Lionel Messi not only played this Saturday, September 14, as a starter for Inter Miami, but he was the best player of the match, with two goals and one assist, against Philadelphia Union for the enjoyment of the 21,000 fans who gathered at Chase Stadium.
Thanks in large part to Leo, Inter showed their class this season by coming back from a deficit to claim a big 3-1 win over Philadelphia.
“Leo is always Leo and I have nothing else to say. I finished the match because I was ready to play the 90 minutes and at this point, we have to take risks, we can’t afford to take off two decisive players and thanks to that we scored the third,” said coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino.
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“We had to go to a 5-3-2 system to compensate in defense, especially due to the introduction of more opposing forwards, which we had already planned in training this week, even with the changes.”
Messi started off cautiously, but soon warmed up, once again giving a recital of football and making a difference with two beautifully crafted goals in addition to giving an assist to Luis Suarez, so that he reached 17 goals and moved up to second place among the top scorers in the MLS.
Leo was not far behind, despite his long absence, reaching 14 goals, tying for 5th place in addition to being third in assists with 14 as well.
But if Messi was the light and the Iconic Player of the Match, nothing would have been the same without the saving interventions of his goalkeeper Drake Callender, a true monster between the sticks, not to mention the remarkable performance of the “Fantastic Four of Miami.”
Inter (19-5-4) increased its lead at the top of the Eastern Conference to 62 points with six games remaining, taking advantage of a tie between Cincinnati (2nd with 52) and Columbus (3rd with 50). The Galaxy leads the West with 52 points, so Miami now increases its chances of winning the Supporter’s Shield.
Martino was able to count on all his players, except for Matias Rojas, who came out with Callender, Marcelo Weigandt, Tomas Aviles, Sergio Busquets, David Martinez, Jordi Alba, Federico Redondo, Sergio Busquets, Julian Gressel, Messi, Suarez, and Mario Gomez.
The bad news was the injuries to center-backs Martinez (groin) and his substitute Noah Allen (head and neck), in addition to the fact that Aviles received his fifth yellow card and will miss Wednesday’s match and Martino will have to reorganize the defense.
The first half was in Inter’s favor 2-1, with a double from Messi that did justice to what happened on the pitch in the first 45 minutes, with a wide dominance of 67 percent, although Philadelphia, who shot more, also had their chances and their reward.
The fans hadn’t even taken their seats yet when Philadelphia opened the scoring. The Union took the first ball in the first minute of play, which ended with a great goal by Mikael Uhre, who after cutting in front of Martinez, fired a well-placed left-footed shot from outside the area to the far post that Callender couldn’t reach, making it 1-0 in the second minute.
Miami was not in the game and to make matters worse, their center-back David Martinez was injured, making way for Noah Allen. And in the 17th minute, Callender saved Inter twice in a row, in two one-on-one situations that Philadelphia was already claiming as a goal.
But the best came in the 26th minute, in a play in which Inter’s Fantastic Four were involved and with the best ending. Alba, after a one-two with Busquets, went into the center and passed to Messi, who in turn created another one-two with Suarez.
Leo made a great cut into the area, leaving the defender in his path, and then finished into the net with his right foot, a true goal that tied the match 1-1.
In the 30th minute, Messi himself scored the second, finishing off with his left foot a good pass, a trademark of Alba, which Suarez let through from the left so that Inter took the lead 2-1.
The Miami team took control of the match by combining and attacking very well and even saw the referee disallow a goal by Suarez after reviewing it in the VAR and there were no more, although there was no shortage of opportunities.
Inter dropped the tempo significantly in the second half, especially after Busquets slotted in between the center-backs in a five-man defense, with Gomez dropping into midfield, leaving Suarez and Messi alone up front, in an attempt to control the game, albeit with little success.
In the 81st minute, Martino brought on Benjamin Cremaschi and Jannick Bright for Gomez and Gressel to freshen up the team. However, it was Callender who took the credit again by saving Inter from another clear goal.
Allen gave a scare when he fell badly when Callender came out and with time up, Tata introduced Ian Fray and David Ruiz onto the field for Allen and Redondo.
But there was time for more when Suarez in the 98th minute took advantage of Messi’s layup to finish off a shot with his right foot from the edge of the area with a message of goal to put the final score at 3-1 for Miami and close the match with a great victory.
