Tag: Drake Callender

Callender: Messi ‘just wants to be one of the guys’

“I just did my best to help him feel welcome. I tried not to fanboy or anything”

Inter Miami goalkeeper Drake Callender has praised Lionel Messi’s humility, saying the Argentine superstar “just wants to be one of the guys” at his new club.

Messi has transformed Inter Miami since his July arrival, with the club going on a 12-game unbeaten run that was snapped last weekend after a 5-2 defeat to Atlanta United — a game Messi sat out.

The Argentina legend has been on an individual tear as well, scoring 11 goals in the 11 games he’s played so far with Inter Miami. Despite Messi’s status as an all-time great, Callender said that his new teammate has simply tried to be a normal member of the team since his arrival.

“He’s a great teammate. He’s kind of shy and, you know, soft-spoken. I always have to think that this guy is coming to a whole new league, a whole new country. He’s probably trying to get settled. Everything is new for him, you know?” Callender told U.S. Soccer’s website ahead of next week’s U.S. Open Cup final against Houston.

“So I just did my best to help him feel welcome. I tried not to fanboy or anything and I think we’ve developed your pretty average standard teammate relationship.

“I see his dedication to the sport and to this team. In the short time he’s been with us, he’s really bought into what we’re trying to do and he’s made some great contributions on the field and off. He just wants to be one of the guys, you know? He wants to be one of our teammates and he’s very humble and that’s something that I respect a lot.”

Callender has been on a rapid rise himself, going from a third-stringer in Miami to one of the best goalkeepers in MLS and now a three-time U.S. men’s national team call-up.

The 25-year-old said that he’s learned a lot from his USMNT camps as he looks to absorb as much as he can from experienced international stars.

“You’re wearing the crest. You’re playing with the best players in your country and you’re competing against some of the best competition in the world,” he said. “There’s just something special that comes with representing your country.

“I’m learning from guys who’ve been to World Cups, who’ve played in different competitions around the world and represented our nation plenty of times. I’m learning from their mentality. Their approach to the game has really helped me become a more competitive player.”

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Messi, Inter Miami claim Leagues Cup trophy over Nashville SC

Messi wins a trophy? You don’t say!

Inter Miami without Lionel Messi? Cellar dwellers.

With Messi? Unbeaten in seven, and now Leagues Cup champions.

Messi and Miami claimed the club’s first-ever trophy, defeating Nashville SC on penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw at Geodis Park. Messi scored, as is seemingly a thing that will happen in every appearance he makes for the Herons, but a gritty Nashville side showed there is a way to hang in there against a star-studded Miami side.

Every team that has tried to solve the problem that is Messi, Sergio Busquets, and Jordi Alba has taken a different tack.

Nashville’s approach? Gary Smith choosing a pair of defensive midfielders and the two hardest-working pressing wingers on the roster pointed to a more conservative approach, but Nashville opted for a mid-block with some bouts of high pressing as opposed to a pure park-the-bus approach.

Miami had scored in the 12th minute or earlier in each of Messi’s first five starts, but Nashville’s approach kept the Herons from so much as a single shot attempt until Robert Taylor tested Elliot Panicco — something of a surprise starter in goal — in the 21st minute.

Unfortunately for the hosts, even the best approach can be undone because Messi is Messi. He’ll score the kinds of goals that he alone can score.

Cue the highlight!

However, despite the wizardy, Nashville’s plans were largely working: Miami had plenty of the ball, but walked in at halftime with just two shots.

Nashville needed more than that, though, and ended up looking to its own favorite trick for a goal: a scrappy set piece amid a mosh pit inside the box. Fafà Picault would end up getting the final touch.

Messi nearly produced another wondergoal in the 70th minute, bursting away from Dax McCarty to uncork a long-range rocket that slapped off Panicco’s left post.

Nashville’s big names aren’t, you know, Messi or Sergio Busquets, but they’re still major threats. Seven minutes after Messi’s threat, Hany Mukhtar and new addition Sam Surridge carved out a two-on-two counter against Miami. Surridge saw his low shot saved well by Callender, while Mukhtar’s follow-up was deflected inches wide.

If anything, Messi’s shot off the woodwork seemed to be Miami’s last push for goal, as heavy legs on an aging side that had seen little rotation gave Nashville an opening. Mukhtar and Surridge both forced Callender into reflex saves as the hosts smelled an opening for a winner.

However, that set the stage for an unreal sequence for the game’s final kick: Busquets caught Nashville throwing numbers forward, playing substitute Leo Campana in alone.

Campana dinked the ball over Panicco, whose follow-through took out the retreating Shaq Moore. Surely, this was it.

Well…

Leagues Cup matches go straight to penalties if tied at full time, meaning that what followed that bizarre sequence was a coin toss. Messi and Busquets converted, and while Mukhtar did the same for Nashville, Randall Leal had his effort in the second round kicked away by Callender.

Miami was one kick away in the fifth round, but Victor Ulloa was denied by Panicco, and Surridge kept Nashville alive.

On into the night it went. 12 straight players stepped up, and 12 straight finished clinically. Callender, in round 11, put his spot kick into the roof of the net, a shot a striker would be proud of.

Just seconds later, the 25-year-old offered one better, saving Panicco’s shot and giving Miami its first-ever trophy, and Messi his 44th.

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