As Lionel Messi soared to the highest of world soccer, and established himself because the , a loud minority of skeptics, most of them British, would : Positive, Messi might dazzle on a sunny Saturday afternoon in Spain, however can he do it on a chilly, wet evening at Stoke?
Over time, it morphed right into a meme. When Messi moved to Miami, it morphed into American variations. And this week, as , it took on new life: May Messi do it on a freezing chilly evening in Kansas?
The definitive reply got here Wednesday evening: Sure.
Together with his physique sheathed in black, and hand-warmers in his gloves, and a minus-8-degree wind chill biting at his cheeks, Messi scored the one objective of a CONCACAF Champions Cup knockout-round first leg in opposition to Sporting KC.
Early within the second half, he took a ball down deftly on his chest, wriggled away from Kansas Metropolis defenders, and completed together with his proper foot, off the within of the far publish.
He was not at his finest all through the 90 minutes — however no one was. The temperature was 4 levels Fahrenheit at kickoff. The circumstances have been so depressing that, regardless of the celebrities on present, the stands at Kids’s Mercy Park in Kansas Metropolis, Kansas, have been half empty. Many followers had been skeptical that Messi would even present up, as a result of, properly, why the heck would you threat the GOAT with a full season forward of him?
However present up is precisely what Messi did.
He and his Inter Miami teammates hopped on a aircraft Wednesday morning; they disembarked in puffy parkas and winter hats, ready for the kind of chilly Messi had by no means skilled.
And, in one of many coldest soccer video games on U.S. soil ever recorded, with each heavy breath seen and illuminated by floodlights, they beat Sporting 1-0. They will head again to Miami subsequent week for the second leg with a bonus.
And Messi? In 12 months 3 at Inter Miami, he’s off and working. He wanted solely 56 minutes on a freezing chilly evening in Kansas.