Messi locks in just as the World Cup comes calling

Even by Lionel Messi’s standards, it was a special goal.

Luis Suarez started the attack, running in at an angle from the left flank, weighing his options about who to pass when he saw Messi, emerging in-between two opposition players, unmarked.

The Uruguayan passed the ball to the Argentine, who took it in on his right foot but couldn’t keep it for very long as he ran into Cincinnati’s centre-back Matt Miazga.

Miazga tried to kick the ball as far away from his goal as possible but couldn’t, as Messi had the wherewithal to place his right foot in the line of the shot. The ball then ricocheted off Miazga and fell to Inter Miami forward German Berterame.

Berterame then floated the ball towards Messi, who was inside the Cincinnati penalty area. The 38-year-old controlled the ball with his chest and with surgical precision struck it in-between the onrushing Cincinnati goalkeeper Roman Celentano and the left post with the outside of his left boot.

It was a goal, a stunning one at that, one that could be added to Messi’s highlight reel. Even the stunned away crowd at the TQL Stadium in Cincinnati acknowledged Messi’s genius with a collective gasp that was audible on air – only for a moment.

Messi had successfully netted the ball, but he was offside while doing it. So, rightfully, the goal was chalked off.

This moment of Messi magic had arrived inside five minutes of Inter Miami’s match against Cincinnati in the Major League Soccer (MLS) on Thursday.

It was an action-packed match which featured eight goals, five from Miami and three from Cincinnati.

Messi ended the match with a brace – two goals that seem pretty ordinary compared to the one ruled out earlier – and an assist.

He very nearly had completed a hat-trick in the 89th minute, when his sliding right-footed strike hit the post and then went in. But replays showed that the ball took a touch off the Cincinnati keeper after hitting the post before going in, and hence it was ruled as an own goal.

This was a great match for Messi, and it came on the back of two similarly great outings, where he struck two goals and three assists.

Overall, Messi has scored 11 goals, made four assists in 12 games in the MLS this year, looking sharper as the season has progressed.

Messi’s seasonal progression has somewhat mimicked how he plays now. He no longer runs around the field at full throttle like he used to do when he scored 91 goals for Barcelona in the 2011-12 season. He now conserves his energy, often strolling on the field, observing the flow of the game before springing into life when it matters.

In this MLS season, Messi has been slowly revving up to his game, and is now looking close to his best, right in time for the FIFA World Cup.

Messi and his Argentina team go into the upcoming World Cup to do something that hasn’t been done since Garrincha’s Brazil did it in 1962 – win back-to-back World Cups.

Many had seen the end of Messi’s international career when he achieved immortality in Qatar 2022.

But Messi did not hang up his boots. Instead, he went to the MLS – a league not as intense as the top European ones.

Since then, he has carried on amazing MLS fans with his brilliance, won a Copa America with Argentina in 2024 in the US and is now ready for what is likely to be his last dance with the Albiceleste in the upcoming World Cup in US, Mexico and Canada.

Inter Miami has two more games left before the World Cup, giving two more opportunities for Messi to sharpen his tools before the battle for glory begins on June 12.