Inter Miami CF 2-0 Real Salt Lake (22 Feb, 2024) Game Analysis

Lionel Messi helped score both goals and Inter Miami survived Real Salt Lake's prolonged second-half pressure to earn a 2-0 victory in the Major League Soccer season opener Wednesday at Ft. 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 probably lucky to still be ahead when Gomez added.

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Messi was in fine form midway through the season, rushing through and around defenders, almost giving the sellout crowd what they wanted to see with a goal from a free kick and then one from a corner midway through the first half. time.

“I think the eyes of the world are on Inter Miami, and I hope they're able to meet those expectations and whatever people's expectations are,” said MLS Commissioner Don Garber , who was present at Wednesday's match. “Above all, I would just like for his experience to be good, for the team's experience to be successful, how it positions itself both here in the league but also in the world.

“That’s the story that I think is most important to us.”

Messi scored 11 goals in 14 total appearances for Inter Miami last season, leading the team to the League Cup – their first ever trophy – shortly after surprising much of the football world by signing a 2 and a half year contract. worth approximately $150 million. He only appeared in six MLS matches in 2023, scoring one goal. Injuries slowed him down at the end of the 2023 season and Inter Miami, which was far from the playoffs when Messi joined last summer, did not make the MLS playoffs.

But the enthusiasm surrounding it does not weaken. Lines for fans to buy his jersey, which was the MLS best-seller last year and has a new sponsor design this year, were outside the door of the team store. He got the assist on the first goal and set up Luis Suarez – one of his former Barcelona teammates, like his Inter Miami compatriots Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba – with the pass which Suarez turned into an assist on Gómez's goal.

“I’m so happy,” Suarez said after the match in which his new team looked every bit like a contender. This was not the case during exhibition season.

Inter Miami began its season with an international pre-season tour with seven matches in five different countries – totaling around 25,000 miles of travel, a total of eight goals, multiple apologies to fans seeking reimbursement after Messi missed a match in Hong Kong due to injury. , and only one victory.

But they completely controlled the first half of Wednesday's game against a team that easily qualified for the Western Conference playoffs last season. Messi even threw the ball around injured Salt Lake defender Andrew Brody and near the top of the penalty area late in the half, weaving around him with ease. Brody was able to stay in the match.

“If anyone was skeptical about what this team can do, I think the first half showed them,” Inter Miami coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino said. “I saw [Messi] play freely on the field. And with the same fine touch he always had. And he also showed speed.

“He has a characteristic that no other player has. He catches the ball very far from the opponent's goal and the feeling he gives is that he will generate something and it will end in a goal situation. The play he had alone against two players at the end of the match is a sign that he is physically good and that he is also happy to be on the pitch.”

It should be noted that the club has yet to win a playoff game. Inter Miami made the playoffs twice, getting eliminated immediately each time, both times by a score of 3-0.

“You don’t have to take the plunge,” Martino said. “It was just a game.”

But Messi moves the needles – every needle – at this point. He turns 37 in June and the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner still attracts attention on and off the pitch like almost no one else in 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 contract worth at least 2.5 billion dollars with MLS) was part of the group that pitched Messi during his process of deciding whether to join the league last year.

Apple hasn't released numbers, but senior vice president Eddy Cue said Wednesday he was “shocked” by the success of Messi's first year in MLS.

“We had a great first season,” Cue said. “The viewership was way higher than we expected. The amount of time people spend watching games is more than any sport I've seen.”