Lionel Messi scores as Inter Miami defeats Sporting KC in record cold temperatures
Not even frigid temperatures could freeze out Lionel Messi during Wednesday night’s Concacaf Champions Cup match.
The all-time soccer great and Inter Miami star scored in the 55th minute, drawing a loud roar from many of the fans who braved the Children’s Mercy Park elements. (Announced attendance was 15,178, though understandably far fewer attended the game that reached 2 degrees by the final whistle.)
Inter Miami won the first leg of its Champions Cup meeting with Sporting KC 1-0.
With a temperature in single-digits at kickoff and a “real-feel” wind chill in the negatives, Wednesday’s match was among the coldest in documented U.S. soccer history.
“I’m very proud because I think it’s impossible to play in these conditions,” Inter Miami head coach Javier Mascherano said. “It’s not human.”
The match was originally scheduled for Tuesday night but postponed to Wednesday due to snow that hit the KC area.
Messi brought 72,000-plus at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium to their feet with a long-range strike in 2024. This year, he brought a pass over the top from Sergio Busquets down with his chest, cut onto his weaker right foot and placed a shot perfectly into the bottom corner past a sprawling John Pulskamp.
“For the people that know him, it’s normal because he does things like this thousands of times,” Mascherano said.
Sporting did what it could to try and deny Messi, and for the most part his most dangerous moment was a shot from distance that went well wide of the goal in the first half. But for a player like Messi, a second chance, or even half-chance, can be deadly.
“There’s one guy that can turn the game over,” Sporting KC manager Peter Vermes said, speaking about Messi. “And he did.”
Vermes lauded Messi’s ability, saying there’s no plan any team can put in place that fully handles him, even at the latter stage of his career.
“You can see so many things that he does in the game that are just — and no disrespect to the rest of the players — he just does things at (a really high level),” Vermes said.
While Vermes wishes Sporting would’ve recognized the pass that Busquets played to Messi was coming in the moment, he’s ultimately proud of how well the team stayed organized and kept itself in the match.
“If we would have played this game last year we probably would’ve lost 3-0, because we’d have given up easy chances,” Vermes said. “This group fought really, really well.”
As for what’s different about this group? Goalkeeper John Pulskamp believes Sporting’s players are hungry to prove themselves.
“We just have a lot of guys that are eager and ambitious and want to help the team,” Pulskamp said. “It’s new blood, new fire, new motivation. I think it’s also the sting of years in the past that have now kind of culminated into this group where we’re very determined to right that wrong.”
Also of note from Wednesday’s match: Designated player duo Dejan Joveljic and Manu Garcia made their official debuts for Sporting KC.
Jacob Bartlett, a 19-year-old Overland Park native, also made his professional debut, starting and playing in the midfield the whole match
Sporting will play the second leg of the Concacaf Champions Cup matchup in Miami next Tuesday, Feb. 25, needing to win by one goal to force extra time and by two goals to advance.
Sporting will open MLS regular-season play on the road against Austin FC on Saturday, Feb. 22, at 7:30 p.m. Central.
Daniel Sperry covers soccer for The Star. He can be reached at sperry.danielkc@gmail.com.
This story was originally published February 19, 2025 at 9:12 PM.