Believe it or not — and I’m not sure I do, even on replay — Andrew Brody had the best view of the Lionel Messi experience on an opening night that showed what to expect this Inter Miami season.
Which is anything.
Or maybe everything?
“If anybody was skeptical about what this team can do, I think the first half showed them,’’ Inter Miami coach Tata Martino said after Miami’s 2-0 win against Real Salt Lake.
In the middle of it all, still the most important figure in the world of soccer, was the 36-year-old who seemed unhurried, even demonstrably patient, as the night accelerated around him.
Messi made it all happen again on this first night back, and that doesn’t just mean on the field. It was the continued craziness around this team. Has any team — any league, really — been built by one player?
South Florida has had LeBron James with the Miami Heat, though he had prime-time superheroes in Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Dan Marino carried the Miami Dolphins franchise for a decade, though those teams never won anything important.
Messi has picked up the MLS as and twirled it on his marketing fingers. That’s why MLS Commissioner Don Garber was on hand to say, “There’s more buzz around Major League Soccer globally than there even is domestically.”
It’s why Apple TV vice president Eddy Chu admitted to being “shocked” by how many subscribers Messi brought since last summer to their MLS package.
The anecdotal evidence offered an unchanged world in the opener, too. A line of 100 people waited to enter the Inter Miami store to buy a pink jersey an hour before the game like there was Thursday — and as the racks of jerseys showed the typical buy was No. 10. Messi. The line stretched to 200 people a half-hour before the game.
Actor Will Smith was there, too, chatting up Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham. Or was Beckham chatting up Smith? It’s hard to know the pecking order of these things.
But the prime course was Brody. The injured Salt Lake defender lay on the ground like a traffic cone in the second half when Messi moved with the ball like a freight train toward him in front of the Salt Lake net.
What to do?
Messi chipped up the ball so it nearly rolled over Brody’s body. He ran around the prone body to pick it up on the other side of the defender and uncorked a shot that was unfortunately blocked. So, maybe you can’t expect everything at these games after all.
Even Messi smiled on the field at that play. It wouldn’t have been a goal as much as a parlor trick.
All those still making “Messi free live stream” the top Google search of the night might have missed it. But right from the first episode this second season, everything began with Messi, even if it didn’t end with him.
He had an assist on the first Inter Miami goal, a shot by Robert Taylor that should have been saved. Messi also made the straight-line midfield run late in the second half to stress the Salt Lake defense before passing to Suarez, who passed to an open Diego Gomez for the second goal.
He had a free kick stopped from an early goal by a defender set up at the post. He went through four defenders — including putting the ball through two legs — before lofting a pass that Gomez sent wide of the goal.
Once, he even tattooed a shot into the face of Salt Lake’s Brayan Vera, who went down as some Inter Miami teammates wanted a hand ball. Were they kidding? It was such a header it was a facial.
“He can take the ball far away from the goal and the feeling everyone gets is that there is promise of a goal,” Martino said of Messi.
The second half showed a tired Inter Miami team. Old, too. Sergio Busquets, who goes non-stop, began cramping up. Suarez seemed to teeter on knees far past their prime.
“A tale of two halves,’’ Martino said.
The opener was the story of a star playing like one. Messi showed he’s still in charge of a season where everyone expects everything.
