Messi goal makes up for bitter cold as Inter Miami win in Champions Cup

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Lionel Messi did what Lionel Messi does.

The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner scored from the right side of the box in the 56th minute to lift Inter Miami past Sporting Kansas City 1-0 on a bitterly cold Wednesday night in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions Cup’s first round.

“There’s one guy that can turn the game over, and he did,” Sporting KC manager Peter Vermes said.

Miami head coach Javier Mascherano simply described Messi’s effort as “fantastic.”

Both teams struggled to find consistency on the hard, slick field for much of the night in front of 15,178 bundled-up fans at Children’s Mercy Park, where the game-time temperature was 3 degrees F (minus 16 C) with a wind speed of 9 mph, resulting in a wind chill of minus 11 F (minus 24 C).

“(I’m) very proud because I think it’s impossible to play in these conditions,” Mascherano said. “Is not human, you know. So I’m very proud, because they gave me 100%.”

On his goal, Messi collected a pass from Sergio Busquets, let it fall to his feet, eluded the nearest defender and then fired it past Sporting KC keeper John Pulskamp.

“Maybe for the people that know him it’s normal because he did goals like this 1,000 times,” Mascherano said. “But we are very lucky to have him here.”

Vermes was proud of Sporting KC’s effort to slow the Miami attack.

“Outside of that (goal), I thought we were really good,” he said. “We had some really good opportunities. I can’t say enough about our first performance, especially with such a young group of guys being on the field, really good.”

Vermes went as far as saying that Messi does things few other players ever have been able to do.

“It’s not just us, it’s everybody,” he said. “I mean, it’s the whole world. Nobody ever plays well against him. He can change the game himself. And there’s really not many players that you can say that about in the world’s game and over generations, there’s just not a lot of them. Two of them happen to come from Argentina, him and (Diego) Maradona.

Sporting KC stayed on the front foot the rest of the game in an attempt to tie the match, but Oscar Ustari stopped both of the team’s second-half shots on goal. The best chance came when Dániel Sallói got open behind the Miami defense, but his shot attempt was right at Ustari.

Erik Thommy’s attempt to tie it in the 78th minute hit off the left post, but it wouldn’t have counted as Sallói was ruled offside.

Inter Miami nearly took an early lead, but Luis Suarez’s shot from just inside the box went wide. Inter Miami had another opportunity in the 33rd minute, but Tadeo Allende’s shot, coming off a lob from Messi, was wide.

Sporting KC missed a chance to grab the lead off a corner kick in the 36th minute, but Dany Rosero’s header was left of the target.

Miami held a slight edge in the first-half stats, taking seven shots compared to Sporting KC’s three. Miami had a 60% advantage in possession.

The clubs play the second leg Tuesday in Miami.

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