As the date gets closer, Lionel Messi and Inter Miami will travel to Arrowhead Stadium to play a soccer game against Sporting Kansas City. This will be the first soccer match Arrowhead will host since the early 2010s, in what could be the most televised game in Kansas City history. Millions from around the country will see Kansas City in the soccer spotlight for the first of hopefully many times.
What this means for the City:
Although this isn’t a playoff game, to say this is important for Kansas City’s rise to soccer fame in the States is an understatement. Whenever you have a talent like Lionel Messi in your city, it makes everything that much more important. This means you need to make sure the pitch is up to proper playing standards, which is why Arrowhead and many other stadiums in the States are switching to grass playing surfaces. This is a result of studies that show that artificial turf has caused much more injuries, compared to old-fashioned grass. They aren’t changing the grass just for Messi, but also for their group-stage games hosted in the 2024 Copa America tournament, where the United States will have a home game. Since Kansas City is a host for that tournament, my belief is that as the host city, we’ll get people talking more about Kansas City in a positive way and it’ll change the image of how people see the city, to continue growing the beautiful game.
Matchups:
Inter Miami:
Former Mexico national team big boss Tata Martino has seemed to have improved upon his shortcomings and has Inter Miami in quality form. Miami is currently on their best start in franchise history in second place in their conference, but to be fair it is easier to have a good team when you have Messi, Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba, and Sergio Busquets. A pretty much Barcelona’s All-Star Team that’s a few years past their prime. Not to discredit them, they can still ball even though they are near retirement. The big issue with this team originally is that they couldn’t have stable goalkeeping, now with Drake Callender they are a near brick wall. They will have a tough game against Sporting, but it’s around their level of talent. They’re looking to bounce back after losing to CF Monterrey in the Concacaf Champions Cup group stage.
Sporting KC:
Long-time coach and sporting director Peter Vermes has had a roller coaster of a tenure in Fountain City. Which has been a spitting image of this season. There have been moments where this team looks fractured, and decimated looking towards a rebuild. But then the teams pick it up together and beat you by a goal or two. This is the standard sporting, a very physical team that can take anybody out. Currently, they are sixth in the Western Conference and to be fair it is a very tough conference. And they haven’t been blown out of the water in too many games. This team will need to get out to an early lead and then park the bus, or play bruising defense to prevent the other team from scoring. If they can do that, then “Inter Messi” will be shocked and Kansas City will end up victorious. If there is a team that can beat Miami, it is Sporting.
Predictions:
I believe that it will be a very dramatic game at the Home of the Chiefs, but I believe that Sporting will end up winning. It will be 4-3 with Lionel Messi scoring a hat-trick, but his night will be overshadowed by the might of Kansas City’s team play and physical nature.
