Perhaps the novelty or awe inspired by the presence of Lionel Messi is wearing off for the New York Red Bulls as they prepare to take on Inter Miami on Saturday down in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
“Of course, playing against Messi is special, but… it’s just a normal game,” Red Bulls forward Dante Vanzeir said. “It’s a tough opponent. It’s not only Messi, they have a lot of big guys running around.”
Just last summer when the legendary Argentinian talisman made his Major League Soccer debut with Inter Miami against the Red Bulls in Harrison, NJ, the talk was understandably centered around the disbelief of playing against the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner, who at the time was just eight months removed from winning the World Cup.
It showed during his 30 minutes on the pitch when he came on as a second-half sub. The Red Bulls were caught ball-watching, practically star-struck, as Messi received the ball in the middle of the box in the 89th minute. He threaded a pass to the right wing to Benjamin Cremaschi, who instantly played it back to the middle where Messi’s unmarkable run found him all alone with nothing but an open net in front of him leaving Red Bulls keeper Carlos Coronel without a prayer.
More than eight months have passed since Inter Miami’s 2-0 win over New York and with it comes a significantly different looking side.
“It’s a big challenge for us,” head coach Sandro Schwarz said on Thursday. “Our preparation the whole week and our training session and our video meetings the whole week was that we are playing against Inter Miami. Not only against Messi.”
In his first year as head coach, Schwarz has the Red Bulls — who clawed their way into the postseason during the final week of the 2023 season — in third place in the Eastern Conference 10 matches into this year. Lewis Morgan is healthy and scoring at will. Emil Forsberg is pulling the strings just as the savvy Bundesliga veteran was expected to when he signed in December. Vanzeir is hitting new heights in his second year with the club, which included four assists during a 4-0 win over a Messi-less Inter Miami on March 23.
Saturday, however, provides a rematch between first-place Miami and the Red Bulls where Messi is healthy and expectedly clicking on all cylinders. He has scored in each of the last six MLS matches he has played in for nine goals in total including two in each of his last wo matches against Nashville and New England.
An imposing figure to line up against, obviously, especially when he has brought some of the other great European champions to Miami like Luis Suarez, Sergio Bousquets, and Jordi Alba. But this is something that has not sidetracking the Red Bulls during their preparations this week as it might have one year ago.
“I think the team is more relaxed,” Vanzeir said on Thursday. “We’re not as surprised about the names that play there. We know their qualities in general and I think we’re more mature and confident in ourselves. I think our focus is more on ourselves this week — how we can make them hurt, how we can show our qualities.”
That does not mean they have not spent significant time gameplanning for one of the greatest players the game has ever seen.
“It’s a team with high quality, especially with Lionel Messi… so we have to defend very strong, very compact in our defense’s line,” Schwarz said. “Our structure will be very important but it’s necessary to have the confidence with the ball to find the solutions, to find the space… We know for sure [Messi] is a very important player for them, especially in their last third and in the half space with his left foot when he comes inside to the box, the cutbacks… it’s an important topic for Saturday to defend against this issue but it’s necessary that we have the confidence with the ball and not only to think about, ‘OK, how do we defend against Messi?’ because they have Suarez and [Robert] Taylor, a lot of good players.”
Between Miami’s embarrassment of attacking riches, they lead MLS with 26 goals scored this season. Only two other teams in the 29-team MLS has scored 20 or more times.
The Red Bulls are not one of them, but their 14 goals are tied for third most in the Eastern Conference while their 10 goals allowed is second-fewest. It is the byproduct of a possession-laden, pressing style of soccer bolstered by a stout defense — and something they believe can derail the Miami machine this weekend.
“We’re the strongest in our style of play,” Vanzeir said. “We know we can hurt a lot of teams and that’s what we’re going to do. At the end of the day, you give everything on that pitch in our style of play. If we win, great. If we lose they were just better. That’s the kind of focus and confidence we have now.”
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