Messi debuts with his left foot (the good one) in the USA – 07/22/2023 – The World is a Ball

The debut of Messi, 36, for his new club, Inter Miami, was heading this Friday night (21) to a melancholy end in Fort Lauderdale, the team’s home in Florida.

It was the Argentine star’s first match for the American team, his debut in US football, and he was looking forward to this moment with great anticipation.

The number 10 shirt, to the frustration of the team’s fans who wear pink and filled the DRV PNK stadium (which houses around 20,000 fans), started on the bench.

Coach Tata Martino, a compatriot of Messi, kept him for participation during the game against the Mexican Cruz Azul for the League Cup, a tournament that brings together associations from the USA and Mexico.

For what reason? Perhaps because the seven times elected best in the world and captain of the Argentine national team that won the 2022 Cup seven months ago had arrived in the USA a few days ago and had not trained with the new team.

It seemed like a reasonable excuse. Thus, with Inter Miami leading by 1-0, a goal scored by Robert Taylor at the end of the first half, the coach gave Messi the chance in the 9th minute of the second half.

Eleven minutes later, disappointment among the Inter Miami fans: Uriel Antuna tied for Cruz Azul.

From then on, the minutes passed, passed, passed, and the match looked like it would end in equality, extending the series without a victory for the American team to six games.

At that moment, with the 45 minutes of the second half already blown, someone who believes in luck or bad luck could have said that Messi was debuting with his left foot, being unfortunate in the first game.

Those who thought that, however, must have forgotten that Messi is Messi and that “the game is only over when it’s over”, a phrase attributed to former president of Corinthians Vicente Matheus (1908-1997).

With very little time remaining in the game (there were two minutes of added time allowed by the Salvadoran referee Hector Martínez), Inter Miami was fouled close to Cruz Azul’s half moon.

Messi, in a position he has found himself in countless times in his life, was two steps away from the ball. Goalkeeper Andrés Gudiño put five men on the wall, and a sixth lay down behind it, to prevent the ball from passing if the shot was low.

Messi, with the captain’s stripe on his left arm, took the two steps, with his left hand he hit the barrier and, with the game time expired in almost two minutes, he put the round in the angle of the Mexican number 30.

A perfect hit. As a radio narrator said (I believe it was José Silvério in Jovem Pan), it was “as if he had put the ball in the nets with his hands”, such was the ease with which he did it. This at 48 minutes and 48 seconds of the second half. In the final bid of the confrontation.

Messi vibe with his teammates, huge party from the fans (many, many of them wearing the Argentina shirt), cameras on an emotional David Beckham (former England star, partner of Inter Miami), clapping his hands next to his wife, the former Spice Girl Victoria, and on a smiling Tata Martino, applauding.

It is one of those moves that will remain forever in the memory of football fans, that admirers not only of Messi, but of the sport itself, will fondly keep in their memory and will tell their grandson or granddaughter who has not yet been born when recounting the feats of one of the greats (from the height of his 1.70 m) in the history of football.

Thus, Messi started his trajectory in the USA with the left foot. The meaning of the time-honored expression is off to a bad start. In Messi’s case, however, the opposite applies. For the left is his good foot.

Well, in this case, it’s being modic. It is admirable, magnificent, extraordinary. One of the best left feet football has ever seen. Worthy, for this remarkable goal, of being immortalized (hello, Beckham!) on a walk of fame at the Inter Miami stadium.

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