While Paris Saint-Germain again dissected the weak defense of Inter Miami, allowing Achraf Hakimi to bring the score to 4-0, thoughts went to what the PSG head coach, Luis Enrique, with his players with the interval could say to his players.
At this stage, PSG had invalidated their American opponents and scored goals of simplicity that are usually reserved for training exercises or video games.
It was not impossible that the winners of the UEFA Champions League could match the 10-0 score Bayern Munich who had inflicted the semi-professional outfit Auckland City in the group phase. For Lionel Messi it threatened to become the toughest defeat of his career. Once with more than four goals, he has lost at club-level in the 8-2 defeat of Barcelona against Bayern Munich in the Champions League 2020 and once at international level of Argentina with 6-1 was defeated by Bolivia in World Cup in 2009. Inter Miami Head Coachier Javanano describes it as “kind”. Miami had not recorded a shot, a shot on goal or even earned a corner.
It was tempting to wonder, one day when the Stadium in Atlanta was dressed in a haze of Flamingo Pink and Messi Apparel, if Enrique could just play his players the meme of The Simpsons, when a child in the crowd already encouraged to stop beating the Krusty-Op-Op, he is dead! “
Certainly, his players did it easier in the second half, perhaps grace with grace on their spoiled opponents, while Miami showed some spirit. Messi had a few dribbles and cute accents, although it was not entirely clear what Mascherano had viewed when he claimed that “Leo was playing a great game”.
It all felt rather separate from reality, but also in accordance with the comic book and the superhero approach that was applied to Messi in the United States, where the individual seems to be king so often in the marketing of the sport in this country. Even if Messi has just been fine – it happens occasionally, even for him – superlatives must be applied.
It is not only Inter Miami who plays this album, but also MLS and his Omroep Apple, who sometimes seems to bring the entire Messi competition on the market, and also FIFA, whose ever -hectic and faltering attempts to wake the interest in the club's world cup last fall, the Argentian brought shoes.
After the last home game of Inter Miami from 2024, FIFA president Gianni Infantino introduced itself in the celebrations of winning the MLS supporters shield and collecting a record points.
Infantino took the microphone in a very unusual step after a domestic league match – which FIFA did not participate in organizing or promoting – and stole the show. Standing for the Miami players, and next to the owner of the franchise that owner Jorge Mas managed, he told the world that Miami would be given a place in the club World Cup, as a reward for having the best regular season record of the MLS. There would be no guaranteed place for the winners of the MLS Cup play-offs, which are generally considered the American champions.
From the outside it seemed that Infantino was determined to find a way for Messi, the most famous player in the US, even if that meant that the country usually assesses its most successful team of the season.
The Obsession of Infantino with star names was again underlined closer to the tournament when he proposed in an interview with Influencer Ishowspeed that conversations were underway for Cristiano Ronaldo to move to a team that participated in the competition. That movement has never been released, with Ronaldo signing an extension to the Saudi Arabian side Al Nassr.
The back door route of Miami was one of the cynical movements sent away from the tournament, as a step that gave priority to star names above real meritocracy, a carefully calibrated manipulation to fit into the supposed wishes of the audience. In the meantime we all know that individual players are often more 'followed' than club teams on social media, and the younger supporters, in particular, can go over from one team to another when a player is traded.
If everyone in Miami is satisfied with a team that seems to revolve around one man-a world where a former teammate of Barcelona is a coach and a trio of former Barcelona players are Miami teammates-this fair enough. Nevertheless, FIFA ran the risk of discrediting his competition, or to alienate fans in MLS and beyond, when Messi was made the center of this tournament.
At the same time, for homeless people on chairs and dollars in the bank, it was probably a good analysis of the wider American market, which is often under the spell of moments and characters. And if the Club World Cup would have a chance to win start-all, after many false starting representative, Messi's involvement that Infantino took a shot in the last chance Saloon.
When Messi went to MLS, teams saw opportunities to beat the prizes and milk the moment when the Argentinian was in the city. FIFA saw this trend and apparently aroused a piece of the action at the Club World Cup, a start-up tournament for which Infantino expectations that would probably never meet reality. Infantino had hoped for billions of dollars from broadcasters, but instead needed a rescue of $ 1 billion (£ 750 million) of the Dazn, who was still a long way for his first ambitions.
Sponsors came to the party late and several were modest add-ons to existing FIFA agreements for the World Cup next year. Others, via Saudi and Qatari entities, seemed to be extensions of further relationships developed with FIFA as hosts for the Men's World Cups in 2022 and 2034. Few broadcasters or brands seemed to see the global independent attraction of the World Cup before the tournament. Infantino also had an Albatros to put its neck out by it that competitions were organized in larger NFL stadiums, instead of the advice of some of his American FIFA colleagues to use more football-specific locations.
While all those issues were set up, the importance of Messi emerged. Miami not only got an unconventional route to the competition, but they would also start with the campaign in Florida in the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.
FIFA has again incorrectly enabled the consciousness and demand for his tournament and initially sold the cheapest tickets for the opener on the Egyptian side Al Ahly, a prize that fell hundreds closer to the game, with local students from Miami-Dade College and then five tickets for $ 20 in the week of the game.
Messi became the face of the tournament, building on its existing relationships with Adidas and InBev (who are also FIFA sponsors) to promote competition, while FIFA's Marketingblitz placed Billboards Messi Front and Center on the highway. It also seemed to work just about, with Inter Miami matches of more than 60,000 attendees in three of their four games (the exception was an afternoon group game in Atlanta against Porto that pulled 31,783).
Also on the field, Messi's commercial fame was justified by a Swish of his boot against Porto, while his free kick waved the game Miami's away and the momentum of their group shifted with it. Certainly, Miami offered more than Los Angeles FC or the Seattle Sounders in this tournament, and it is difficult to imagine that La Galaxy, the MLS Cup winners, evokes more fascinating view than the Miami veterans fighting for a final dance on top of club football.
Yet there are limitations, even on Messi's super powers, because football is a team sport, consisting of 11 players. According to the Power rangers of Opta Sport, based on weighted results, Inter Miami are the 151st best team in world football, a place under Wrexham, five places behind Preston North End and just above Charlton Athletic. In their more ragging periods against Al Ahly and Palmeiras, or their brutal spell of suffering against PSG, was looking at a reminder that this is a team that has plowed almost all their expenses in barely a handful of players, and that can be seen in their shortcomings.
Because football in the US is trying to grow, it may not really do that. After all, this Miami team provided a record points count last season, and if exposing Messi records a new audience, then it might be a valuable strategy. However, how sustainable that it is remains open to questions. Does these fans come back to view Miami after Messi leaves? Will there be a player who comes at the end of his career who can even replicate half the attraction of Messi? And does the competition continue to invest its biggest resources in players during retirement trips? How does MLS change his rules and does it help his teams to a place where they can really compete in future club world cups? These are all open questions, and there are many more.
Miami's opponents PSG offer a riposte to individualism that has seized in America and FIFA president. For more than ten years, as part of Qatar's brand building project before the World Cup in 2022, PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi seemed obsessed with star names, which it was assumed to offer a quick track for success. He signed them all: David Beckham, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Messi, Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and much more. It was only after they all moved, a team took shape under Luis Enrique, a team of players fighting for each other, harms damage and stretching every tendons of the ball.
Luis Enrique was asked by athletics to explain this evolution.
“It's special (our collective mind),” concluded the PSG head coach. “Every team wants to play in a collective way. This is not an individual sport. The most important thing is to be a team on and next to the ball. That is our idea.”