Podcasts
Messi-mania has taken over MLS
Is it even possible to go overboard when talking about the greatest player of all time?
The GOAT has arrived and he’s already doing GREAT things.
Watch it again… I know you will.
Magia pura desde cualquier ángulo 🪄 pic.twitter.com/USvlhMFGVU
— Inter Miami CF (@InterMiamiCF) July 22, 2023
Lionel Messi had his dream debut last week, scoring the winner in the 94th minute to lift Inter Miami over Cruz Azul in the Leagues Cup. Of course he did. He’s already proving exactly why you’re seeing his face absolutely everywhere you look. Messi-mania is in full effect all over Major League Soccer.
Starting from the rain-soaked reveal you couldn’t really hear, Messi has dominated every headline, advertisement, video, website, and meme from the league. Is it too much? Does ‘too much’ even exist when you’re talking about the Greatest Player of All Time?
That’s a main topic of discussion on this episode of the Shades of Blue Soccer Show. Some may be already annoyed, but some are happy to be living in a dream world in which Lionel Andrés Messi is playing soccer in the United States.
So many exciting things are happening in the world of soccer right now and we have a busy show. Things are really great for everyone… except for Sporting KC and KC Current fans.
SKC picked up a Draw-Loss against FC Cincinnati after blowing a lead (twice). Something we see all too often. They show you the light! They give you something to hope for. They impress you. And then they crush you.
Somehow, Sporting KC made a game you didn’t really care about incredibly painful.
We discuss Alan Pulido’s red card, Khiry Shelton, and Rosero’s chicken wing handball. Is our last chance at finding happiness this season beating St. Louis?
The USWNT kicked off the World Cup with a 3-0 win against Vietnam. A much younger US squad than the final four years ago will take on the Netherlands on Wednesday night.
Segment 1 – Sporting KC and Leagues Cup
Segment 2 – Messi-mania (28:00)
Segment 3 – USWNT & Women’s World Cup (43:00)
Find the KC Soccer Journal wherever you get your podcasts. Please subscribe, rate, & review! You can follow Cody @ThatCodyTho, Thad @TheBackpost, and Robert @SpKCLife.
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So tired of Messi League Soccer. The man is good. He has vision. He plays the right ball at the right time. He has incredible skill to turn or to place a free kick. But he’s an old man, he wont play defense, and he wont run. Remember when Pirlo came in? Remember when he said “[MLS] a very hard league to play in. It’s very physical, there’s a lot of running. So there is a lot of physical work and to me, in my mind, too little play.” Messi is above Pirlo certainly but I think we’ll find the same is true. It’ll be more work than he wants to put in. I watched the match. Or tried to, but the camera spent half the game looking at Messi on the bench. Twellman spent 80% of the time talking about how amazing it was that Messi was watching the match. JFC just play the game. Messi sitting in a chair watching football isn’t entertainment.
I watched the last half-hour or so of that match (in Spanish, to avoid what I knew would be fawning English-language announcers). Messi was legitimately fun, like watching a video game character. But man, the broader media obsession with which celebrities attended the match, and all the rest, is really turning me off more than anything else that’s happened in MLS since I (re)started following the league.
Walking around the pitch is ultimately another thing Messi has mastered. Sure, he may not be helping that much in defense and it looks lazy and like he’s not doing anything, but the man is acutely aware of where he is and everyone else is at on the field at all times. And he doesn’t run until he is ready to exploit the spaces left by the opposing defense. All of his movements are incredibly efficient for what he wants to do on the pitch and also on his body. Therefore if he wants to play for many more years, his style of play works great for “an old man.”
The coverage is too much, but I’m not personally blaming Messi or his play style.
The never ending Messi hoopla just reminds me to be even more grateful Ronaldo didn’t land at Sporting. The coverage is over-indulgent and exhausting. Yeah, it’s a big deal and blah blah blah but I simply don’t care.
Personally, I found the talent in the roster development* for NYCFC’s inaugural season for more exciting and interesting, even if it ultimately fell short.
Although, Zlatanaissance is my favorite instance of a big MLS signing. Especially since he wasn’t on the same level of recognition as Messi or Ronaldo in the American soccer zeitgeist when he arrived; a lot of folks didn’t really know what they were getting in terms of style and personality. I miss that enigmatic weirdo.
*featuring bb Khiry Shelton
Absolutely, this circus is precisely what I didn’t want for SKC. It’s not who we are as a city, club, or fans. Though watching prima-donna Ronaldo butt heads with hard-ass PV would have been high-class drama.
It’s honestly embarrassing for the league, they’re playing into the hands of critics by making themselves look insecure and fawning. I’m now actively rooting for Miami to crash out of Leagues Cup so there’s a chance we can hear/read about something else for a month before the season resumes and it’s back to The Messi Show.
Great point about Zlatan, too.
I get the focus on the GOAT. I get that new eyes are discovering MLS and Apple Season Pass. I would do it too if I was in marketing. But I’m just not that interested. As some X (nee Twitter) personality said, “This is big, but I’m going to miss our weird little league”.
Completely separate, I’m enjoying the interviews with Huw on the WWC.
I don’t get why people are marveling at that free kick goal. Yes, it’s nice but the GK sets up all wrong. Messi hits those with his left for fun and he just leaves the whole right side of the goal for him to shoot at. Terrible defending
I don’t get the obsession with Messi. He’s the 2nd best player of all time but he’s past his prime. This isn’t a 26 year old Messi.
What’s more frustrating for me is that the league is nuking coverage of its other teams, in a league that frequently promotes its parity as a positive.
It’s drawing eyes to the league but the homepage of mlssoccer.com has basically only featured Messi for over a month. How is that helpful for fans of other teams?
It’s too much. There’s also literally no way Miami is roster compliant. So we’re just going to change the rules mid season to accommodate a shitty team that already got caught cheating.
What’s really depressing is that other outlets, like The Athletic, have been exactly the same way.
1,000 percent they’re breaking salary cap/roster rules. But does MLS care? Did they really care when they punished Miami the first time they were “caught”?
A minority owner of the club reported it. MLS had to do something or the message to the whole league would have been, “do whatever you want just as long as we don’t see your non-official salary books.”
MLS has shown in the past that if you get a massive star (Beckham), they are more than happy to change the rules for you. Miami will get Alba and all of the sudden there will be a new rule or rules from MLS that makes Miami’s roster compliant. Anyway, with salary cap and roster rules so vague and complicated, how would anyone know for sure anyway?
cruz azul defending/ball pressure was a complete joke….same for ATL’s defense on the first goal…this is like exhibition/RockNJock level
I only care about Puff Daddy having fun.
I’m excited for the league and the country to experience Messi. It will be frustrating for those of us already “in-tune” with the culture to hear it on repeat, but the messaging isn’t for us. It is for the new people, the new potential fans giving this league a shot. Besides, if they didn’t overhype it then people would be salty that they didn’t use the signing to the league’s advantage. You can’t have it both ways, I think.
Since I can’t have it both ways, I’d prefer the way where Messi isn’t shoved down our throats nonstop.
So what do you want for the league? Do you want growth? Increased competition? Long term, what kind of league do you want MLS to be?
I absolutely think you can have it both ways. It’s entirely possible to showcase a new star without going full fanfic. Kat’s mention of Zlatan is on point here. They talked up Zlatan plenty, and he featured plenty, but the rest of the league still existed and was covered. Zlatan’s debut was far more dramatic than Messi’s, yet the league and media managed to maintain a semblance of sanity and balance. Not this time.
The league (and The Athletic) reminds me of a teenager talking up their new girl/boyfriend they met at summer camp, so obsessively that even their best friends are sick of hearing about it and wish they’d just break up already so they can have their friend back.
A month ago, I was thrilled to hear Messi was joining MLS. Now I’m ready to chip in to send him to Saudi Arabia.
Lol, didn’t zlatan also take out a full page ad that said “you’re welcome”? That man hyped himself.
I also don’t really pay attention the league media as I am not on their social media pages. So maybe that is where my disconnect is?
I don’t care what Zlatan himself did, or what’s on social media (I don’t use any). I’m talking about actual journalistic coverage of the league from both the league itself and major outlets like The Athletic. You literally still can’t find Leagues Cup standings on the MLS site, they aren’t even producing the most basic coverage they normally do (power rankings, etc.), it’s all Messimania. And The Athletic is exactly the same way, 3-4 Messi articles per day but dropping the (already weak) league coverage they did have.
The league is shooting itself in the foot by implying not-so-subtly that Messi is the only thing worth paying attention to in North American soccer.
I want MLS to be our league of parity. One where a small team in a small market has the same chance as a big team in a big market. Where the worst team gets the best available player. Where we can’t compete with EPL. Where the best local players prove themselves then leave for better leagues and where aging or rehabbing players come. I want competition in the league not an arms race that puts Juventus at the top every year. I don’t need the vest in the world in my backyard, I just want a a local team to root for that has a chance and where a day at the park is affordable to the working class. Thanks for asking. 🙂