With Lionel Messi coming to town, Red Bulls thrilled to face 'greatest ever' but focused on beating Inter Miami
Red Bulls midfielder Omir Fernandez (left) and defender Sean Nealis (right) are gearing up to face Inter Miami superstar Lionel Messi (inset) on Saturday. Credit: AP/Vera Nieuwenhuis; AP/Michael Laughlin
WHIPPANY, N.J. — Omir Fernandez needed a pair of those orange cleats.
Now a midfielder with the Red Bulls, the Bronx native remembers watching FC Barcelona face rival Real Madrid as a boy, seeing the spot of orange on his television whip a precise free kick over a wall and into the net, followed by the star player wearing the bright adidas shoes curling away in celebration.
“When I saw him in those orange cleats, I had to get those orange cleats, and I wore them for a really long time because of him,” Fernandez said.
“Him,” of course, is Lionel Messi, the global soccer icon Fernandez and his Red Bulls teammates expect to share the field with Saturday. The Argentine winner of virtually every trophy he’s played for is coming to New York (well, Harrison, New Jersey) to play a competitive club match for the first time, leading his rebuilt Inter Miami side into a sold-out Red Bull Arena. The least expensive ticket available on secondary markets Wednesday was listed for $400, with some asking up to $10,000.
Messi, 36, joined Major League Soccer from Paris Saint-Germain this summer, and like so many others, 24-year-old Fernandez has been glued to each moment.
“I never watch the games for teams that we’re not playing against, but now in Leagues Cup I watched all of his games just for him,” Fernandez said. “I always stuck with [Cristiano] Ronaldo when I was younger, but I’m a huge Messi fan. I’ll defend Ronaldo to the end, but I’ll always give Messi the title of being the greatest ever. I have so much respect and I’m so excited to be playing against him.”
That excitement was evident at training Tuesday following a home win Sunday over D.C. United. Fernandez said it might be a challenge for the team to make this a normal week knowing what’s waiting Saturday, but Massapequa native and Red Bulls captain Sean Nealis believes they’ll settle into their regular preparation and can lean on an experience in a similar environment.
“Obviously there’s a lot more hype and spectacle going through it,” Nealis said. “I think we’ve learned through last year playing in that Barcelona friendly that it was important to know that once the whistle’s blown and the ball is rolling, it’s just a normal game and your competitive juices get flowing.”
Joined by former Barcelona teammates Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, Messi’s Miami is unbeaten in eight matches and already has its first trophy as champions of Leagues Cup, an interleague competition involving clubs from MLS and Mexico’s LigaMX, thanks to Messi's 10 goals in the tournament.
Saturday will be the first league match for Inter Miami (5-3-14, 18 points) with Messi and company, who joined a squad at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings. The Red Bulls (7-8-9, 29 points) sit in 11th, three points shy of the final playoff spot with 10 matches remaining.
"We have to have respect for a player of this magnitude, and how their team has improved in such a short period of time with Messi, with Busquets, with Alba,” Red Bulls head coach Troy Lesesne said. “But at the same time, we don't want to spend the whole week being enamored by this moment. We have to look at this as an opponent that we are trying to get three points against in this competition.”
Nealis, who started last year’s friendly against Barcelona with a sliding tackle of star striker Robert Lewandowski, said his side could use a similar “momentum play” early in the game to set the tone.
“We’re not going to be fans during the game,” Nealis said. “After the game we may say hello and whatnot, but during we’re going to have to push for three points with all we have.”
Fernandez plans to be one of those greeting Messi afterward. He’s one of many on the team vying to swap shirts with an idol.
“There's people who don't say much, but I’m talking a lot of talk trying to get this jersey, so I’m doing as much as I can for sure.”
It certainly would go well in his collection alongside those orange cleats.
Ryan Gerbosi is an internet news manager for sports at Newsday.com. He also covers NYCFC and mixed martial arts and believes the designated hitter should be banned from baseball.
