The next match of Inter Miami against the New England Revolution, on the synthetic pitch of Gillette Stadium, questions the Florida media, who are worried about Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez.
Lionel Messi’s matches with Inter Miami are not widely followed in Europe (they are played in the middle of the night, live on the Apple TV+ service via the MLS Season Pass). But soccer fans in the United States enjoy every match of the Ballon d’Or record holder. For the occasion, the New England Revolution is using the entire Gillette Stadium, i.e. 64,628 seats, for the arrival of the Floridians and their legendary Argentine number 10, Saturday evening (1:30 a.m. in France).
Small feature: the Patriots’ lair in the NFL has a synthetic turf and this appeals to the media who follow Inter Miami. This type of terrain can pose physical problems for older players. Proof of this is that David Beckham, the owner of the Florida franchise, railed against Toronto FC’s synthetic turf when he was still playing for the Los Angeles Galaxy in 2007, and Thierry Henry, Didier Drogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic all missed matches on synthetic during their passage through North America.
Messi has no memory of Lorient…
Tata Martino, the coach of Hérons (of the Florida birds), was questioned on this subject but was not overly concerned and obviously has no intention of resting his veterans Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets and Luis Suarez ( in addition to “La Pulga”). When he signed for Inter Miami, Messi rightly explained: “the truth is that it’s been a while since I played on an artificial pitch, but I have no problem adapting again”. Not to mention that he played three times on the FC Lorient synthetic during his two years at PSG…
Victim of a muscle injury which caused him to miss four matches (three in MLS and one in the Champions Cup), Messi has come back strong since he scored in the last three championship matches, with a double and an assist in the key last weekend against Nashville (3-1). Enough to put Inter Miami on the right track after not qualifying for the playoffs last year. Tata Martino’s team is first in the Eastern Conference with five victories in 10 matches.
