FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A verbal altercation between New York City FC and Inter Miami early in the first half helped to throw the visitors from the five boroughs out of whack and several minutes later, the Lionel Messi-led home side had taken a 2-0 lead.
While it wasn’t the ultimate reason that NYCFC’s season came to an end in the Eastern Conference Finals, the bit of gamesmanship helped set the tone for the chippy first half of the 5-1 loss to Inter Miami.
The shoving match that included Messi and fellow Argentine Maxi Moralez getting into each other’s faces went on for several minutes.
Messi could be seen having to be held back at one point, and in another instance, Thiago Martins was visibly pushing one Inter Miami player back, while Nicolás Fernández Mercau was being pushed.
“It’s normal. Things will happen inside the game,” Martins said about the scuffle. “You guys can see from the TV, but it’s normal things. Of course, we’re gonna be there for our friends, for our teammates, but they restart the game and we are not ready for [that]. And they score a goal.”
The New York City FC captain added that Inter Miami often likes to “ try to do this” — likely meaning getting under opposing teams’ skin — when they’re on the pitch.
Shortly after play restarted, Tadeo Allende scored his second of three goals on the night.
Moralez was spotted jawing with Rodrigo De Paul after the goal celebration as he walked back to midfield.
“You see there’s more challenges, there’s more fighting spirit in certain moments, but then we don’t get helped by the referee when we can see the second goal,” NYCFC head coach Pascal Jansen said following the loss. “Because we’re in a conversation. There’s debate in the middle, and he restarts the game without us being in a perfect shape. You all saw that it took like five minutes or so for that whole rumble to settle. So that can be naive, but also those moments don’t help.”
NYCFC were able to get a goal back before the half ended, but Inter Miami scored three more unanswered goals before the final whistle.
In total, referee Jon Freemon handed out eight yellow cards during the Eastern Conference Finals.
