Lionel Messi’s first visit to Philadelphia delivers thrills in a dominant win over the Union

More than 19,000 fútbol fans can say they were there the night Lionel Messi made his mark in Philadelphia. It’s why most of them came for the 7 p.m. match. By 7:30, they had what they came for.

The greatest player the game has ever seen, in June, agreed to spend his soccer dotage in America’s minor league, but he’d prove to still be a major talent even at the age of 36. He led Inter Miami into Subaru Park on Tuesday night, his sixth game since leaving Europe’s elite soccer sphere, with eight goals in his first five games, all played in the Leagues Cup, a tournament between MLS and Mexico’s Liga MX, which brought him to Delco. As such, he’d already set the all-time tournament goal record.

» READ MORE: Lionel Messi, Inter Miami trounce Union, 4-1, in Leagues Cup semifinals

Twenty minutes into the game, he had goal No. 9. It earned him Man of the Match honors. It was the winner, and it sent Inter Miami to the tournament final, and it bounced the Union to the third-place game, and it was beautiful, and it was ugly.

Messi unleashed a modest blast from 35 yards that never made it more than 6 inches off the ground. It wrong-footed astonished goalie Andre Blake, who, somehow, wasn’t able to cover the space between himself and the lower left corner.

Most of the 19,778 in attendance, a record for Subaru Park, fell silent. Hundreds of pink-clad Inter Miami fans, many of whom spent thousands to be near the Messi-ah, rejoiced. The Union and their fans were stunned.

But then, all night, the Union was awestruck. By halftime, they’d been thunderstruck.

» READ MORE: ‘Score be damned:’ Fans say Subaru Park still played host to the hottest ticket in town

Obsessed with limiting Messi, the greatest player who ever lived, the Union gave up goals early and late in the first half.

Union coach Jim Curtin said he chose his lineup and his formation to protect against Miami’s possession dominance and offensive potency.

”We were a little too excited,” Curtin admitted. “Maybe we showed them too much respect.”

Less than 4 minutes into the match, two defenders pinched in the middle, so Sergii Kryvtsov pushed a pass past the back line of the Union defense. Josef Martínez sprinted to it and, from just inside the right side of the box, deposited a one-time, right-footed volley in the lower left corner that eluded Blake’s dive.

In first-half stoppage time, Damion Lowe fixated on “La Pulga,” but it wasn’t The Flea who bit him. Lowe lingered too deep in the center of his own territory, which kept Jordi Alba onside for Robert Taylor’s through ball. Blake had no chance.

Messi struck in between, and delighted patrons like the Reyes family, for whom Tuesday was an expensive gamble.

It paid off.

Luis Reyes is a welder from Bethlehem, Pa. His wife, Jereina Reyes, knew that the $6,000 seats were beyond her budget. Heck, the $600 seats were too much, and standing-room was going for $400 a pop. So she crossed her fingers and patrolled the resale sites from last Saturday until Monday afternoon. That’s when she pounced: four seats for a total of $1,200.

“It’s a lot, but it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” she said. “I didn’t think we’d get to see him play, but we snagged some tickets at the last second.”

He is a family idol.

Her son Luis, a fifth-grader who plays for the Bethlehem Soccer Club, loves Messi’s dribbling skills.

“I like his IQ of the game,” said her daughter, Jada Liz, who will play for her eighth-grade team at Broughal Middle School in Bethlehem. “He always knows what to do.”

“I like Messi because he’s a good person,” her father said. Then, reverently: “Never thought I’d get to see him play.”

Luis, 42, is wiry, about the same height as Messi, who’s 5-foot-7, but Luis is about 20 pounds lighter. He played as a schoolboy in El Salvador and, as a man, he’s followed Messi for years; from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain and dozens of Messi’s 175 international matches with Argentina.

For Luis Reyes, Messi’s character is something of a South American salvation who obscures the legacy of troubled Argentine legend Diego Maradona. Messi never courted the sorts of demons and scoundrels that scarred Maradona’s life.

And now he’s expected to be the benefactor of professional soccer in America; to continue what Pelé began in 1975 and David Beckham continued in 2007. Beckham’s co-ownership of Inter Miami is the fruit of his temporary defection from soccer’s highest levels, and Messi will, reportedly, be a partner in that ownership group as part of his $150 million deal that will keep his talents in South Beach through 2025.

He sells out every stadium he visits, which makes sense, since Inter Miami sold out his welcoming ceremony. They can’t keep his jersey on the shelves in Florida. He’s going to get a slice of the 10-year, $2.5 billion deal Apple TV made with MLS, which is only fitting, since he’s the biggest reason people will watch.

And they will watch. He is mesmerizing.

He took the field at 7:02 p.m., holding the hand of his assigned youth soccer player. Two minutes later, he was announced, his No. 10 fifth in numerical order, and the cheers drowned out the boos. Even in Philly, game respects game.

“I thought the crowd was amazing,” said Curtin, who is Philly through-and-through. He went to Bishop McDevitt, Villanova, and is in his 10th season as the Union manager. But again, game respects game.

“Even if you’re a Union fan, you should respect and love how Messi plays the game and how he is as a human being and a teammate,” Curtin said.

Whether in Miami pink or Union blue, fans held their breath with Messi’s every touch. Unfortunately, so did the Union players. After Messi pushed a ball upfield late in the game, they ignored a wide-open winger on the right, which led to Inter Miami’s fourth goal in the 84th minute.

Messi wasn’t perfect; midway through the first half, he lazily failed to clear a corner kick, which led to two more corners, which led to nothing else, but such is soccer.

Afterward, he played his usual ambassador role, sharing shirtless hugs with Union players, waving to the crowd, and exiting the stadium without speaking to the press.

The Union, for their part, got what they deserved: a 4-1 loss at the hands of a superior club. Inter Miami is superior now, despite having the fewest points in the paused MLS season, having added Messi and his former Barcelona teammates, Sergio Busquets and Alba, who have played only in the Leagues Cup matches.

Miami is superior, but not unbeatable. The Union had chances.

Ten minutes into the second half, Chris Donovan, who scored the Union’s winner in the last seconds of the quarterfinal, completely missed an open goal from 10 yards out. They squandered another gimme a few minutes later.

» READ MORE: Lionel Messi’s visit to Philadelphia is like Michael Jordan coming to town

Finally, in the 73rd minute, captain Alejandro Bedoya, coming off a five-game injury absence, deposited a corner to make it 3-1. It was his first goal of the season. He did not rejoice.

“We lost. It doesn’t mean anything,” Bedoya said.

At least, it meant little Tuesday night. Wednesday morning, in Scandinavia, it will be a different story.

“My son will be happy when he wakes up,” Bedoya said. Santino, 8, is visiting his mother’s family in Norway. “He’ll probably be, like, ‘I can’t believe you scored against Messi.’ "

Bedoya allowed that, one day, the memory of the loss will give way to the pride of, in their first head-to-head meeting, matching little Leo goal-for-goal:

“Of course, when my career’s over, when I look back, I’ll be able to give my kids that perspective,” the captain said.

In fact, Bedoya told me Sunday he’d been dreaming of scoring against Messi. For Bedoya, as for a lot of people, with Lionel Messi on the pitch in full, elegant form, Tuesday night was a dream come true.