Worth the hype! Messi scores last-minute free-kick goal to beat Cruz Azul in Miami debut

The hype was all worth it. Lionel Messi’s debut was as thrilling as anyone could have imagined and had a storybook ending no one could.

There was essentially no time left on the clock in the first game of the 2023 Leagues Cup and Messi, still barely 30 minutes into his career with Inter Miami CF, stepped up for a free kick after drawing a foul only a few feet outside the box. For his entire life, he has made this shot — from the playgrounds of Argentina all the way to the World Cup — and he did it again Friday in Fort Lauderdale, in his first game with Major League Soccer’s Inter Miami.

With his magical left foot, Messi lofted a shot toward the top left corner of the net and scored a game-winning goal in stoppage time. Miami beat Cruz Azul, 2-1, on one of the final kicks of his first match with his new team.

“What I saw was the goal,” Messi told Apple TV+, through an interpreter. “I saw the goal. I knew that I had to score. It was the last play of the game and I wanted to score so we didn’t go to penalties.”

The 36-year-old Argentine entered for the first time in the 54th minute and immediately dazzled, stringing together scoring chance after scoring chance and finally scoring the most thrilling goal in the history of this still-young franchise just before time expired.

Miami was up 1-0 when Messi checked in, then fell into a 1-1 tie after Cruz Azul, of Mexico’s Liga MX, equalized in the 65th minute and then Messi saved the day with the type of goal that made him perhaps the best player in the history of the sport.

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With arms outstretched, Messi ran to the right corner and wrapped one arm each around striker Josef Martinez and right back Christopher McVey. His new teammates mobbed him and then Messi waved his hands to fire up the crowd. He ran across the field and found his family — his wife and three children were such a big part of why he chose to sign with Miami rather than Al Hilal SFC of Saudi Arabia’s Saudi Professional League earlier this summer — to celebrate yet another memorable goal in a career full of them.

A few feet away, owner David Beckham was in tears. The great gambit to bring Messi to Miami, which the franchise has been piecing together for years, finally paid off with an unbelievable first chapter.

“It’s common for him and that’s why for us it’s absolutely normal,” new coach Gerardo Martin said, through an interpreter, “but it’s not.”

The idea of Messi playing for Miami has been around for essentially as long as the team has existed. The superstar attacking midfielder vacations in South Florida and more than 50,000 Argentine Americans call the Miami metropolitan area home. Messi’s fit in Miami has always seemed natural, were he to decide to follow in the footsteps of so many other legendary players and finish his career in the U.S.

Those dreams inched toward reality across much of the last year, closed in on inevitability last month when he turned down a massive offer from Al Hilal, became an actuality last Saturday when he formally signed with Miami and it all led to this weekend, when he finally stepped on the field for the first time in Miami’s trademark pink and black.

The event — and it was an event, almost even more than it was a sporting event — drew Lakers superstar LeBron James, tennis legend Serena Williams, reality television star Kim Kardashian, Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and Latin musician Becky G, who also sang “The Star-Spangled Banner,” to Broward County to be part of the intimate crowd at DRV PNK Stadium to witness a little bit of sports history.

Beside them in attendance were a mix of diehard Miami supporters and newly interested bandwagon-hoppers, Argentinian super fans and hard-core soccer enthusiasts from across the Americas, Messi fans of all stripes and, of course, people just felt like they couldn’t miss out on the spectacle and chance to be even just a small part of history.

The Miami jerseys in the crowd were almost uniformly Messi’s. Multiple tifos handing in the supporters’ sections were repurposed to incorporate the No. 10 or even Messi’s name. Fans arrived early in droves, and then waited hours and hours until the moment he finally came into the game after more than 50 minutes.

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The match began, as expected, with Messi on the bench. He hugged James as he came out of the tunnel and found his place on the sidelines, squeezing in between striker Josef Martinez and star defensive midfieler Sergio Busquets, who played with Messi for more than a decade with FC Barcelona in Spain’s La Liga and followed his close friend to Miami on Sunday.

Even as Messi sat and watched from the side, it took fans less than a minute to start chanting his name and then they did it again in the ninth minute, and again in the 11th.

In the 44th, they finally exploded. Despite getting dismantled by Cruz Azul for most of the first half, Miami took a 1-0 lead into halftime when midfielder Robert Taylor attacked from the left wing, pinged a shot off the right post and got it to bounce past goaltender Andres Gudino. Messi leaped to his feet and rose both fists in the air to celebrate Miami’s first goal since he joined the team last week.

A go-ahead goal paled in comparison to what was to come. A win was ultimately low down on everyone’s list of priorities Friday. This night was all about Messi and the chants started again in the 46th minute, the first of the second half.

“Messi! Messi! Messi!” the crowd chanted, itching to finally see him get on the field and try to finish off Miami’s victory.

It didn’t take much longer. A few minutes later, Messi started to do some light jogging on the end line. A few minutes after that, he checked into a Miami game for the first time.

The fans were losing their minds. They could have never imagined just what they were about to see.