Lionel Messi Wins Record 46th Trophy
By: Gyang Dakwo
Inter Miami clinched Major League Soccer’s regular season title on Wednesday, and the primary reason for their supremacy was, and is, of course, Lionel Messi.
Messi has transformed Miami from “a team that habitually lost for years,” as head coach Tata Martino recently said, to “a team that habitually wins,” and to perhaps the greatest MLS team ever.
He helped beat the Columbus Crew, the reigning MLS champs, on Wednesday with two goals out of nowhere. The first opened up an otherwise tight game. The second, a trademark free kick five minutes later, stunned the Crew and left a sold-out crowd in awe.
“He had one-and-a-half opportunities,” Crew coach Wilfried Nancy later said, “and he scored two.”
They were Messi’s 16th and 17th goals of the MLS season — in his 17th game. They left the league’s best defense in a daze. They lifted Miami to a 3-2 win, and to a 10-point lead atop the table — a gap that neither the Crew nor FC Cincinnati nor the LA Galaxy will be able to close over the season’s final two weeks.
Miami, therefore, won the Supporters’ Shield, the trophy that goes to the best team throughout MLS’ regular season. It is not the league’s primary prize — that is MLS Cup, which goes to the winner of the playoffs. But it is a prize nonetheless.
It is also Messi’s second trophy in Miami, and the 46th of his unparalleled career — more than any other player in the history of professional soccer has ever won.