In Inter Miami’s victory, Lionel Messi made the referee react and reached more than 1.5 million views without touching the ball.
Just Lionel Messi ‘s stuff . A long and eternal wait of 105 days came to an end for the Argentine player to return to the pitch after an injury to his right ankle. Not only was he the great figure in Inter Miami ‘s victory against Philadelphia Union , he was also the protagonist of a reaction from the referee of the match without having to touch the ball.
In the lead-up to the matchday on September 14, Philadelphia Union coach Jim Curtin warned at a press conference that “this weekend we play against the best team in MLS , in their stadium, with the possibility of Messi returning. We have to prepare for that, prepare for their best group .” Said and done! The return took place and in what form.
From the start, Inter Miami was faced with the challenge of turning around a match that they had lost after two minutes with a goal from Mikael Uhre, but three old acquaintances would come together to equalise. Jordi Alba passed the ball to Luis Suárez and the ball reached Leo Messi first time so that, in two movements, a hook and a cross shot, he scored the one on one.
Four minutes passed and a cross from Alba found Lionel Messi on the penalty spot. Boom! The second goal came for Inter Miami with a left-footed shot and it was time to start controlling the game by keeping the ball as far away from the goal defended by Drake Callender as possible. It was during one of these actions that referee Sergii Boiko ‘s decision that went viral came.
The premise of the MLS is that the least amount of time possible is lost in matches and, for that reason, for the 2024 season, the rule was introduced that if a player is treated on the field for more than 15 seconds, he must leave the field for two minutes. Messi already suffered this new rule on May 11 and now he had to see how a referee reacted against him without even touching the ball.
Without touching the ball, Messi made the referee react and went viral
It was the 41st minute of the second half when Leo Messi went to take a corner kick. Up to that point, everything was normal, but the Inter Miami player took 31 seconds without touching the ball or taking the corner, which led to referee Sergii Boiko reacting by giving him a yellow card . While ESPN Argentina published the video on Instagram and reached more than 1.5 million views, X was also not far behind and exceeded 33,000 views.
The record that only Messi could achieve in the history of the MLS
With two goals and an assist in Inter Miami’s win over the Philadelphia Union, Lionel Messi reached fifteen goals and the same number of assists in 19 MLS games to become the player who reached these records the fastest in the history of the United States League. Record! And that is despite the fact that of the 57 games that the North American team has played since the Argentine ’10’ arrived , Leo was in 30 and missed 27.
