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En Cada Messi - Ep. 3
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On this episode Ari and Noah discuss the goat in the room: Messi has signed with Inter Miami. On the second half of the pod Ari gives his updated takes on the upcoming regular season match between the Seattle Sounders FC and Charlotte FC.
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Transcript
Messi's MLS Move: Motivations and Comparisons
00:00:00
Speaker
Yeah, the only thing I worry about, he doesn't speak English. I want to see him sit down and talk. One thing about David Beckham, he learned to speak English for us, only with an accent. When he came at 32 years old, Messi said this, if it had been a matter of money, I'd have gone to Arabia or elsewhere. It seemed like a lot of money to me. The truth is that my final decision goes elsewhere and not because of money.
00:00:24
Speaker
What's going on, everybody? Welcome in to episode three of Lobbing Scorchers. This is Ari Lillianwall. I got producer Noah here with me. Noah, say what's up to the people. What is going on, everybody? It's a beautiful day to be an MLS fan. We have got a great show for you today.
Cultural Impact of Messi's Arrival
00:00:44
Speaker
Third episode, third episode, and Lionel Messi is coming to MLS. The goat.
00:00:51
Speaker
The literal goat is coming to the league and we are going to spend most of this show just vibing out because I mean, this is crazy. Unprecedented, incredible headline news, front page news of every newspaper in the country. It's what it should be.
00:01:10
Speaker
So we're going to we're going to call it official. It's being talked about widely as official. We've been doing a lot of content on the Web site about it, as you can probably imagine. So clicks, baby. Let's go. Come on. It seems like it's happening. It's happening, Noah. He's coming to the league. He's coming to enter Miami. And this is huge news. This is huge news. I don't think I even need to say that most. I mean, it's the biggest player acquisition in league history.
00:01:41
Speaker
There's been some guys there's been some big names that have come here I mean you can you can go through the list you have I mean David Beckham is the one who kind of started it all off You've had Wayne Rooney come to this league you've had slots on come to this league You've had Frank Lampard come to this league you've had you peer low come to this league you've had Steven Gerrard and
00:02:05
Speaker
This kind of I mean this blows them all out of the water it really does yeah This is the greatest player to ever play the game hands down hands down One of the best competitive athletes to ever live Probably the best in my opinion. You know there might be different takes on that based on what sport you like the most
00:02:25
Speaker
But, you know, there's that there's that pantheon of iconic generational kind of God tier athletes like Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, Serena Williams, Sue Bird. Shout out Seattle Storm. Messi is on that list. And I think you could make at least a very credible argument that he's at the top of it.
00:02:53
Speaker
I think most people know that much, but I think it's still worth driving that home just because you're talking about something that's bigger than just the sports world with this and just the soccer world. You're talking about something that's on a different level than even all that. It's basically like Michael Jordan going to play basketball in Europe.
00:03:19
Speaker
But it's like it's like it's not just a spectacle for sport. It's a spectacle for culture. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. He might be the most famous person alive. Like I don't I don't know. Yeah. I don't know how many people you could put above him. You know, you got like Obama and Aldo, you know, all that. Ronaldo's close. But he might legitimately be the most famous person on planet Earth. And that's not hyperbole or exaggeration. That's how global his reach is.
00:03:48
Speaker
I remember when we were talking about this potentially happening. We were kind of referencing when Argentina came and played here in Seattle and just the aura around people even having the chance of seeing Messi from like 300 yards away.
Messi's Influence and Fan Reactions
00:04:04
Speaker
Yeah. So I'll actually I'll actually just tell that story right now. I'm glad you brought that up. I forgot about that. But that's a good thing to talk about here.
00:04:13
Speaker
So Argentina was here in Seattle in 2016 for the Copa America and they trained at Starfire where the Sounders train. And I got to go out to that training session because what happened was Argentina needed basically like practice dummies like stand-in defenders while they were going through their training for the games.
00:04:38
Speaker
And they let the Sounders Academy kids be the training dummies. So my assignment was to go to Argentina training and talk to a few of these Academy kids afterward. And the story was about just essentially what the experience was like.
00:05:01
Speaker
training with the Argentine national team and specifically the experience of training with Messi. So I go out there to Starfire and I was pretty hyped just because I knew Messi was gonna be there and they have a lot of superstars on their team. So I was geeking out a little bit mostly over Messi but just over the whole notion that I was gonna be, you know,
00:05:29
Speaker
Up close to the Argentine national team and I get there and it was easily the wildest scene I've ever seen as Starfire one of the wildest scenes I've ever seen every anywhere there was like
00:05:45
Speaker
Probably like a thousand people there. I don't know the exact number I don't know if it was actually a thousand but it felt like a thousand and What struck me about it was just the intensity of the emotion of it it Literally, I'm not joking was like being in the presence of a godlike figure the thing I always compare it to is it elicited the same emotions in people
00:06:13
Speaker
that I saw when I went and saw Obama speak in high school. Remember how emotional and just connected people seemed to feel when that guy would give speeches? That type of presence and aura, Messi's the only one that I can think of that approached that Obama-level presence.
00:06:36
Speaker
And it was even crazier than that because soccer fans are a little crazy. So when Argentina's bus pulled up, there was like flocks of people running after the bus and like jumping up against it. I saw multiple people like crying, sobbing.
00:06:54
Speaker
and they ran after the bus all the way until it pulled up near the practice fields and What they had done was they? blocked off the fences with like tarps basically so no one could see they didn't want people seeing the practice and
00:07:12
Speaker
So you couldn't see like through the fence where the team was training and you had people like literally trying to climb over and scale the fence just to get a glimpse of Messi and there was like cops there and they were like pulling people off the fence or get down like and people were like
00:07:33
Speaker
wild and out at the police because they were trying to keep everything under control. It was actually crazy, but what was the coolest part about it for me was I actually got to go in to the training because I had this assignment to interview the Academy kids, and I didn't get to stay in there for very long. There was only 10 to 15 minutes, if I remember correctly, where media actually got to be in there.
00:07:57
Speaker
But when I was in there, I was pretty close to the players. They were passing the ball around when I was in there some distance away from me. It wasn't like I was standing right there. But there was one point where I was standing off where they had media. And there were players that were walking out on the field. And at one point, Messi was walking pretty close to me.
00:08:25
Speaker
And I would say he was probably like 10 to 15 feet away from me. And that's probably the hardest I've ever geeked out in my life because it's just like, you know, you've been watching this guy on TV for, you know,
00:08:43
Speaker
years and years and you see all the amazing things that he does and you and you know like what status he has not just in the game but globally and it was definitely a moment where I was like wow I'm in the presence of like something that like transcends even this sport that I love like this is like a generational icon outside of just this sport and
00:09:09
Speaker
I was wide eyed right there, being that close to me. I'll definitely remember that for the rest of my life. And then eventually, I think I did get to stand out there for a while, but eventually media, I think, had to leave. And I did my interviews with the Academy
Messi's Decision: Miami over Other Offers
00:09:30
Speaker
kids. I'm actually going to find this story. I'll tweet out a link to it.
00:09:34
Speaker
uh because talking to them was pretty fun because they were actually like on the field while Argentina was going through their practice and doing their drills and I mean you know they all actually played the game so they were probably geeking out even more than I was and I remember having a lot of fun doing those interviews
00:09:53
Speaker
those kids it was like some U15 kids and maybe like U17er and they were on cloud nine man like they will remember that forever because they they actually and I remember one of the quotes I included in the story was uh he was one of the kids it was one of the kids saying like
00:10:15
Speaker
I was just watching him the whole time because like when you're in the presence of greatness like you're trying to like kind of just like you know how does he do the little things like how what makes him that great and they were trying to soak all that up
00:10:32
Speaker
So that was a pretty fun day. And then they were there to play in Copa America. I think I believe they were playing Chile. Could be could be misremembering that but I remember Bolivia or something but like yeah but like so during during that game it was it was kind of the same thing like the aura in the stadium was just different like that he didn't play until the second half he subbed on
00:10:58
Speaker
But literally during the first half, I remember the entire crowd was chanting messy, messy, like pretty much the whole game. And I remember thinking like, damn, like this is what it's like everywhere he goes. Like he doesn't play a game where it's not like this.
00:11:19
Speaker
So that's something to think about when we're thinking about the type of impact that this is going to have on MOS. This is about to be crazy. Every single road game that he plays is going to be a spectacle, 100%.
00:11:36
Speaker
You know, there are players that they're players from different teams that have been draws at road stadiums before, you know, like I would say La Tom was like that a little bit like I'm sure there's a lot of galaxy games where people are like, oh, there's a lot tons in town. Like I should go check that out. And he probably put more people in the seats to an extent that I'm telling you, this is different. This is going to be an entirely different level because
00:12:01
Speaker
this guy's status is on a different level than any of any player that you could name not just that's ever played in the league but that's ever played the game so you're gonna I mean y'all are gonna see every single road game he plays is gonna be sold out it's gonna be crazy there's gonna be there's gonna be like
00:12:20
Speaker
people spilling outside the stadium just trying just trying to get like one glimpse of him it's a different type of presence than almost any person on earth this is such a big story that even fox news dish to take on on this uh you you might have heard it at the top of the show we had to put it as the intro fox news
00:12:41
Speaker
had to take, you know, they're kind of going through it over there on Fox news. Their boy, their boys in deep with the feds again. So I wasn't even expecting him to dish a messy take, but they dished one. Um, everyone's getting in on the font. Everyone's getting in on it. The host said, uh, what was his take? He said, um, he just wanted them to learn English.
00:13:00
Speaker
He said that he was concerned that his concern with the signing was that Messi doesn't know English and that he wants to hear him speak. And then he said that David Beckham was gracious enough to learn English when he came here. David Beckham, who hails from England.
00:13:20
Speaker
To be fair, I mean not an incorrect take he was speaking British English before yeah, so he you know Some people said he was was joking. I think he realized how stupid what he said was like immediately and tried to salvage it But either way yeah shout out to David Beckham for graciously learning English upon his arrival to MLS Good take Fox News glad he waited on it
00:13:48
Speaker
You know, I get all my premiere soccer information from, you know, the morning shows on Fox News. But hey, you know, that's another W for MLS because now your grandparents know that the league exists and that a random Argentinian man is now playing in the league.
00:14:06
Speaker
You know, a lot of my a lot of my friends who don't even like soccer were texting me about this and asking how they pulled this off. And if I if I was surprised that it happened, I'm actually not like totally shocked, just in the sense that these links between inner Miami and Messi have been reported for a while. There's been smoke to this for a long time.
00:14:26
Speaker
I don't know if there's maybe these boys with David Beckham, who's one of the co-owners of Inner Miami, but I haven't read anything to the effect that it was like David Beckham was the main source behind this. I think Jorge Moss, their majority owner, I believe,
00:14:47
Speaker
I think he must have some crazy connections, number one, to be the MLS club that Messi would consider. It doesn't seem like it was like a bidding war. It seemed like in his mind it was like, if I'm going, I'm going to Miami. I think that's part of it.
00:15:14
Speaker
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00:15:24
Speaker
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00:15:47
Speaker
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00:16:10
Speaker
I think when you have that stature, you just say where you want to go and you're like, this is what I want. Yeah, but there's there's got to be some reason why Miami was the one that he decided on. So I think that you got to give a lot of credit to their ownership. I'm sure Chris Henderson was doing everything he could behind the scenes.
00:16:29
Speaker
make it happen so the fact that they pulled it off I mean that's no easy feat I mean think about the competition that they did have they didn't have any within MLS to my knowledge at least that's been reported but basically it came down to three clubs inner Miami was one of them
00:16:50
Speaker
The Saudis were another and a homecoming to Barcelona was the third. The Saudis offered him 1.3 billion euros is what I read. Correct me if I'm wrong, but 1.3. No, it was over a billion dollars for sure. That's all I know.
00:17:14
Speaker
So that means that Messi was in a situation where he had a bill on the table and he passed that up to come to MLS in inner Miami. Barcelona, that's the club that he became this icon. He came up through their youth system and played for their first team where he became a superstar for, I don't know,
00:17:44
Speaker
20 years yeah majority of his career. I mean obviously the majority of his career. He only moved to PSG like in the last Year or two how many it was like he might have done He might have done two seasons for PSG. It's either one or two
00:18:01
Speaker
but it would have been a homecoming it would have been like he has such an emotional connection to that club right like he I think for whatever reason that fell through I know Barcelona's Barcelona I know Barcelona is going through it a little bit financially and that might have been the reason that they couldn't pull it off yeah I don't think they were anywhere close numbers wise I think it would have been like a
00:18:26
Speaker
Yeah, I guess I'll go back and play. And I think honestly, I think if the numbers had been there for Barcelona, that seems like where his heart was. Yeah, I don't think he ever wanted to leave there. I think he realistically wanted to play his whole career there. There was weird stuff with that when he moved to PSG, like he didn't want to leave. Wasn't that like something to do with the tax evasion shit too? I mean, I honestly don't know, but he alleged alleged. I actually don't know. It's just it's no easy feat to, uh,
00:18:56
Speaker
to a box those those two clubs out now I mean it is it is hands down the most impressive signing this leak has ever seen yeah I mean there's no there's just no comparison for this there's no comparison for this and you know
00:19:15
Speaker
There's been a lot of talk about how monumental it is. So when you have something that's this monumental, you're automatically gonna have the contrarian takes where people talk about, well, I have to sound like I'm super smart and edgy. So this is why this is actually not that tight. This is actually not that big a deal. Don't let, if you're a fan of MOS,
00:19:42
Speaker
Do not pay attention to, lend any credence to at all, or let anyone tell you in any capacity that this isn't a big deal or that this isn't cool or that this isn't a massive, massive boon for both MLS and soccer in this country.
00:20:01
Speaker
I'll tell you what, I've seen some takes out there. It's unfortunate that we have to deal with this, but they were already flying around. I think by and large the consensus is that this is a great thing for MLS and a great thing for the league and it's going to be fun to watch.
Debate: Is MLS a Retirement League?
00:20:21
Speaker
But you do you do have some takes flying around and you know, I was already seeing the retirement league stuff Okay, and so we got to talk about this. I saw one really funny tweet in particular someone Busted into my mention or not not into my mentions into my friend Tom Bogart's mentions
00:20:40
Speaker
And they use the phrase virtually retired to describe Messi in order to try and downplay his arrival to MLS. They called the man virtually retired. That's a take. All right. So every time a player that's later on in their career, which Messi's 35, so he's closer to the end of his career than he is to the beginning.
00:21:05
Speaker
Every time that happens, we hear it. And, you know, I mean, I'll even say there's some cases where there has been truth to that. Like, that does come from somewhere. We talked about some of the names already. But like, Pierlo comes to mind, I would say. Lampard comes to mind.
00:21:24
Speaker
Steven Gerard comes to mind as guys who were past it in terms of their like top end production. Yeah, Wayne Rooney to a lesser extent, although when Rooney.
00:21:41
Speaker
He was pretty damn good for DC United like however past it people tried to make it sound to confirm their narratives Wayne Rooney was a baller for DC United He actually I don't want to get too much on a tangent, but he had probably the best individual play I've ever seen from an MLS player the famous one where
00:22:01
Speaker
He ran the guy all the way down on defense, slide tackled the ball off him, and then launched in one of the craziest assists I've ever seen. He was in his own end, I want to say. It was like the 35-yard line on a football field, basically.
00:22:19
Speaker
It was a cross but it was from his own end basically. Yeah, it was a beautiful ball It was no I mean he put it right on Lucio Acosta's head Yeah, and and they scored the game-winning goal and it was in like the 94th minute or something I legitimately think like when you talk about just like the greatest Individual effort plays in MLS history like that's the one that I would name Wayne Rooney. Yeah
00:22:43
Speaker
Zlatan is also an example of a guy where I I mean I know the galaxy didn't win anything with Zlatan And that's kind of what people point to when they're trying to undermine his time in MLS The dude scored 52 goals in 56 games for the galaxy. I believe he was automatic and you could say that Zlatan like
00:23:07
Speaker
was a little past it when he got to the galaxy and people were saying like oh the fact that he scored that many goals that just shows that like MLS sucks yeah but but that's lots on scored goals like that in every league he ever played in you know every league he ever played in named the league
00:23:25
Speaker
named the league and he was putting up those types of numbers. So I really don't think that that actually showed that much. And then went back to Europe. And so that's the other thing. That's actually further disproven by the fact that Zlatan went back to Italy with Inter Milan after he was on the galaxy and was still banging in goals until he retired like a week ago, like he was still producing. So I don't think that one applies as much.
00:23:50
Speaker
But there are players historically that have come here when they're not in their prime. It's kind of like a bookend to their career, all right? But to call Messi a retirement league sign-in, I mean, you got to get real if you're saying that. You got to think about what you're saying. You got to just stop trying to confirm your priors for five seconds
00:24:18
Speaker
And just think about who you're talking about and the way he's been playing recently because it's been very good. All you talking about retirement league out there. You know what the World Cup is? Are you aware of that prestigious competition? Did you watch it? Do you know who won it?
00:24:43
Speaker
Do you know who was named the best player at it? These are all questions that you have to ask yourself before you call this a retirement league signing.
00:24:57
Speaker
And you got to think about that before you start tweeting, OK? I'll answer those questions for you right now, in case you might not be aware. But the World Cup is the biggest soccer tournament
00:25:14
Speaker
in the world. All right. It's the most prestigious and most important tournament that you can win messy. Not sure if you're aware of this retirement league people. He plays for the Argentina national team. All right. He's the star player of it has been for many years.
00:25:37
Speaker
They won the World Cup. They won it. And Messi was named the most outstanding player at the World Cup because he carried their team like he always has to that victory. That was about six months ago. That was six months ago.
00:25:59
Speaker
I don't really think he's I don't really think he's passed it. All right. The whole the whole argument is usually like post World Cup win is the highest value you will ever be in your career. Right. And I get that might like maybe not in the sense that like the only thing you could say is that he's 35. But like that's you have to look at
00:26:19
Speaker
the production and how he's playing and are his teams performing. But like, so I mean, I think the World Cup thing is the main thing that would undermine any notion that this, that this is a player who's passed his ability to play it at his elite level.
00:26:39
Speaker
But even even looking at how we played with PSG like for that narrative to make sense You you have to have He has to be declined. Yeah, he has to be like you have to look at how he played at PSG is PSG a retirement club because that's that could be the argument but like just you like before you say these things look at his production with PSG and
00:27:05
Speaker
Just look it up. It's all Google-able, folks. You can look it up. He had a 2020 season with PSG across all competitions. It was like 21 goals, 20 assists. I think maybe what's happening with people saying that he's declining, well, part of it is just people are obsessed with their priors. They can't fathom that MLS pulled off this signing. And so it has to be automatically, oh, well, it's because he's passed it.
00:27:34
Speaker
He had a 2020 season with PSG, but maybe it's because when you go through Messi's career, the thing that's craziest to look at is just how staggering his goal totals are.
00:27:53
Speaker
Like in relation to games played like you literally go through it And it's like there are seasons where where Barcelona played like 50 games across all comps and he's got like 54 56 goals or something and
00:28:12
Speaker
In 50 games played all right, and and it's like all the way down like it's like the guy the that he had that production for Most of his career for Barcelona like the the numbers were like that and then if you look at PSG It's like only only like 21 goals this year, but I mean it's still a 2020 season and
00:28:36
Speaker
That's still staggeringly elite production.
Youth Development in MLS
00:28:39
Speaker
I don't think the French defenders had had much to say to him. Like he torched that lead. So I don't know. He's not sounding very past it to me. And it's just it's just funny that people like would still go to that to me. Like I was thinking maybe that Messi would be the one guy where you couldn't do that. But nope. Nope. They're they're still dishing those takes. But here's the other thing I really need people to understand about this.
00:29:06
Speaker
And it's why I wish people would do research and learn about what they're talking about before they tweet. MOS is very much a young player driven league now. That kind of movement has been happening over the last three or four years, I would say, in earnest. That started to happen.
00:29:27
Speaker
But it's been a concerted thing to make it more young player based. You can see this in a few ways, but I would say the primary two ways that you can see this are the U-22 initiative that the league installed. So you can sign
00:29:53
Speaker
additional designated players if they're under 22. So a lot of teams have been making use of this like
00:30:02
Speaker
Seattle signed Leo Chu as a U22 initiative player. And the reason that they did that is so teams would be incentivized to sign younger players. And ideally, I think the goal is to sell those players on to bigger clubs for big transfer fees. And then you invest that money in
00:30:27
Speaker
Getting better better and better players to MLS the FC Dallas model, but actually getting players in return for who you sell right so they U22 initiative and also
00:30:45
Speaker
increased investment in youth academies. We've seen that more and more and more. FC Dallas is a team that's become famous for it, but a lot of other teams are really investing a lot more in that. Seattle is one of them. I would say the Philly Union are kind of leading the charge on that.
00:31:03
Speaker
But you could go down the list. Honestly, Inner Miami is a team where they have a pretty good youth academy setup. They're starting to get a lot of their players playing for the first team. You can look throughout the league and see that increased investment in the academy setup. And these players are starting to actually make impacts on the first team.
00:31:28
Speaker
Here in Seattle, like you're just in the last couple years starting to see the fruits of that labor. It was something that Garth Lagerway really was trying to hammer home. That was one of his biggest projects when he took over his GM was building the Youth Academy setup because
00:31:45
Speaker
I mean, first of all, he understood that that was a way that's a hack to the salary cap. Homegrown players don't count against the salary cap. So if you are able to develop a crop of academy players, homegrown players that actually become meaningful, impactful players for the first team, that's a huge, that becomes a huge leg up. All right. I mean, think about the production that
00:32:14
Speaker
Seattle has gotten from Jordan Morris over the years. Dude's a homegrown player. He doesn't count against a salary cap. That's a massive, massive advantage. If you can hit like the Union have,
00:32:27
Speaker
on like multiple of those guys, that gives you such an advantage. That's part of the reason the union are so good. Without being like a big splashy spending team is because of how dedicated they've been to that. It's taken place all across the league. So the point is, not only is like MOS not a league where it's just like washed up Euro players,
00:32:54
Speaker
ending their careers here. It's actually literally the exact opposite of them. It is the exact diametric opposite of what you're saying when you tweet that. All right. So I just I'd need I need you. I don't know if that many people who buy into the retirement stuff will listen to a podcast hosted by me. But if any of you are out there and you happen to be arm the people arm the people for the arguments on Twitter, I need you to understand that what you're saying
00:33:26
Speaker
It's not only wrong. It's literally the opposite. Like it's a pretty it's a young player driven league. That's what it's becoming. So I don't know. I just it's just I just thought it was funny like like we're we're we're doing this with literally messy literally messy.
00:33:46
Speaker
Yep, like I just don't know what we're talking about sometimes. Grasping at straws for sure. Grasping at straws. Obsessed with your priors to the point where it's downright creepy, man. Like you're actually weird for being so pathologically obsessed with hating MOS for like whatever reason that you do, that you're pulling out retirement league narratives for Messi.
Messi's Skills and GOAT Status
00:34:13
Speaker
Yeah. He won the World Cup six months ago.
00:34:16
Speaker
So I just, I don't, I don't really know like what else to tell you other than that. Even if messy was declining, like what would you, what would you, it's messy. Like what would you expect inner Miami to do?
00:34:33
Speaker
Well I know you're a great player, arguably the greatest of all time, but we're really trying to get people on Twitter to stop thinking about MOS's like this retirement league where we just bring guys in when they're in their mid 30s. So unfortunately we're going to have to pass up on this.
00:34:53
Speaker
You would probably be an asset to the squad, and you're very talented. But we're going to have to pass because people are tweeting about how MOS is a retirement league. And we can't have that. We can't confirm those priors. So sorry. We're going to have to let Saudi Arabia take this one.
00:35:14
Speaker
Yeah, there's a reason that he commands such a high value, too. Like, I think people are so distracted by the, you know, oh, my God, he's old, or oh, look at the clubs. Dude, I'm sorry, Barcelona? Is La Liga a retirement league? It's selectively applied to MOS. It's dumb. It's dumb. He is going to make the money that is spent on him back almost immediately.
00:35:42
Speaker
And whether people like it or not, he is going to grow the brand of MLS in a positive way. I already know so many like Normans outside of the space of MLS. People who I like, they know that I love MLS.
00:35:58
Speaker
They'll make fun of me and joke around saying, oh, I think I'm actually going to like maybe buy a month of Apple TV so I can watch. Oh, it's going to be like the crazy thing. I mean, when we're talking about just what type of impact this is going to make, people are going to be subscribing to season pass all over the world, literally just to watch inner Miami games.
00:36:20
Speaker
hundred percent like probably millions and millions of people in Like most countries like that's that's how famous this guy is Man I wanted to just vibe out for a little bit and just talk about how fun it's gonna be to watch him play I imagine most people
00:36:44
Speaker
who are listening to this have watched a fair amount of Messi throughout their lives. I mean, I know I have quite a bit, but just like when you talk about what makes him so phenomenal as a player, what makes him the greatest player of all time?
00:37:02
Speaker
Well, I mean, he's literally in terms of an attacking player. He's the best at every facet of it that I've ever seen. And it's all in one player. And it's just insane to watch. He's the best dribbler I've ever seen by miles and miles. I've never seen anyone who's that smooth on the ball.
00:37:27
Speaker
Who is that impossible pretty much to get the ball off of? Like it just It's just different when he's moving with the ball and you can I was really watching that at the Argentina game at the Copa that I was talking about and like You you can really in person. It's much more evident Like just how it's insanely good at dribbling He is like he's the best I've ever seen at it by a country mile
00:37:58
Speaker
He's the best passer I've ever seen. Best facilitator I've ever seen.
00:38:04
Speaker
By miles, by miles and miles. He has the best vision I've ever seen in terms of the passes that he is able to pick out and assist on. I've never seen a player who makes every other player on the field, at least an attack, better to the degree that he does with his passing and his vision. He's the best finisher I've ever seen.
00:38:35
Speaker
in the run of play and on set pieces
00:38:39
Speaker
It's nuts that there is one player who is simultaneously the best finisher I've ever seen and the best facilitator I've ever seen and the best dribbler I've ever seen all in the same player. It actually boggles my mind that it's possible for one player to not only have all three of those attributes at an elite level, but be the best at all of them.
00:39:09
Speaker
like it's it's unicorn stuff like I don't know when we're gonna see a player like this again like and he did it for Barcelona for years and years and
00:39:26
Speaker
He did it for Argentina for for years and years and finally that I guess so that was the one knock on his goat status was that he hadn't won a World Cup, which I always thought that that's I hate dinging individual players for team accomplishments. It's a team game.
00:39:43
Speaker
And the fact that Argentina hadn't won a World Cup yet, I seriously doubt, I don't follow their national team religiously closely or anything. I seriously doubt it was Messi's fault, their leading goal scorer of all time, that they hadn't won a World Cup. I would imagine that if you broke down the reasons why he hadn't won one yet, it was not because Messi didn't do enough.
00:40:09
Speaker
You know, maybe maybe there was. I mean, pound for pound, some of those teams that they were facing up against were just ridiculously stacked like the German team that won. I don't know. It's just like you can't you can't you can never credibly blame one guy for a team loss. But either way, it's just like if for some reason maybe you're listening to this and you haven't watched him play a lot and you're planning on on Washington play for inner Miami. I mean, you're going to see what I mean right away, like
00:40:39
Speaker
He's the he's the best player of all time at every facet of Attacking soccer and like I don't even think like it's it's very Close like I don't know like you know there's
00:40:54
Speaker
there's the famous debate of him versus Ronaldo which we are not gonna do but like I think what to whatever extent Ronaldo has an argument there the argument would be
00:41:09
Speaker
Ronaldo is the greatest pure goal scorer of all time and like maybe like his goal scoring stats are like a little godier but Messi is like the better all-around player he makes people the players around him better
00:41:27
Speaker
more than Ronaldo. But like, it's just when you when you think about what Messi is able to do as a facilitator, in addition to being the greatest goal scorer of all time. Like, there's just no one that you can name that is able to do what what he does like there. He's he's the one and only
00:41:57
Speaker
So if you're playing, if you haven't watched him a lot, you're planning on watching him play for inner Miami, you will most, you'll, you'll, I mean, you'll see what I mean right away. Like
Inter Miami's Challenges and Messi's Impact
00:42:05
Speaker
I think, you know, barring some precipitous physical decline that takes place, but like assuming he comes to the league and he's roughly
00:42:19
Speaker
the same level that he was when he was at PSG and for the World Cup like this dude is is gonna put up insane numbers in MLS insane numbers because his he has more ability than any player who's ever played the game like it's not like a
00:42:45
Speaker
I don't know. It would take a crazy and unexpected decline for that not to be the case. And I just I don't know. I cannot wait to see how it actually plays out. You know Miami is in 10th place right now.
00:43:03
Speaker
They just fired their coach They are dealing we're we're dealing I guess I don't know how much they're dealing with him right now But they got sanctioned for violating roster rules. I think they're I think those sanctions are over actually
00:43:21
Speaker
But they got they've had a tough go Pretty much since they joined MLS. They made the playoffs In 2020 and and that they made the playoffs in the kovid year where it was an expanded field and then immediately got blown out and they made the playoffs last year and and lost immediately
00:43:42
Speaker
So, they need a boost, needless to say. And, you know, I can't really think of a bigger boost than this. I mean, they literally, they signed Messi. It's just crazy to still say it. They went out and they got him.
00:44:00
Speaker
They made a pretty big signing. They made a pretty big signing. And I don't know if this alone makes them MLS cup contenders. I think they have maybe more problems than one player can solve, even if it's messy.
00:44:24
Speaker
But I mean, goddamn, this is going to help. This is going to help. I expect him to be bawling out immediately. I really don't see why he wouldn't.
00:44:40
Speaker
I think, man, I don't know if I had, if I had to put a prediction on it, I think they probably do start getting back into the playoff race. They got the new coach bump. They got the messy bump, which is as big a bump as I could think of in terms of an impact signing. It's literally messy.
00:45:04
Speaker
Like it's like it's something we joke about like oh you could sign messy and blah blah blah like they sign messy They literally are signing him. I don't want I don't want to talk about it in present tense and jinx it you know like Because it's not official yet, but like I think I think it's a formality. It's a formality at this point Have you seen the ticket prices?
00:45:27
Speaker
Ticket prices are going crazy. They're selling out games where it for team teams are selling out Games that where they're playing against inner Miami where he's not even gonna be on the team yet. Yeah, like so I hope those people Don't get upset people are gonna show up and be like Wait, where is he and it's like yeah, he's not arrived yet. I don't really know when he's supposed to arrive
00:45:50
Speaker
Yeah, is it gonna be this transfer window or the noise but like so as I understand it like it's not a situation where it's like He's coming next year. Like I think they're they're getting him here this year. So oh God, it's just gonna be so sick, dude It's gonna be so sick like I just I love watching him play so much because it's such a like a unique
00:46:13
Speaker
level that that he brings like watching it an MLS like I just still can't believe that we're gonna get to see that like it's been it's been talked about as the holy grail for years and years like if any team could do it and then in the last year or two inner Miami surfaced as the club that uh was most connected to him
00:46:35
Speaker
And I always thought it would be sick if they could do that, but I wasn't sure if they could pull it off.
00:46:47
Speaker
Now that it's happening, I can't wait to watch it.
Stadium Adjustments for Messi's Arrival
00:46:52
Speaker
I can't wait to watch it. I think there's going to be a ton of really interesting, weird shit that goes on too. I'm wondering how many games they go and play in the Dolphin Stadium. Drive Pink Stadium is brand new.
00:47:07
Speaker
But it's well, I don't know. Yeah, like they're not going to be able to fit everyone like to come to the get away if see the bank is only earned. It's not the bank anymore. BMO Stadium. Yeah. When they play LFC, but they were only like 22 K capacity. So like they're probably they're probably going to have to play that like at the Coliseum or whatever. Because I know the El traffico they were going to play at what stadium were they?
00:47:34
Speaker
That was the colts. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Like you were USC plays. I think that's what it's called. I can't remember but No, like they're they're probably gonna have to do stuff like that. Luckily lumen fields got 70k capacity if inner Miami ever comes here I'm telling you I guarantee you that's gonna sell out in five minutes easy all 70k seats like like a Seahawks game Yeah, I literally guarantee you like it'll be crazy. It's gonna be crazy. It's gonna be crazy
00:48:00
Speaker
Um, I'm excited as a, I mean, I had my own from that same, um, as you talked about in the intro that, that, that same Argentina game, I had my own experience similar. I was in that same press pool and it's.
00:48:14
Speaker
really just magical and I'm excited that people who have been fans of this league and people who are going to become fans of this league get to experience that and maybe they find their local team and they get excited about it who knows what the hell is gonna happen but it's just I
00:48:32
Speaker
People who are being Debbie Downers about this are losers who aren't excited about anything. They can't be excited about anything. You're right. They're contrarian. And this this rocks. It rocks. It's so sick. It's so cool. I've been I've been pretty much cloud nine and just like thinking about because, you know, I like I work for the MLS website. So obviously I'm biased Homer. I'm a shill.
00:48:58
Speaker
Yes, I'm biased in wanting the league to be successful, but more than be successful, like I just want the game to work towards the popularity in this country that it has globally. Yeah. And this is just such I couldn't I couldn't think of a better way to do that than this. Like this is the number one holy grail thing that
00:49:30
Speaker
I could have ever dreamed of to, to make that happen. Like 100%. Like, so I don't know. I haven't stopped cloud nine and really since it happened and I can't wait to watch it and it's going to be a lot of fun. I don't know. No. And you got any last messy takes. I have a couple more things I want to hit on this episode that are not messy related, but honestly, like we've been vibing on it for a while now, probably like 30 some odd minutes.
00:49:59
Speaker
And I just don't want to stop just because I'm so hyped, man. I'm so hyped. There are very few sports moments that are things that you get to experience that you'll remember. And I think that for Americans relating to soccer, being a kid, being an adult, going to go see Messi play against your team or being a Miami fan, having Messi on your team,
00:50:26
Speaker
That is a core memory that is going to make soccer even more relevant than it already is in America, ahead of a World Cup coming here, ahead of all of this. If you look at everything in the grand scheme and zoom out and look at this, it's like, it's the Pelé moment.
00:50:47
Speaker
When Pele came here, it changed North American soccer for the better. And I think that we're going to look at this and we're going to look back and say, damn, can you believe the pre messy era?
Young Player Initiatives and League Perception
00:50:59
Speaker
Yeah, 100 percent, man, 100 percent.
00:51:06
Speaker
Yeah, if anyone out there ever wants to read about the young player theme that I was talking about in MLS, Charlie Baum writes a column about it every week, Young Players of the Match Day, where he highlights the best under 22 players that featured every single match week.
00:51:33
Speaker
Recommended reading for anyone out there who's interested in that because it is, you know as Condescending as I might have rightfully I think sounded on that topic. It's something that people might not know about like how how the league is kind of tilted towards that in recent years with the with the u22 initiative and the Academy signings, so
00:51:57
Speaker
Something that's worth thinking about, worth reading. All right, I think we can just hit on these last two bullets that I wanted to hit. But I was listening to the last episode and it's really, I need to keep doing it because it's helpful to see if my takes actually make sense and if I agree with what I'm even saying.
00:52:23
Speaker
And so I was listening to the last one and when we were talking about the Charlotte game and I was making my prediction for how it's going to go and I was just thinking about it and I was like I don't even think I agree with what this guy is saying right now. I was being a little too doomsday.
00:52:38
Speaker
About it like I was saying that I expected it basically to be like a pretty painful East Coast road trip type pulling teeth road game where Seattle is probably not going to Generate all that much in attack and you know zero zeros fine a 1-1 fine like a win would be like Pretty surprising basically my logic was like an East Coast road trip
00:53:07
Speaker
you pretty much never can expect to
00:53:12
Speaker
take three points like it can happen in individual instances but it's pretty rare so you just take your point and run and especially with like the squad rotation that Seattle's had to deal with like i would i'm not necessarily expecting Raoul to play a full 90 not necessarily expecting Christian to play a full 90 we already know Nico and Jordan are going to be playing a full 90 so factoring in all those things i still think that that's
00:53:40
Speaker
relatively likely to be the type of game it is but if you just assume that Christian and Raul start this game like this is a winnable game and I think for the main reason that it's not like Charlotte is that good like they're Not that high up on the table. They but I said this they've been playing better, which is true But they give up they give up a lot of goals like you can get at this team on defense like
Seattle vs Charlotte: Game Preview
00:54:08
Speaker
They they concede a lot of soft goals and They're better in attack when they play at home But like I really don't think it's anything that this defense shouldn't be able to handle So I think a result in this game should should be expected. It should be expected and it's a winnable game. It's a winnable game
00:54:29
Speaker
I was talking about it like it's not a winnable game a little bit. That's not accurate. I think we said it would be a challenge no matter what. We even more talked about road trips are just always hard in MLS and that like any time you're going that far to the East Coast, you never know. And I also think we didn't know at that point who was back, who was not going to be back. True. I will go to bat for your take because I don't think it was that bad with the information we had. I'm sticking with my take. I still think they're losing that game. But why do you think they're losing?
00:54:58
Speaker
You know I just I don't know why but it's just more of a gut feeling it's more of a just vibes check right here like I mean I don't know it uh You're convincing me. I will say I see I think that's kind of the that was the vibe check I had on the last show was like this is gonna be just like a terrible game like pulling teeth but like the thing is I
00:55:27
Speaker
If you have Christian back and you have Raul back, I think that's really it, right? If you have them starting. Jordan's back too, so. Yeah, I just don't know how much I want to hedge on Jordan. The great part is we know that we want a half time or a little bit post half time Raul sub so he doesn't explode his hamstring and out forever and so you get Jordan back in there and get some more reps. Listen.
00:55:53
Speaker
Think I think it's gonna be less. What did I say? I said like two nothing loss or something crazy like that in the last I don't remember. I don't know if we did spot predictions I kind I hate score predictions either does cuz like you just can't do it. I don't know I don't know I think that it's gonna be a game that feels like a loss
00:56:10
Speaker
I'll edit my take to be like, it'll be a game that feels like a loss. So it'll either be a draw or a loss or a win. But it'll feel like a loss. I still think a draw would be okay. Oh, a draw is great. I'm in for a draw. But I think based on how badly the team could use a win right now, and I was looking at Charlotte and I was like, dude,
00:56:34
Speaker
It's not like this isn't with real Madrid right here. You're not going against messy No, like this is a team that you should be able to be even on the road. Yeah, so all right You convince me all all
00:56:48
Speaker
I'll be a little more upbeat about it. Given a couple more days after my take, I feel more optimistic about the game. I think it was hard to be optimistic after that Portland game. I think that's sort of what was going on. Our vibes have been boosted. I was feeling pretty cynical. Messi's coming to the league. I'm feeling better. So now I'm, fuck it, Seattle's going to win. I'm not predicting a win. I just think there's more of a chance of a win than I was getting credit for.
00:57:15
Speaker
All right. That's all I had to say about about that. I think we can call it right there. Messy is here kind of messy, kind of messy, kind of messy, kind of messy. I'm fired up. I can't wait to watch him play in the league. It's going to be fun. It's a great day for MOS. It's going to it's going to put the league on on the map in a way that we haven't seen yet. I think it'll also let people see the actual quality and talent that this league has.
00:57:44
Speaker
yeah they'll probably watch some games and be like damn there's some actually some pretty damn good players in this league I think a lot of people who watch MLS who haven't watched it before are surprised by that yeah because like you know sometimes MLS gets memed sometimes but like thing I always tell people is like yeah like you know it's not that EPL it's not La Liga or any of that but it's still a top flight league it's still pro players they're still all talented
00:58:11
Speaker
Every player on every MLS team is the best player on every team he's ever played on until he went pro. So you still see some good ball. You see some bad ball. Don't get me wrong. You see some real bad ball. But as much fun as we have whenever there's a bad game in MLS,
00:58:35
Speaker
You see some very good high level competitive ball too. You're kidding yourself to deny that. It's a top play pro league. You see some good ball in the U.S.L., man. Well, the U.S.L. just sold one of their players for... Yeah, you're starting to see that in the U.S.L. They're getting in on the youth movement too.
Conclusion: Messi's Impact on American Soccer
00:58:54
Speaker
So I don't it's just an exciting it's an exciting day And we're gonna be talking about it a lot more because it's gonna be the top talk of the league For a while. I'm not gonna make it like an inner Miami podcast. It's just bigger than anything Anything that I've seen well today sporting Kansas City you got Rinaldo discovery rights You know what to do
00:59:19
Speaker
That might I mean they were trying they were trying all right. We're gonna wrap it right there Thank you everyone who tuned in to the first two episodes we pulled close to 200 downloads between those two episode episodes, which is like That is straight up. That's way more than I thought that we were gonna be pulling so thank you so much for everyone who tuned in and listened to this one and
00:59:45
Speaker
Go like, rate, subscribe, do all that stuff because that stuff really, really helps. Share with your friends. Share with your friends so you can talk about it. We're going to catch you on episode four. We out. Peace.