In Saturday night’s season finale between Inter Miami and Charlotte FC, Lionel Messi played the whole match on artificial grass, and Charlotte FC advanced to the MLS playoffs with a 1-0 victory.
On the final day of the regular season, Messi and Charlotte’s push to make the playoffs competed for attention in front of a crowd of 66,101 at Bank of America Stadium, which has a capacity of 74,000.
Thousands of fans showed up wearing “Messi 10” shirts to celebrate the man who guided Argentina to the 2022 World Cup triumph.
Since Miami had already been eliminated from postseason contention, the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner as the world’s best player went the whole distance in the game. He ended the game with three shots on goal and two good scoring opportunities. The 49th minute goal that looked to have been scored by Messi was called back due to an offsides ruling, and his 62nd minute attempt at a goal hit the crossbar.
In 14 games this season, Messi scored 11 goals for Miami. Since he joined the squad in mid-July, they have a 4-4 record in the league, with no victories in their last six matches (three losses and three draws).
Messi scored both goals in Argentina’s 2-0 World Cup qualifying win over Peru on Tuesday night, but he did not speak to the media after the match because he sat out Wednesday’s makeup game versus Charlotte. On August 17, halfway through the season, he made himself available to the media once.
Fans’ expectations were met by Charlotte. The club, only in its second year, needed a win over Miami and some help from other games to secure one of the final two Eastern Conference playoff positions. With previous Saturday losses by the Chicago Fire and CF Montreal, Charlotte was able to secure a playoff spot with a victory and advance.
Even though Charlotte has given up numerous late goals this season, Kerwin Vargas’ strike in the 13th minute was enough to secure the historic victory.
Charlotte will finish 2023 as the league’s runner-up in attendance, averaging 33,634 for their regular season finale on Saturday.
Coach Christian Lattanzio of the Charlotte FC commented, “I knew it was because Messi was in town,” in reference to the high turnout. The more people see us, the more they’ll realize we can compete with the finest in the world. Incredibly pleased with the lads’ performance. They’ve been putting in a lot of long hours.
On November 5 and 8, Messi and Inter Miami will go to China to participate in two exhibition matches. This will be the very first international tour for Inter Miami. After Argentina’s World Cup qualifiers on November 16 and 21, Messi will likely have a lengthy rest before Inter Miami begins 2024 preparations.
Coach Gerardo Martino of Inter Miami CF blamed a grueling schedule for his team’s disappointing performance at the end of the season.
A translator relayed Martino’s statement that their team participated in three competitions and won one of them. The group had worked tirelessly, and it showed. There is no justification for such. The truth is that.