Lionel Messi’s Yankee Stadium debut delivers — even if he doesn’t

You no longer have to ask if Lionel Messi could do it while playing on a clear day on a converted baseball field.

Now you know – he couldn’t, as he was held extremely quiet while Inter Miami CF drew New York City FC 1-1 through a last-gasp equalizer from James Sands in the fifth minute of second-half stoppage time. 

The result was even, the match was tight and testy, NYCFC had its share of chances, and the hosts seemed to frustrate the Miami stars for most of the afternoon.

It made for a good watch, which was important, considering the game at times felt secondary to the spectacle that was Messi and Co.’s first-ever visit to Yankee Stadium.

The unofficial eye and ear test made it clear – a huge portion of the announced crowd of 44,738 fans came to see the team in black-and-pink, not the home team in sky blue. It might be generous to even say they came to see Inter Miami – this day at Yankee Stadium was really all about Lionel Messi. 

Iterations of his jerseys throughout the years were everywhere, be they for one of his three club teams or for Argentina. Every touch he took on that Yankee Stadium pitch was cheered and met with ooh’s and aah’s, even during pre-match warmups. 

This game did not have any of the feel of a routine NYCFC regular season match in mid-September against another team from the Eastern Conference, even if that’s ultimately what it was. 

You don’t get advisories from the club about getting to Yankee Stadium one hour before kickoff to ensure you can make it into the stadium for your average in-conference clash. You also don’t see people sitting at the very top of the 400 sections of the baseball stadium in the Bronx when the Yankees aren’t the ones playing here.

The prime mid-afternoon start time and the capacity crowd made this feel like an event on par with other historic soccer visits to Yankee Stadium across the building’s multiple incarnations and lengthy history. Like when pre-New York Cosmos Pelé came to town with Santos FC and played Eusebio’s SL Benfica to a 3-3 draw in front of 36,904 at Yankee Stadium on September 1, 1968, as just one notable example. 

The difference this time: This wasn’t a friendly, and the legends of the sport weren’t split evenly but concentrated among the visitors. Your potentially extremely high price of admission didn’t just get you Messi, it got you a live look at Luis Suárez and Jordi Alba up against Nick Cushing’s young, floundering New York City side. 

Some unknowable percentage of the crowd was likely experiencing their first NYCFC match ever, even if they weren’t here to root for the home team. The NYCFC supporters' section took some glee in this awkward reality while also urging the interloping Messi Maniacs to show their local MLS club some support.

Deriding this Messi-curious crowd as plastic is picking at some low-hanging fruit, but a bigger question remains hard to answer coming out of this match: What, if anything, does this do for the sport and the professional game here in New York City? 

The attendance number is eye-popping and the atmosphere was exceptional, but it all revolved around a visiting team and a legendary player who may never set foot on this field or play inside the city’s limits again before he calls time on his storied career.

Messi has come to play in the New York area multiple times before while representing Argentina (over at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ) and scored his first MLS league goal at Red Bull Arena last August when Miami beat the Red Bulls 2-0.

The local soccer landscape didn't shift on its axis as a result of a player widely considered the greatest of all time coming here then, and it's probably a stretch to say that much will change now after these tens of thousands of fans came to the Bronx to watch the Argentine legend.

It's easier to dismiss the lasting significance of an event like this when you consider Messi the person and how he's approached his time playing in the United States. While he's become a one-man traveling band that draws massive crowds wherever he and his teammates go during their MLS seasons, he has not done what Pelé did before him and embraced the role of American soccer evangelist.

Messi doesn't talk to the press, despite tons and tons of members of the press showing up whenever and wherever he plays. You won't find him passing through a mixed zone or holding court with a gaggle of reporters after a game like this, and that's part of his whole deal here playing out his last professional days in America.

His boss, Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham, put it simply in recent comments recorded by USA Today when describing Messi's move to America: "All he was interested in is a place where his family could come enjoy and have a great life. That was really important for Leo,” said Beckham.

He's still playing at a high level, even if he didn't reach that level at Yankee Stadium, but Messi's time in America does not feel like it's going to be remembered for transforming the sport the way Pelé or Beckham are remembered for their years in the United States.

Messi remains a draw and a huge selling point for Major League Soccer (and its billion-dollar broadcasting partner, Apple), but his trip to Yankee Soccer Stadium felt more like a sideshow than a transformative moment.

It might not change the sport, but this was still a special soccer scene to behold, and it's a significant opportunity for NYCFC and its front office. The team was clever to promote its impending soccer-specific stadium on the Jumbotron right when the match reached halftime, a reminder to those Messi fans who might not be familiar with the team's Stadium Saga and impending move to Queens.

Some percentage of the people who came to watch Messi might now be intrigued by NYCFC, and perhaps they make it out to future non-Inter Miami matches, be it at one of the baseball stadiums or when the Valley of Ashes debuts in 2027.

It's not a long or hard road to go from a so-called "plastic" to an organic, local-supporting soccer fan, and this memorable afternoon at Yankee Soccer Stadium could end up pushing a few more people in the direction of NYCFC, even if they came here solely to see the legend wearing No 10 for Inter Miami.