Mohamed El Shenawy stretches, stretches out his hand, gets his fingertips on the ball, nudges it to the crossbar and thus prevents the result that you would have liked here. At least those fans who wear pink in Miami that evening, the jersey of the domestic team. Probably also those who wear blue and white, the jersey of Argentina, or blue-red, the jersey of FC Barcelona. And certainly those who praise and sell this tournament, the people at the World Football Association FIFA. Nothing would have been better than that Lionel Messi swells the ball from a very unlikely position very skillfully into the gate in added time, that he conjures up a 1-0 from a 0-0.
Because that's why Lionel Messi is here: to make the opening game of this club World Cup to make the best possible show from this tournament. Or rather: The club World Cup is able to upgrade the show in Miami, so that Messi, America's football star. This is, you have to assume that Inter Miami takes part in this tournament: that Messi should attract people, lend shine, arouse interest. And who asked people in America about the club World Cup the week before this game and looked in an uncomprehending faces, thought: this is probably necessary.
Messi comes the last, of course
That evening, however, when the opening show is done and the players are waiting in the tunnel, the stadium in Miami is still quite well filled. There are still many empty rows that do, but it is not the half -empty stadium that could be expected – despite the news of fallen ticket prices and free tickets for students, of the presence of the immigration authority ICE in the game and fans who are therefore afraid to go to the game. And despite the fact that there is a lot of different going on in America that day, where millions move through the cities and demonstrate against Donald Trump. A few hours before the kick -off, when in Fort Lauderdale, north of the stadium, and in Downtown Miami, south of the stadium, people stand on the streets, and you still have not seen a single football fan, so it seems pretty absurd that a major sports event should begin here on this day.
But that's how it is. So, shortly after 8 p.m. local time: performance Lionel Messi. Or, as the stadium spokesman calls: Meeessi. The people in the stadium are in voice, repeat the call, Messi trudges towards the center line. They have been called individually, as they always do in US sports, and Messi is the last, of course. The other 21 players are already there next to the golden trophy, in which the name of every participating club is once engraved. And the name of Gianni Infantino twice. Which fits well with the symbolism of the opening show, while people put small logos of the 32 participating clubs in an oversized FIFA logo. Including that from Messi's, Miami's opponent: Al Ahly SC.
Al Ahly, as it describes a fan before the game, is something like Bayern Munich in Egypt. It would probably be even more correct: the Real Madrid Africa. Because Al Ahly, 44 championships, 39 cup wins, twelve times winner of the African Champions League, is the most successful football club in the African continent. A football club that has a follower everywhere. And followers who travel everywhere.
Therefore the stadium is relatively full
This is the main reason why the stadium is relatively full at this opening game: because thousands of fans from Al Aly have come. If the impression is not completely deceptive, you are in the majority. Some live in Miami, others came from Egypt, from Canada, from other parts of the United States. Also from Germany. It is a big deal for them, this club World Cup. It was earlier when the tournament took place in winter and only took part in it. But this tournament now, they rate it even higher, says Islam, for example, who comes from Cairo. He had planned this trip since 2023, he says. And he thinks it is a historical opportunity: to open this tournament to play the first game of the new club World Cup. Against Inter Miami. Against Messi.
At Messi you are not sure in the first few minutes of this game whether he sees it: that this is a big deal. He loses the ball with his first dribbing trial because he cannot steal away from his opponent, where he might have been two or three meters away two or three meters away. Some of the first passes land with the opponent. And he's not the only one.
In Miami you have built something like a reincarnation of old FC Barcelona. The trainer is Javier Mascherano, who once led the duels for Messi, alongside Messi his friend Luis Suárez, Sergio Busquets, orders the midfield. But Suárez, 38, is neither as nimble nor as smooth as before. When Sergio Busquets plays a bad pass after twenty minutes without an Egyptian having bothered him, one wonders briefly whether he has ever played such a bad pass for FC Barcelona. And behind them defend two younger, but also significantly less talented central defenders, who are overwhelmed with the counterattacking Egyptians.
Only they are overwhelmed to shoot the ball into the goal. This applies to striker Wessam Abou Ali, who cannot bring the ball past Miami's goalkeeper óscar Ustari after five minutes. This applies to Emam Ashour, who shoots the ball from two meters on Ustari's left leg. This applies to Dari, the defender, whose header Ustari holds, and for Mahmoud Hassan, on whose jersey Trezeguet is because a youth coach once wanted to have recognized similarities with the Frenchman David Trezeguet. Ustari also holds his penalty shortly before half -time, and when Trezeguet stumbles on the margin, this fits into the picture of this first three -quarters of football.
You can see the patterns
For this, the people in the stadium, who did not come for the record champions from Egypt, but for the record player from Argentina, get the chance to watch Lionel Messi struggle for victory. Because in the second half of this game, in which the Egyptians appear tired, as if they were crushed by the humid, hot air in Miami, the man actually plays in the Rosan jersey like: Messi.
He steals past the opponent with his little steps and somehow hides the ball, he works with nimble double passes from the midfield towards the penalty area, he circulates the ball from there a couple of times. You can see the patterns, the movements that have shaped the game for two decades. But then a piece is missing to determine this game today: After 63 minutes, he shoots a free kick, after which those cheer on the ranks that wear a pink, a blue and white or a blue-red jersey. But the ball is not in the goal, the ball is next to the outer network. And the ball no longer flies into the goal in this game.
That is why late this evening, surrounded by dozens of reporters, an Argentine in late 30 in the Inter Miami jersey in the stadium's interview zone in front of a microphone, nesting with both hands on his water bottle, next to the player of the game. It is not Lionel Messi; The man after whom this game was oriented to ensure that people come to the stadium. It is his goalkeeper, Óscar Ustari: the man who was crucial for the fact that Inter Miami did not lose this game.
