Lionel Messi played his first competitive game on Mexican soil last night in a Concacaf Champions League Game as his Miami International team fought to stay alive in the competition in the return leg against a Monterrey team that has dominated this competition for the last decade.
It was not a good debut.
Messi missed the first leg due to injury and saw Miami relinquish a one goal lead after David Ruiz was red carded in the 60th minute. Monterrey scored two late goals to take the advantage going to their home stadium. (Away goals still count in Concacaf so Miami needed to win by a two goal margin to keep their Champions League hopes alive.)
In the 30th minute, Messi must have wondered what his goalie Drake Callender was up to when, trying to build from the very back, as is the favored tactic nowadays, he passed the ball inside his own goalie box right to Brandon Vazquez, who was high pressing him. Vazquez stuttered step after the interception, and after the goalie went to ground, easily scored for what appeared to be an insurmountable 2 goal advantage.
Messi was seen rallying the troops afterwards, trying to instill that unflappability that only the greats seem to ever have in the face of such a difficult situation. After all, Miami still only needed to score two goals to push this into the extra period. It was not an impossible task, especially given the fact that the greatest footballer known to man had 60 minutes with which to work to pull off the miracle comeback.
But this Miami team, despite the fact that Messi dragged 3 of his old compadres with him in Busquets, Alba, and Suarez, are not the same caliber team he’s used to playing with, especially since most of the old crew are all over 35 now, including the great Messi himself. And even though Leo is still playing at a high level, that of the other three has dropped, most significantly Suarez, who has definitely lost a step or two..
The other pivotal factor that made this comeback more difficult is that the opponent is the Real Madrid of Concacaf (well maybe that’s a bit of a stretch but hey any time we can give kudos to the Merengues we might as well take the opportunity), a team that has the pedigree but more importantly the supreme confidence that it can win in this competition, mostly because they have for a decade now, the opponent notwithstanding.
At the stroke of half-time, Suarez and Messi attempted to conjure the old magic. Suarez lifted a ball skillfully to Messi whose shot didn’t have the power to beat the Mexican keeper Arteaga.
In the second half, Monterrey struck again through a rocket from Berterame at the 58th to extend the aggregate advantage to three goals. By the 60th, even though Miami had 63% of the possession they had been outshot by 11-3 (7-0 on frame). In the 64th the moment where insult is added to injury arrived, as Miami again playing sloppily out of the back had the ball intercepted and Gallardo scored on an unchallenged header to take a 3-0 lead (5-1 on aggregate).
Miami got one back at the 85th when Gomez headed in a perfect ball from Messi off of a set piece. Monterrey looked like they left the foot off the pedal.
Miami’s Tata Martino came into this game proclaiming that they were trying to build something great at the club, to form a team that could challenge if not dominate in the region. But that appears to be a work in progress for the very long term. Beckham and company have their work cut out for them.
This is a team that appears to be completely star-struck on Messi and heavily dependent on him (they are 2-12 without him and 18-2 with him). The fact is that this is a very bad defensive team. They were heavily exposed in this game and in the MLS they have given up more goals than any of the top ten teams in the table. Note that none of the players Messi brought with him are defenders, with the exception of Alba, and he’s always been an offensive minder left back.
Given the MLS’s salary structure, it’s going to be hard for Miami to build a more defensively stout team given how much money the big four are making. (The team used a loophole to avoid making Suarez a Designated Player instead using part of the Total Allocation Money pool.) It’s doubtful, in my opinion, that the club will continue to stay near the top of the Easter conference this year.
There will be challenges come summer and fall. The weather is hotter than in the European seasons and the travel is more arduous. And for Copa America, which will run for three weeks, Miami will be without Messi. And in fall, when World Cup qualifying resumes, Messi will miss additional games. As an aside, for what it’s worth, I believe that one of Messi’s overarching reasons to sign with Miami instead of a Saudi or Chinese team was to lessen the travel for his duties with Argentina’s national team. To my mind, he’s clearly not satisfied with the number of major trophies he has won with the Albiceleste. Trips from Miami to South America are fairly short as compared with those from Europe or Asia. Winning a second Copa America and at least qualifying for his 5th World Cup (and possibly winning another title) are very achievable goals for him and Argentina. On the club side, Miami’s record without him isn’t going to improve dramatically. This was a bad team before he arrived and they will be bad when he’s not in. So maybe that’s not where his priorities lie.
For MLS however, it’s an understatement to say that their interest is that Miami do well; it would be a very bad look if the world’s best player, the recently anointed World Cup champion, languishes on a bad team.
It’s a more glaring understatement to say that the star appeal is still a huge force. Messi’s draw is such that Miami’s next game in Kansas City has been moved to Arrowhead Stadium, whose capacity dwarfs that of Sporting KC’s home base at Children’s Mercy Park. If Miami fare well in the league, this loss will be forgotten. But if they don’t, if the team’s fortunes head south, there’s no telling how interested Messi will stay or if he’ll stay at all past his two and half year contract.
At the end, the Mexican fans booed Messi at every touch of the ball. At least they didn’t chant the homophobic chant that Mexican fans have become notoriously associated with and that has caused the fan base and the Mexican Federation disgrace worldwide.
Lionel’s first competitive game in Mexico didn’t end well but Messi, being Messi, will be just fine.
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