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!
Out of this WORLD. 💫
Take a bow, Leo Messi. pic.twitter.com/qm90VJtVbc
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) August 20, 2023
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.
SET. PIECES.
Fafa gets the final touch to bring @NashvilleSC level! #LeaguesCup2023 pic.twitter.com/Ljnkpti6OF
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) August 20, 2023
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…
WHAT JUST HAPPENED?! 🤯 pic.twitter.com/1oWsikLLzk
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) August 20, 2023
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.
WHAT. AN. ENDING.
The moment Drake Callender won it with a save for @InterMiamiCF! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/Krx8sOfX6I
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) August 20, 2023
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