Hours before Inter Miami’s first preseason friendly of the year against the El Salvador national team on Friday night, the stands of San Salvador’s Cuscatlan Stadium were crowded. Some fans were dressed in half-and-half shirts, further muddying the waters of sports royalty than half-and-half scarves.
After swarming around Miami’s squad bus in the visitors’ pink home strip, several spectators ignored the blue and white of their country completely and watched from the stands. Soon after Messi made his Miami debut in the previous season, his official number ten shirt went out of stock globally, but duplicates could be found in San Salvador for as cheap as $5 (£4).
El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, thought this reunion of football talent was important enough to take a picture with Messi and drive the squad to the hotel before kickoff.
This is what the eager spectators witnessed during the goalless draw.
Luis Suarez endures subdued debut
Nothing really noteworthy happened with Luis Suarez’s Miami debut.
In addition to having a psychic connection while playing, Suarez and Messi were also the greatest of friends off the field. The two lived next to each other for six years in the capital of Catalonia, occasionally watched each other’s kids, and their wives started businesses together.
But the partnership had a natural layer of rust from their three and a half years apart. Suarez didn’t disclose the “continuous pain” he must endure in order to play professionally until the beginning of December.
Suarez had very few shots on goal in a fragmented performance, starting up front alongside Messi in a 5-3-2. Being one of the two players in the Brazilian top division to record double digits in goals and assists the previous season, the 36-year-old still has a lot to contribute. In San Salvador, he just failed to display it.
With all the hype, there was unlikely to ever be any other outcome. It’s also important to remember that this was the first preseason game, so there was always going to be some lack of sharpness because these players are now true veterans of the game. Yes, at halftime, Suárez and Messi were taken off the field.
Things won’t start to get particularly interesting until the MLS campaign begins. That will now be the standard expectation for a squad with so many superstars, even though Messi arrived too late to have an impact on the play-off standings last season. That should be possible even with a semblance of the magic Suárez, Messi, and company created at Barcelona, but it all depends on how much more they can deliver in a league that is harder than most people think.
When Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets, and Jordi Alba all started on the same side last time, they lost 8-2.
Inter Miami’s newly formed ‘Fab Four’ lined up together for Barcelona in August 2020, slumping to a thumping at the hands of Bayern Munich in the eerie setting of a one-legged Champions League quarter-final in an empty Estadio da Luz.