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HARRISON, N.J. — By the time the 60th minute rolled around, the boisterous — and largely pro-Lionel Messi — crowd had nearly reached a fever pitch at Sports Illustrated Stadium.
Messi, whose footprint had largely been all over Inter Miami’s 3-1 lead, finally found the back of the net himself in Saturday’s 5-1 Inter Miami win over the Red Bulls. And when he scored his second goal of the match in the 75th minute, the stadium shook with excitement.
Chants of “Messi!” echoed all around the building.
The Argentine superstar had set up Miami’s first two goals in the opening half before scoring for himself on a breakaway, faking out Red Bulls goalkeeper Carlos Coronel and easily putting the ball in a virtually empty net. Luis Suárez sent a cross into the box to Messi, who settled the ball, then booted in for his second goal, and to take control of the Golden Boot race.
For many of the fans in attendance, it was the perfect ending to a match that they had turned up to in order to get a glimpse of arguably the sport’s greatest player.
Hours before the match, fans had waited outside the stadium with signs, hoping to greet the Inter Miami bus as it pulled in, and a loud roar occurred when Messi took the pitch for pregame warmups.
More cheers broke out when Messi waved — as if he were a member of the Royal Family — to supporters hoping to get his attention before the match.
Red Bulls supporters did their best to drown out the South Florida invaders, as did the team on the pitch, but both couldn’t contain Messi mania as much as they tried.
The Red Bulls had gotten off to a much better start than Inter Miami to open the game, keeping much of the play in Miami’s end through the first 20 minutes of the match. Sean Nealis missed an attempt in the sixth minute and Noah Eile had a shot blocked on a shot just outside the box in the 14th minute.
Alexander Hack had given the Red Bulls a 1-0 lead in the 15th minute when he got his foot on a corner kick by Emil Forsberg, but the momentum swung moments after the Red Bulls had taken the lead.
Nearly 10 minutes later, Messi made a good pass into the box to Jordi Alba that allowed the Spanish footballer to bury a shot in the corner from a sharp angle in the 24th minute.
Inter Miami once again showed off its star-powered skill as Messi made another strong pass to Alba, who moved the ball over to Telasco Segovia for the one-timer to give Miami their first lead of the night.
Segovia made it a two-goal match when he scored his second of the night in stoppage time, when a loose ball inside the attacking zone ended up at his feet to easily fire back into the Red Bull net.
Dating back to May 4, 2024, the Red Bulls have been outscored by Inter Miami 15-4, with Messi appearing in all three of those matches, which included Saturday night.
The Red Bulls had been hoping to build momentum off their comeback win over New England on Wednesday and cling to the last playoff spot, which they were in entering the match against Miami.
Messi just had an MLS record of five straight games with multiple goals snapped earlier this week, but has now scored at least twice in six of his past seven matches.
