The clock ticked four minutes into the red as Lionel Messi stood moments over a free kick in Fort Lauderdale and time stopped.
This was it. The moment Inter Miami supporters had been waiting for since Messi announced his move to Major League Soccer; the night co-owners David Beckham and Jorge Mas dreamed of before their team had even played a game; the day, if the promises are to be believed, that changed football in the United States forever. It couldn’t have been primed more perfectly.
With Inter Miami tied 1-1 with Cruz Azul, Messi took a few steps and sent a 25-yard effort towards goal. It was pretty much the last kick of this Leagues Cup opener. It curled over the wall, under the crossbar and into the net. Carnage Cue: Fireworks lit up the Florida sky and below, Messi was lost in a hurricane of pink jerseys and noise and emotion as 21,000 supporters lost their minds. Amongst them? LeBron James, Serena Williams, Kim Kardashian and Beckham. The co-owner’s eyes soon glazed over.
Maybe, just maybe, Messi’s arrival could turn things around after all. Like starts? Oh my.
Tickets to the opening night of this tournament – which involved teams from MLS and Liga MX – cost just under $30 a few weeks ago. By Sunday night, they would be going for six figures. Meanwhile, Messi will collect between 50 and 60 million dollars every year at Inter Miami. But on night one, the greatest of all time provided another priceless reminder of a glorious career. He was only 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 that Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham (right) had dreamed of
With a 1-1 draw between Inter Miami and Cruz Azul, the World Cup winner stepped up to take the win
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 match when he set up Josef Martinez three minutes from time, only for the offside flag to interrupt the festivities. As it turns out, his coach, the officials and Cruz Azul were simply delaying the inevitable.
Football in this country has not seen anything like it in exactly 17 years, since Beckham made his LA Galaxy debut on this day in 2007. The dots between those groundbreaking moments are easy to connect.
A wave of energy shot through this place as Messi started warming up at half time, when he replaced Benjamin Cremaschi and took the armband, and every time he touched the ball after that.
He was followed onto the field by Sergio Busquets. Their former Barcelona teammate Jordi Alba also recently signed. It is a sign of Messi’s majesty that they feel such an afterthought. He offered flashes of his mesmerizing ability immediately after entering. But nothing could prepare this place for what came next.
When Messi first stepped into this stadium on Sunday after a violent storm threatened to rain on the MLS parade, he was met with frenzy and fireworks.
Things had calmed down a bit when he arrived on Friday night. Supporters, who began to gather around lunchtime in the hotels and bars around here, continued to be shut out.
The global superstar scored on a free kick from around 25 yards in the 94th minute
The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner started on the bench and came in 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, though. Before the 36-year-old could enter the tunnel, he was stopped for a selfie by a middle-aged man decked out in Cruz Azul gear.
He clearly hadn’t gotten the memo – players from the Mexican side were all too eager to stress that this was just another game. Against another team of 11 men. Who were they kidding? The flags, draped over every seat in the DRV PNK Stadium, bore the name and silhouette of only one player.
At the club shop, a single DeAndre Yedlin jersey was lost among a sea of pink and black merchandise that read “Messi 10” and cost up to $200. Small change compared to some tickets of course.
No wonder, then, as kick-off approached and the two teams warmed up on the pitch, all the cameras and camera phones were focused on the tunnel. They were waiting for Inter Miami’s replacements.
Unfortunately, they kept rolling – clearly neither Messi nor Busquets had yet to stretch their legs all the way. And so the scrum moved in front of the Inter Miami bench – sandwiched between the owner’s suite and a box of celebrities like James.
Messi and LeBron James – two kings of the sport, two kings of this city – shared a long embrace
The 36-year-old sat on the bench next to former Barcelona teammate Sergio Busquets (R)
The photographers were confined by security and a rope and had to wait until halfway through the national anthem when the substitutes finally shuffled out of the tunnel. It was all very low key. All rather anticlimactic given the grandeur of the past few days.
But the cameramen finally got their chance: Messi and James – two kings of the sport, two kings of this city – shared a long embrace. A football match soon broke out around them and Messi’s name also echoed.
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 the MLS had reached 11 games. This provided Messi with a first chance to see his teammates up close. It didn’t take them long to illustrate the magnitude of the task facing new manager Tata Martino and his new recruits.
Cruz Azul has not won in Liga MX this season. In their first three games, this team scored only one goal. And yet the visitors could have taken three within fifteen minutes on Sunday evening. Inter Miami were so ragged and so easy to take apart. Cruz Azul hit the post and missed an open goal.
After the Mexican side turned down another chance, TV cameras saw Messi shaking his head. A few minutes before the break, however, the Argentinian stood up in approval after Robert Taylor had curled Inter Miami ahead.
The MLS side were still ahead when Messi came on. But barely 10 minutes later, Cruz Azul leveled through Uriel Antuna. It stayed that way until the very end – penalties loomed, as did a nagging sense of anticlimax. 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 of bedlam had begun.