After a complicated week in which they lost to Monterrey in the first leg of the quarterfinals of the Concacaf Champions Cup 2024, this Saturday Inter Miami returned to activity in Major League Soccer 2024 and the long-awaited return of Lionel Messi to the courts, after spending just under a month away from the playing fields due to a right hamstring injury.
Although he did not start the game against the Colorado Rapids as a starter, the fans present at Chase Stadium were able to see him on the field during the 45 minutes of the complementary half. It is true that the game had the best outlook for Las Garzas at the time the ’10’ came on as a substitute, but his football invited them to dream of taking the three units.
At the end of the initial stage, Chris Armas’ team took the lead thanks to a penalty from Ryan Sailor on Kevin Cabral, which was executed in a great way by Brazilian Rafael Navarro to beat Drake Callender. This sent everything 0-1 at halftime, but the Inter Miami captain had already done his warm-up to come on in place of Lawson Sunderland.
With Messi on the Chase Stadium grass, the 1-1 score came (57′) courtesy of the Argentine footballer himself. After a great play on the left, Franco Negri disguised himself as Jordi Alba to enable the ’10’ on the front of the visiting area, so the leader of Las Garzas did not waste the opportunity to finish with his first intention, causing the ball to hit the the post and went into Zack Steffen’s goal.
Following this, and in the midst of the whirlwind caused by the top leader of the ‘Tata’ Martino squad, the 2-1 scoreline appeared from the feet of Leo Afonso. Quickly in the 60th minute, Messi commanded an offensive transition for the home team and gave the ball to David Ruiz, who raised his face to enable the ’73’ in the heart of the area, the same opportunity that the 22-year-old Brazilian striker sent to save at the bottom of the networks.
Although Messi’s return provoked a great response from his teammates to turn it around, in the final minutes there were also some details that could worry ‘Tata’, since the team once again lacked more connection at the time of closing. the match to win. In a counter led by Calvin Harris, this man assisted Cole Bassett, who beat Callender with a cross shot and everything became 2-2 in the 87th minute.
Likewise, a detail that is not minor is that at the end of the first half Leonardo Campana was injured due to muscle discomfort in the posterior area of his right leg and towards the end of the duel Leo Afonso was the other element that had to leave due to an apparent muscle injury. It will be time to carefully review the origin of so many physical setbacks for Las Garzas.
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