. The goal added something unforeseen to the night and changed the narrative at the beginning of the game, which gave the number 3 in the Western conference as a clear favorite against the team in position 14 in the East. Ecuadorian Leo Campana scored the third for the visitors. Miami has taken seven of nine points played this week. The great moment that Inter is experiencing will be put to the test on September 16, when the team faces Atlanta without Messi and eight other players who have been called up by their national teams.
One of those surprised tonight was the singer Selena Gomez, who was caught speechless by the stadium cameras after a shot that Messi missed inside the area. The Argentine played the 90 minutes in a city where he came to shine. His bodyguard, Yassine Cheuko, a former member of the elite group of the United States Army, even had a stellar moment capturing a fan dressed in a Barcelona jersey who jumped onto the pitch to give the midfielder a hug. Every time the Argentine took a corner kick, the number of security elements multiplied in the corner. Before hitting the ball, the Miami number 10 greeted the stands, from where a “Lio! Mess! Mess!”.
Not even the LAFC players resisted after the final whistle to the great celebrity who visited them. McCarthy, who conceded three goals today and has two consecutive defeats, asked Messi, his executioner, for the shirt. Italian defender Giorigio Chiellini stopped Messi for a few minutes after the defeat to ask the star to take a picture with his daughters. The girls, dressed in the home team’s black jersey, which their father has been wearing since last year, could hardly believe what was happening as Chellini took the picture. “It is very difficult to describe in words what Lio has caused with his arrival in MLS and in the cities we have visited,” Miami coach Gerardo Tata Martino said at the end of the night.
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