FORT LAUDERDALE — When Lionel Messi recorded his 405th career assist Saturday night, it was a nice pass, an international record and also gave Inter Miami some necessary breathing room with a 3-1 lead en route to their Eastern Conference championship.
“Mes-si!” the latest sellout crowd at Chase Stadium chanted. “Mes-si!”
Still, the moment that spoke of not just this night but Messi’s larger adventure with Inter Miami came after the celebratory fireworks and obligatory confetti following a 5-1 win against New York FC. Messi stood on the field 30 minutes after the game, milling around, celebrating the three goals of teammate Taddeo Allende, sharing a laugh with team owner Jorge Mas and generally enjoying this next step.
In the coming week, the kind the kind of question that’s been asked since his grand, MLS adventure started will be repeated:
Does he need to win next Saturday’s championship to confirm this chapter as a success?
Answer: Let’s not be silly.
Messi got MLS an Apple TV deal, brought sellouts to every stadium, led the league with 29 goals and 20 assists in 28 games this season and, as Saturday’s final scene showed, seems to be enjoying himself all the way.
This isn’t LeBron James coming to the Miami Heat to reach the mountaintop. This isn’t even close to soccer’s mountaintop anyway. Whatever hardware Inter Miami could win at home next Saturday would be relegated into the overflow portion of his trophy case.
So, no, Messi isn’t the issue here.
The better question: Does Inter Miami as an organization need a title to validate the years spent chasing Messi, the millions of dollars spent on him and the surrounding European talent and all the international attention around this team?
That’s a different matter. It’s one Inter Miami look ready to provide a good answer to, too. They’ve now outscored their three playoff opponents 13-1 over the past three games, after a regular season in which they only earned the third seed.
“We got hammered tonight with five goals, and the way we conceded the goals was so unlike us,” New York FC coach Pascal Jansen said. “I haven’t seen that before.”
Nor had Inter Miami until a few games ago, when they got some odd fortune to line up with Messi. Nashville appealed three days after their Game 2 loss and the MLS suspended Inter Miami legend Luis Suarez for the deciding Game 3.
His replacement, 19-year-old Mateo Silvetti, played with such speed in that 4-0 clinching win that coach Javier Mascherano made a bold decision. He started Silvetti over Suarez in the succeeding game against Cincinnati. Miami won that 4-0, too.
“It was a hard decision,’’ Mascherano said. “But the results made it easier.”
Messi is the creative force field for Inter Miami. But there was Allende taking the kind of long passes that have become staples in this reborn offense and scoring Saturday’s opening two goals. There, too was Silvetti accelerating en route to taking a beautiful, back-heel pass from Jordi Alba to make it 4-1.
“Perfect,’’ Mascherano called the play.
Jansen had a different word.
“The word is naivete,’’ he said of being outscored 3-0 after intermission. “We were very naïve in the second half.”
You expect Inter Miami’s experience to create such moments for young teams like New York. But even as Inter Miami climbs to the title game it’s undergoing change, as Allende and Silvetti show. Messi’s Barcelona teammates, Alba and Sergio Busquets, already have announced their retirements after this season.
Suarez might not be far behind, considering his benching of late.
That means only Messi is assured back among the legendary names to open the franchise’s new stadium in Miami. That puts more meaning into next Saturday’s championship. It’s not that Messi needs to win to prove anything. What’s left to prove?
But he surely wants to win to end this time with his good friends. And to start this time with his young forwards. As he stood walking around the field long after Saturday’s win, he seems to be enjoying this in a way that says this chapter is just what he wants. Does he need a MLS title? No, but it’d be nice to have anyway.
