Inter Miami CF forward Lionel Messi plays the ball in the second half against the Toronto FC at BMO Field on Oct. 5.Dan Hamilton/Reuters
In the end, every fan in the stadium was left wanting more, whatever their faction.
For those who arrived at Toronto’s BMO Field on Saturday afternoon wearing the pink and black colours of Inter Miami – or even the red and blue of Barcelona – it was more of Lionel Messi, who played the final 30 minutes off the bench in what was more a cameo than his usual starring role.
For those wearing the red and onyx colours of Toronto FC, it was more games, after the side’s 1-0 defeat to Miami at BMO Field in its regular-season finale saw time run out on the 2024 season, with later results ultimately condemning the side to a third successive year of missing the playoffs.
Certainly the only person from the red side of the equation who might have come away from the game with something to show for it was TFC talisman Lorenzo Insigne. After putting in something of a cameo himself off the bench, the second-highest-paid player in Major League Soccer – behind Messi – made a beeline for the Miami captain and secured his coveted No. 10 jersey as a souvenir.
He undoubtedly secured a better memento than the majority of the five pitch invaders who tried – unsuccessfully – to get to Messi during the final five minutes of the game. Only the first – a young boy wearing an FC Barcelona jersey – secured as much as a selfie with arguably the greatest living soccer player on the planet before he was bundled away by a beefed-up security presence. Afterward, it was announced on the PA system that the trespassers would receive lifetime bans from all Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment venues.
In truth, as far as Messi memories go, this game lacked the signature moments that have long defined the career of Argentina’s World Cup-winning captain. Even this season, at 37 years of age, the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner has largely produced on the pitch, with 17 goals and 15 assists in 18 games, most recently scoring twice in Miami’s 3-2 win at Columbus last Wednesday that secured the Supporters’ Shield as the regular season’s top team.
Instead, the 30,000 crowd on hand – many who had spent $200-plus for tickets – was left to wait until after the hour mark for a proper Messi sighting, with the former Barcelona star skipping the pregame warm-ups. And once on the pitch, instead of an arcing free kick or a defence-splitting slide-rule pass, they were left to watch Messi’s signature perambulatory patterns around the centre of the chewed-up pitch, biding time in his traditional energy-conservation mode while waiting for a moment to strike.
That moment never arrived, though he did manage a shot – one of four that Inter mustered all afternoon – which was blocked by Sigurd Rosted. His final statline in his 29 minutes of work was 13 passes and two fouls suffered, including one by Rosted that earned the TFC defender boos from around the stadium.
The bipartisan atmosphere made for a strange work environment for what amounted to a “do-or-die” game for TFC, as head coach John Herdman had said the day before. With TFC absolutely needing a win to stand any chance of advancing to the playoffs, Herdman was expecting Miami to rest its stars – there were 10 changes from the team that started against Columbus – and was expecting a tight game, where the narrowest of margins would decide the contest. He was proved right, with Leo Campana swivelling to score from Luis Suárez’s cross in the third minute of injury time.
“You’re in a game like that and you’re expecting the last 30 minutes to feel like it’s a pressure cooker for everyone, and it felt like a circus,” Herdman said. “When you bring the best player that’s ever walked the earth, I mean, what do you expect? I mean, it’s just a gift, I think, for the fans, the people of Toronto, to be able to see that man in the flesh. So … I understand it coming from the northeast of England. I can’t comprehend it, but I understand it.”
But even looking past Miami’s constellation of stars – with former Barcelona teammates Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba ably assisting Messi and Suárez – Miami’s roster showed a level of depth and ability that TFC can only aspire to.
With one game left before it starts its assault on the MLS Cup, Miami was able to completely rotate its starting lineup and still end up with the result it wanted as it closes to within one win of setting the MLS record for points in a season, now just two points back of the 2021 New England Revolution squad.
And while TFC outshot the visitors 15-4 – and 7-2 in shots on target – the Achilles’ heel that has plagued Herdman’s side all season is a lack of clinical cutting edge in front of goal.
“You can’t hide it. We are not as ruthless or as clinical as other teams,” he said. “We see Miami get that one big opportunity, and it’s taken. …
“But it just hasn’t been good enough in this last four months, and you know, we’ll have to look hard at ourselves. We were in a playoff fight but I don’t think we had enough punch in that fight.”
With Miami now preparing for its shot at history, and the franchise’s first MLS Cup, Toronto will have to go back to the drawing board, just as it has done the past three off-seasons. But Herdman, who is still under investigation by Canada Soccer for his use of drones when he was in charge of the national teams, reiterated his commitment to this team and his squad, and seems determined to right the ship.
“I think the critical piece is, it is going to take some time,” he said. “I’ve learned that, and I’ve learned that MLS is a beast. This is a beast. And you need a deep squad of very committed human beings that can win football matches consistently.”