And Lionel Messi rested in Game 9.
Messi was left out of the starting line-up in a move that failed to satisfy football fans in the New York area, especially those who spent exorbitant amounts of money to see the international superstar in action. His place in the game remained in doubt.An enthusiastic road match against the Red Bulls in Harrison, New Jersey, on Saturday night.
The 36-year-old Messi scored 120 RBIs in what was a blast in his MLS regular-season debut and his first appearance in the tri-state area since joining David Beckham’s club from Paris Saint-Germain in July. After recording, the game began on the bench. Minutes into Wednesday’s U.S. Open Cup semi-final victory over Cincinnati FC.
The match represented Miami’s eighth straight tournament and cup win, including the League Cup trophy. The brilliant Argentinian forward played the full 90 minutes for Cincinnati, scoring 10 goals and three assists, including two set-ups.
Because of the workload, coach Tata Martino was forced to take a full rest that night, and also on Friday, when the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner as the world’s best player sat back on Saturday night when MLS games resumed. suggested it might.
The same import player Sergio Busquets was also removed from the starting lineup.
Until Messi’s arrival last month, Inter Miami were bottom of the Eastern Conference with a record of 5-14-3 and 14 points to the final ninth place in the playoffs with 12 games to go.
With seven games in 23 days, three of which ended in penalties, Martino said on Wednesday night that Messi and the rest of the players were “reaching their physical limits”, adding to the so-called load management in the NBA. Said it might be needed.
Martino also insisted that his decisions were not swayed by public or league pressure.
“I understand the expectation that the world will be watching him. I can’t deny that,” Martino told reporters at the team hotel in New York on Friday. “But we can’t act on it, because then we risk doing the wrong thing.
“My only concern is whether he will be able to play. Throughout his career, he always wants to play every game and sometimes I have to convince him to stop to recover. Sometimes he has to, but I don’t pay attention to outside pressure when deciding whether he should play.”
The former Barcelona and Mexico coach has said Messi will also miss the international match against 2022 World Cup champions Argentina next month.
Inter Miami will be in contention for another trophy in the US Open Cup final against the Houston Dynamo on September 27.
“We understand the burden of restarting the league schedule with all the cups we have played, from reaching the League Cup final to the US Open Cup semi-finals,” Martino said.
“And we have to take it seriously, but over the past month and a half we have had a lot to deal with and we have to see how the players feel. not.
“We had some players who finished the game against Cincinnati with minor injuries and were tired, so that will be factored into my decisions on the roster on Saturday.”
Saturday’s game was scheduled to be streamed on Apple-+ TV and was also scheduled to be shown on Times Square’s big screen.
Tickets sold for hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars on the secondary market.
“At some point it is inevitable that we will be without him,” said Martino.
“We have to find a solution.”
