Inter Miami debuted in the 2024 Major League Soccer season with a 2-0 victory against Real Salt Lake of Utah, in a match where the Argentine star and idol, Lionel Messi, was the leading figure. of the match even though it was not part of the statistics in the scoring box of the match. Now, in the most recent day that took place at the Dignity Health Sports Park facilities in front of almost 28,000 souls present, Messi once again showed all the level and quality he possesses.
In a match against the Los Angeles Galaxy Messi scored the equalizer in overtime and in this way the ‘Las Garzas’ team were able to rescue a point from a match in which the Galaxy was clearly dominant at all times, especially by the former Barcelona Football Club player, Riqui Puig, who had one of the most outstanding performances in his short career in Major League Soccer.
Despite Messi’s great goal to tie the match in a time of crisis, it did not prevent criticism from the United States press from coming.especially due to the poor performance shown in much of the Miami team’s match, focusing more on its main figures such as Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba.
A quite crude and direct writing to Messi and Suárez
Dylan Hernández, sports columnist for the Los Angeles Times, wrote a match analysis about the Inter Miami and Los Angeles Galaxy matchemphasizing the two legendary forwards:
“At some point, Inter Miami will have to deal with the reality that was discovered on Sunday night: “Messi is old, Luis Suárez is old, Sergio Busquets is old.”
“The only member of the Barcelona quartet who didn’t seem to be playing on an empty tank of gas was Alba, the 34-year-old left back who ran up and down the sideline as if he were 10 years his junior.” “Playing in a league with a grueling schedule and a demanding travel schedule, Inter Miami seems destined for disaster.”
The journalist relied on Lionel Messi to make his analysis, due to the fact that the Argentine is the main figure of the team: “He can still hit a ball with surprising accuracy, but It doesn’t recover as quickly as before. “He lost half a step, which explains how Galaxy defensive midfielder Edwin Cerrillo was able to keep him under control for most of the game.”
“And when the Galaxy’s Brazilian import, Gabriel Pec, valued at $10 million, entered the game in the 70th minute (he came on for Diego Fagúndez), Messi was no longer the most interesting player on the field.” “Messi was not the same player who visited Los Angeles FC’s BMO Stadium in September. “He wasn’t even the same player he was four days earlier when Inter Miami defeated Real Salt Lake in the first game of the season,” he wrote.
Age begins to take its toll in Miami
At Inter Miami there is an average age greater than 35 years old if the ages of its main figures such as Messi, Suárez, Busquets and Alba are combined. and they had to face a team full of a lot of talent, a drive that did not exceed the average 29-year-old from the middle of the court towards the front:
“Major League Soccer’s most expensive team was outplayed by the revamped Galaxy for most of the night, and there is no reason to believe that Inter Miami won’t have more games like this. How many more times can they count on Messi to invoke magic at the end of the game to save them?”
Dylan Hernández made it quite clear that both Messi and Suárez “They were basically spectators when the Galaxy had the ball.”
Federico Redondo will arrive, but it will not be the immediate solution
The player Federico Redondo will join the ranks of Inter Miami soon: “The incorporation of Redondo and the expected return of the 18-year-old midfielder, Benjamín Cremaschi, sidelined due to injury, “They will not address the problems associated with building a team around a group of retirement-age players.”
In Hernández’s opinion, the result did not end up being in favor of the Galaxy since the players of the Los Angeles team showed an “inability” to be able to finish more than one chance to go ahead on the scoreboard, whose players are more “athletic” and also “dynamic” compared to those in Miami. For the columnist, the tie was not a relevant result, much less Messi’s goal: “Messi rarely posed a threat and scored only because he received a perfect pass.”
“The sequence was proof of Messi’s continued ability to produce spectacular moments. Whether Messi can put together a championship season, even in MLS, is an entirely different matter. “With two games left in Inter Miami’s season, the signs are ominous.”
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