For Lionel Messi and the inter miami victory over LAFC at Bank of California Stadium meant much more than three points. It was a great dose of confidence in his journey to right the team’s course and maintain their hopes of qualifying for the MLS playoffs.
The 1-3 victory over the current monarch of the league it was taken by the players as an injection of encouragement for the rest of the tournament and they stated this in their interviews after the match.
The first to speak was Messiwho said he was convinced that they are on the right path and that they will fight until the end to enter the final phase of the competition.
“We had said it before the game, that it was a nice test to see where we stood and what we were capable of. We played in a very difficult field against the last champion and the truth is that we got a very important result for what’s to come”, expressed the world champion, who this time could not score, but sent two assists in the match.
It is worth remembering that before the arrival of the star, Inter Miami occupied the bottom of the Eastern Conference and lacked ambitions, but since his arrival last summer the club remains undefeated and has a more than positive balance, since they won a title, the Leagues Cup, and are in the final of the US Open Cup, which they will play at home on September 27 against the Houston Dynamo; As if that were not enough, they have 3 games without defeat in the league and they have already left the bottom of the table.
“The group grows more every day, we have been saying it since the beginning of all this. We were lucky to get a tournament, to get into a final and now we are going to try to get into the eight to find the league. This is the path, we continue to grow and obviously winning gives a lot of confidence.to ”, limited Messi.
For his part, his former teammate at Barcelona and now an accomplice at Inter Miami, Sergio BusquetsHe thought very similar to the South American star.
“We are taking little steps. The team is consolidating, I think we are growing in the right way”, said.
Finally, Facundo Farias, the scorer of the first goal, who validated an assist from Messi, spoke about his goal, the importance of the win and Inter Miami’s next goals.
“I felt very comfortable in the place that I occupied today. I thought the defender was coming to me, I jumped in to anticipate and luckily the first one today was possible and I hope that many will continue to come”, he said regarding the play in which he scored the goal, where it seemed that he slipped and would not reach the goal. ball, but the opposite happened, he caught up with him and kicked him in such a way that he sent him to the corner, beating goalkeeper McCarthy.
“It was known that we had to refer to defenders who were very strong, both Chiellini and Long. So ‘Tata’ (Martino) I think he decided to put Leo and me on and to get a bit of that reference out of them and luckily today it happened. I could go looking for space, I could come to play. In that play the goal was given and it went well for us today, so I am happy and grateful to God, ”he stressed.
As for the team’s next objective, Farías summed it up as trying to win everything that comes their way.
“Always go step by step, we have a final, but we also want to get into the playoffs, we want to win everything that comes and that is what we propose, win and win”he concluded.
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