News: Messi to Miami

I don't think Lewandowski or Griezmann or Di Maria makes anywhere near the same kind of impact as Messi. Suarez, coming off a Golden Ball season in Brazil, has scored goals even without Messi on the field, but without Messi he's a good-but-not-world-beating DP striker on a below-average team. Messi is the one player transforming a below-average team into a seemingly unbeatable one.

 

Not anywhere near the impact, but if Lewandowski came to Chicago, the Fire would average upwards to 40,000 a game.
He is the only player in the world, save for Messi, who would 'move the needle' to that extent in Chicago.
Of course, he won't and the Fire will still be mired in the crapper both as a team and in attendance.

 

Just curious, hypothetically, If Robert Lewandowski came to Chicago, would it be the Polish, German or both fan groups who would come out to support him?

 

You're totally right. But that's because Messi is the best player in the last half century, and perhaps the best the world has ever seen (I think he's the best ever, ever).

 

I don't know about this. Ethnic pandering had never worked to this extent.

 

Polish fans first.
All soccer fans second.
My partner, and almost all of our friends are from Poland, and to a person, they adore Lewandowski.

 

Yeah, but I'm wondering about that number.

I mean would they draw 40k fans consistently or for an entire season?

Honestly, I think you are right.

MLS did a lot of this placing different nationalities in different towns during the earlier days of the league like Campos in LA, Donadoni in NY and El Pibe in Florida and Campos again in Chicago but sooner or later, the novelty wears off and fans stop coming.

I like Lewandowski but he is turning 36 and he may draw some fans and purists to a certain extent but I don’t think it will be that significant.

I am not trying to compare the two but I don't recall Bastian Schweinsteiger drawing that many fans in Chicago.

In the end and leaving Messi out of the equation, most fans want to see a winning team regardless of who is playing.

 

Longish article in The Athletic talks about how Messi is having the greatest season in MLS history. It also talks about how his game has changed; he’s coming deeper to help progress the ball. Lots of nerdy details.

https://theathletic.com/5484955/2024/05/11/lionel-messi-mls-greatest-individual-season/

 

It was always a bad sign when Messi had to come back deeper with Argentina back in the day but he's made it work here.

 

Last night was Messi's first game without a goal contribution all season. (He did have a "hockey assist" on Cremaschi's winner, not credited as a secondary assist because it was just a short square pass.)

 

I was surprised they didn't award it.

I didn't realize that the NASL assist, which I call it for nostalgic reasons, now had a subjective component.

I don't remember it having that in the old days…

 

Secondary assists used to be automatic as long as possession was continuous, but the rule changed before the 2003 season. From 2003 onward, a secondary assist is only awarded if the pass contributes "significantly and directly" to creating the goal-scoring opportunity.

That's one of the reasons no one's gotten close to Valderrama's single-season assist record.

 

My dad* used to rail about secondary assists in hockey…according to him, when the NHL first started counting them they used the same approach before changing to the last two players to touch it. I like the idea of counting them but applying judgment.

*I miss you, you cranky old so and so.

 

Looking for a little objective opinion since I am not going to get it on the Crew message boards.

Messi and Miami's other Barca imports have been very good this year. After watching another 10-12 minutes at the beginning of the Wrap Up show on Apple, I wonder what would happen if defenses started playing Messi like they play Morris and Nagbe on the Crew, which this year seems to be to simply hack them down at every opportunity.

I mean, it's working against Columbus, why not foul Messi 5-7 times a game?

Yes, I'm biased, I get that, but the stats don't lie, Columbus is getting fouled 50% more than they were last year are are often fouled 10 or more times more then they are committing fouls.

I would absolutely play hack-a-Shaq on Suarez, Messi, Busquets and Alba.

 

I think refs will (unconsciously?) protect Messi and friends more and give more cards, last weekends challenge from George Campbell not withstanding.

 

Do you really want to give Messi a free kick from a foul anywhere within shooting range?

 

FYP

 

Most of the fouls on Morris and Nagbe are in the middle third of the field, so not really as much of a scoring opportunity.

 

Yes, but you don't get to always choose where to foul a player. If Messi starts getting hacked he's just going to hang out in places where he can shoot free kicks from. Which was his general style of play most of his career anyway, its really only been in Miami where he's regularly dropped deper.

 

If he stays healthy.