Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi controls the ball during second half MLS soccer action against Toronto FC in Toronto on Saturday Oct. 5, 2024.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
Long before a ball had been kicked, many fans’ worst fears were realized in the hour before the teams took the pitch at BMO Field in Toronto on Saturday afternoon.
The Major League Soccer match between Toronto FC and Inter Miami, one of the most hotly anticipated sporting contests to take place in the city this year, had sent sports fans scouring the online resale market in the days and weeks ahead of the match, with some paying well north of $200 a ticket to get in the stadium. But when the starting lineups were announced shortly after 3 p.m. ET, Lionel Messi’s name was conspicuously absent from the starting 11 for the visiting team.
If that wasn’t bad enough, a more detailed glance at the team sheet revealed that none of the famed former Barcelona quartet – Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba and Messi – were set to start the match, an MLS first in the time since Suarez joined the club in the off-season. And to make matters worse, particularly for the many in attendance wearing the pink-and-black Miami jerseys with a No. 10 on the back, Messi didn’t even take the field for warm-ups, denying his fans what would have been a rare glimpse of the Argentine World Cup winner in the flesh.
In fairness to Miami head coach Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino, it wasn’t just the star players who had been rested. The former Barcelona head coach had switched up 10 of the starting 11 that took the field on Wednesday in Columbus as Miami had secured the Supporters’ Shield as the regular-season champion with a 3-2 win.
Missing Messi: With his team headed to Toronto, will he or won’t he play?
But cometh the hour, cometh the man. With the match still scoreless with 60 minutes on the game clock, both Messi and Busquets returned from their warm-up routines and waited patiently to enter the field. Some in the crowd even called for Toronto FC – who were in possession of the ball at the time – to kick the ball into touch to allow the substitutions to take place.
But as from then on, every touch from the Argentine was positively welcomed by the crowd and his first shot – which was blocked by Sigurd Rosted in the 68th minute – elicited cries of “Messi! Messi! Messi!” TFC’s Rosted even got booed a little over 10 minutes later when he fouled the Argentine national-team captain, giving away a free-kick in the process.
Much like his appearance in Montreal in May – the only other time he has appeared on Canadian soil – Messi didn’t get his name on the scoresheet. But there were little moments of trademark Messi, from the perambulatory pace in which he operates much of the time, to little darts of pace and impeccable close control.
It didn’t come from the boot of Messi, but Miami ultimately grabbed a stoppage-time winner from Leo Campana to secure a 1-0 victory, all but eliminating Toronto FC from playoff contention in the process. TFC must now wait to see the results of the late games on Saturday, but if the Philadelphia Union or DC United gets so much as a point in their games, TFC will miss the playoffs for the third consecutive year.
For Messi’s teammates, the travelling roadshow that accompanies Miami on the road could be distracting in the team’s pursuit of a championship. But they don’t look at it like that.
“It’s not really a distraction,” Noah Allen, one of the Inter defenders, said. “I think it’s cool that they’re showing love for not only Leo and Lucho [Suarez] and Busi and Jordi, but for Inter Miami, you know, they’re not only wearing jerseys, they’re wearing Inter Miami jerseys, right? So they support us and I think it’s pretty dang cool that we get sold out crowds every time we travel.”
Going into the game, the hoopla made for the strangest of atmospheres for the home side, which entered the match in desperate need of a win to preserve any hope of making the post-season, a quest which had taken a heavy hit following Wednesday’s 4-1 home loss to the New York Red Bulls.
Somewhat predictably in a sport as factional and divisive as soccer, not all of the fans were enamoured with the Messi love-in. Some members of the hard core supporters groups in the south stand took to handing out white T-shirts to some of the pink-clad Messi fans around them in a bid to cover up the offending jerseys and restore a semblance of home-field advantage to a club that could sorely use any edge.
Though a scoreless – and Messi-less – first half did little to appease any of the fans in the stadium, three minutes into the second half the stadium starting to break out in cheers as the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner rose from his seat to jog down the touchline to begin warming up.
Though Miami had already secured home-field advantage throughout the playoffs by virtue of winning the Supporters’ Shield, there was still something in play for the men in pink. A pair of wins to close out the regular season would be enough to eclipse the all-time record for points in a season, set three years ago by the New England Revolution.
The anticipated arrival of Messi didn’t just up the expectation for the fans in the stadium. The security detail was significantly upgraded for this match, with the entire Miami team bus pulling up to the stadium and driving into a fenced-off compound for disembarking, a far cry from the usual fenceless affair.
The extra security was needed as the game headed toward its conclusion. First a young boy in a Barcelona shirt sprinted from the south stands to grab a selfie with Messi before he was hauled away, a moment of rashness that spawned a spate of copycats, none of whom got the cherished photo op that the initial pitch invader secured.
But for one of Messi’s teammates, fellow Argentine Oscar Ustari, who made his MLS debut in Saturday’s game, it’s all part of showing the love for some of the game’s greats.
“I’m another fan as well beyond being an Inter Miami player,” he said through a team translator. “It’s fantastic to see people, and I’m not surprised that people admire them so much.”
For Messi, the travelling circus now heads to Venezuela, where he will reprise his role as Argentina captain to lead his country into a pair of World Cup qualifiers before Miami closes out the regular season on October 19. For Toronto FC, barring a miracle, head coach John Herdman will be looking to next season.