![\"Lionel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2267865330.jpg\")
Lionel Messi looks on during the MLS match between New York City FC and Inter Miami CF at Yankee Stadium on March 22, 2026 in New York, New York. Getty Images<\/p>\nIt was the Lionel Messi show on one of America\u2019s grandest sports stages, and many of the 45,845 in attendance were there on Sunday for the show.\u00a0<\/p>\n
From the moment Inter Miami\u2019s bus arrived at Yankee Stadium to face New York City FC, all eyes were on the World Cup winner from start to finish. In the end, Inter Miami defeated NYCFC 3-2, and Messi\u2019s performance \u2014 which included a second-half goal \u2014 lived up to the hype for those clad in Miami pink and Argentinian National team jerseys.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe experience so far has been amazing,\u201d 20-year-old Fordham student Gabriel Santiago told The Post on the Yankee Stadium concourse. \u201cHe\u2019s put on a laser show so far, so it\u2019s definitely been worth it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s accomplished everything. He\u2019s, in my opinion, undisputedly the greatest player to play the sport,\u201d Diego Fernandez, 21, who attended Sunday\u2019s match with Santiago, said. \u201cAnd every time he gets a ball you know you have a chance at experiencing something amazing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lionel Messi looks on during the MLS match between New York City FC and Inter Miami CF at Yankee Stadium on March 22, 2026 in New York, New York. Getty Images<\/p>\n
For New York City FC, even some of its players had to take a moment to appreciate being on the same pitch as Messi. Agust\u00edn Ojeda, an Argentinian himself, said that he grew up \u201cidolizing\u201d the famed footballer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just a great opportunity to be present on the field with him, and I enjoyed the experience,\u201d he said through a translator.<\/p>\n
The buzz had been palpable during the afternoon showdown in The Bronx as fans erupted every time Messi moved on the pitch at Yankee Stadium. In the right corner of the ballpark, fans screamed and chanted, trying to get Messi\u2019s attention during warmups, and when he looked their way, they were overcome with delirium.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The crowd roared as if Messi was lining up for a penalty in the World Cup when he took practice shots at the net during warmups.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And when he touched the ball during the 90-minute affair, and whenever there was a hint of a scoring chance, Yankee Stadium sounded as if Aaron Judge had just belted a bottom-of-the-ninth home run. <\/p>\n
Chants of \u201cMESSI\u201d echoed at various times during the match, including in the final 10 minutes with Miami ahead 3-2.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Messi, who had just scored his 900th career goal for club and country on Wednesday, showed why he\u2019s one of soccer\u2019s greatest players during the match. He forced NYCFC Matt Freese to make a diving save in the eighth minute and nearly scored in the 30th minute after ringing a shot off the post from 25 yards out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Moments later, he got the ball back and danced through the NYCFC backline before the home side was able to knock the ball out, erasing the danger. In the 42nd minute, he hit the crossbar on a shot just outside the penalty area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The legendary striker finally gave the crowd what they\u2019d been hoping to see when he took a free kick, and it appeared to hit off a New York City player and bounced out of reach of Freese in the 61st minute. The goal erased the 2-1 lead NYCFC had and kick-started the Inter Miami comeback.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Lionel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2267855603_a80cda.jpg\")
Lionel Messi chases the ball during the match between New York City FC and Inter Miami CF at Yankee Stadium on March 22, 2026 in New York, New York. Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cThe woodwork saved us a couple of times on him in the first half,\u201d NYCFC defender Kevin O\u2019Toole said about defending Messi, who generated nine shots during the match. \u201cI think he\u2019s a player that\u2019s always going to create chances for himself. I mean nine shots is a lot, so the woodwork came up clutch and Aiden [O\u2019Neill\u2019s] leg as well. I don\u2019t know, [Messi] was decent today.\u201d<\/p>\n
New York City FC has not won a match against Inter Miami in the Messi era and their last win against the club came back on March 11, 2023, at Yankee Stadium.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sunday also marked NYCFC\u2019s first loss of the season after picking up 10 points in the standings through their first four games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was the first time that NYCFC had seen Miami since the Eastern Conference Finals, when they fell 5-1 in South Florida.<\/p>\n
Gonzalo Luj\u00e1n had given Inter Miami the lead three minutes into the match, cleaning up a loose ball in the box. Nicol\u00e1s Fern\u00e1ndez Mercau scored in the 17th minute to tie the game at one and Agust\u00edn Ojeda continued his strong run this season to put NYCFC ahead in the 59th minute.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Michael dos Santos scored the go-ahead goal for Inter Miami in the 74th minute.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was the Lionel Messi show on one of America\u2019s grandest sports stages, and many of the 45,845…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1660,123,125,124,5692,2062,110],"class_list":["post-201722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-lionel-messi","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-mls","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}