Messi scores, Callender shines, Inter Miami wins Leagues Cup in 11-round PK shootout
The Lionel Messi traveling circus stopped in the Music City Saturday night and fans who traveled long distances and paid big bucks to see the Argentine icon and his Inter Miami teammates play Nashville SC in the Leagues Cup final were treated to a thriller.
Messi scored on a brilliant strike, his 10th goal in seven games, and Inter Miami overcame its toughest test yet this tournament, surviving a dramatic 11-round penalty kick duel 10-9 to win its first trophy in team history.
When it was all over, the jubilant pink-clad Miami players tossed Messi up in the air as thousands of Miami and Messi fans in the stadium celebrated. Messi has lifted the entire club since his arrival last month, and now it was his teammates’ chance to lift him. Goalkeeper Drake Callender also deserved to be feted, as he came up with several huge saves, including the game-winning save on Nashville keeper Elliot Panicco’s attempt in the shootout.
“What happened tonight is amazing, this is for the City of Miami, for our fans after so many years of sacrifice,” said Inter Miami managing owner Jorge Mas. “This was a spectacular final. To see Lionel with that smile, all the guys how they are playing. This will be the first of many trophies for this team.”
Co-owner David Beckham, whose journey with this project began nine years ago, was emotional in the tunnel after the trophy ceremony.
“It was a very special night, but it wasn’t easy,” Beckham said. “Nashville put up an incredible fight, but it was our night. It’s an emotional night. It’s been a long journey for me, but a few years back I found the perfect partners to be on this journey with me, and that was the Mas family...I always knew there would be bumps in the road along the way and there was too many, but this is a night we are going to enjoy.”
Asked if the team’s turnaround in the past five weeks seems like a movie, Beckham smiled and said: “It does. Every time Leo scores one of these goals, every time Busi (Sergio Busquets) makes one of these passes, every time Jordi (Alba) makes one of these runs, people say `Is it a fix?’ and that’s the biggest compliment anyone can give these players. It is like a movie. You watch them play and everything about their play and mannerism is beautiful, and everything about them off the pitch beautifull, so it’s emotional.”
With the victory, Inter Miami earns $2 million and an automatic berth in the Round of 16 in the 2024 CONCACAF Champions Cup.
“For it to come down to that moment was crazy, it was definitely a first for me,” Callender said about converting Miami’s final PK and then stopping Nashville’s final attempt. “For it to come down to PKs was exciting and something that you dream about as a kid to be put in these moments to figure out what you’re made of.”
The Miami players rejoiced as if they had won the World Cup. They came out of the locker room singing and drenched in champagne. Messi got a huge hug from Beckham, Jorge and Jose Mas, who paid for game tickets for 150 of the most ardent “La Familia” fans and chartered a flight for the team staff and players’ families.
The Geodis Park sellout crowd of 30,109 appeared to be about three quarters yellow and one quarter a mixture of Messi’s pink and black Inter Miami shirts and his Argentina No. 10 jersey.
Saturday afternoon, large groups of Inter Miami fans could be seen strolling on Broadway in downtown Nashville, taking in the honkytonk music. By nightfall, they were banging drums, chanting in Spanish and rocking the upper corner of the stadium.
A Nepalese woman with Messi’s face tattooed on her cheek spent $1,540 for two tickets to watch the man she said she loves more than her husband.
An El Salvadoran man who lives in Arkansas celebrated his 28th birthday with a road trip to the game.
A 24-year-old Venezuelan who lives in Doral spent $825 for a seat near the corner flag so he could get close to Messi only to learn he would be prohibited from wearing a Messi shirt because his seat was in the Nashville supporters’ section.
Hundreds of other fans drove overnight from South Florida for the occasion.
They got to witness Messi’s brilliance in the 24th minute of the game, when he somehow got around defender Walker Zimmerman’s extended leg and angled himself to launch a rocket of a shot past three other defenders into a tiny space in the upper left corner as dumbfounded Nashville goalkeeper Elliot Panicco dove to no avail.
Messi has scored in every game he has played in a Miami shirt.
Nashville scored the equalizer in the 57th minute with a header off a corner kick from Fafa Picault, a Haitian American who spent much of his youth in Miami.
The game was everything Messi fans hoped it would be.
Miami had a chance to win it in the closing minute of regulation but Leo Campana missed on two shots after the Nashville keeper came way out. His second shot clanked off the post, and sent the game into penalties.
Nashville’s Randall Leal missed the second PK, and Inter Miami’s Victor Ulloa missed the fifth.
Fans explained with passion why they went to such lengths to see the Argentine star play on Saturday night.
“It’s my dream to see my hero play in a final, and I can’t believe I am here,” said Luis Doejo of Doral, who planned to wear a Messi jersey under his shirt despite sitting amongst Nashville fans. “My Dad made me a Barca fan since I was four, and you could see that Messi is just different. It doesn’t feel like he’s a human being. I don’t want to say I’m his biggest fan because a lot of people probably feel that way, but it feels like I know him even though I have never been close to him or talked to him.”
Bidhya Katwal, a Nepal native, spent $1,540 for two tickets, $10 to have Messi’s face tattooed on her cheek and drove six hours from Reynoldsburg, Ohio for the game. “Messi is my first love, and my husband is my second love, and he loves Messi more than me, as well. I am an Inter Miami fan now. Wherever Messi goes, that is my team.”
Kevin Peralta, 19, of Peekskill, N.Y., said: “Me and my friends said, `If Messi makes it to the final, we’re going.’ We spent $800 each for tickets, totally worth it.”
Before the game, NBA star and Nashville SC part-owner Giannis Antetokounmpo walked on to the field and was booed by Inter Miami fans, who broke into a “Let’s Go Heat!” chant. Giannis then leaped into the air and did Cristiano Ronaldo’s “Siu!” celebration, leading Miami fans to boo again and chant “Messi! Messi!”
After the game ended, as fireworks filled the sky and Miami players stepped on the stage to get their trophies, those Messi chants rang out again. “Messi! Messi!”
He delivered. Again.
