On Saturday night, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was humming with anticipation. AMLS Opening Day record75,673 believers who all came to witness greatness. For just the third time in three years, the City of Angels gathered to watch the greatest player of his generation, Lionel Messi, step onto the venue’s sacred grass.
Because once again, Messi washeld scoreless in Los Angeles.
It wasn’t supposed to go like this.
When Inter Miamirolled into town as the reigning MLS Cup Champions,there was an electricity in the air that crackled like summer lightning. You could see it in the pink jerseys sprinkled across the Coliseum seats, in the Argentine flags that hung with pride, in the children perched atop their father’s shoulders, waiting to tell all their friends theysaw the G.O.A.T. with their own eyes.
But soccer is cruel when chemistry is absent.
And chemistry, more than ever, is what Messi is missing the most.
In previous visits to Los Angeles, the storyline was always “Messi and friends.” The friends mattered. They were more than nostalgic footnotes from FC Barcelona glory days. They were the invisible threads stitching together his brilliance.
Jordi Alba running down the left flag like a trusted shadow that could finish in the final third.
Sergio Busquets, the maestro, orchestrating tempo with the calm of a chess grandmaster.
Luis Suárez, the Uruguayan, who can read Messi’s eyes like a classic novel.
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
