With the Broncos stadium awash in a pink sea of Lionel Messi jerseys, Denver was transformed into a fútbol town as rowdy as Buenos Aires or Barcelona.
On a Saturday when Nikola Jokic raised the roof in the Nuggets’ home arena and Shohei Ohtani filled a ballpark in LoDo, both those sports giants were dwarfed by a 5-foot-7 soccer player as the most legendary superstar working in the city.
Inter Miami beat the Colorado Rapids 3-2.
But some forever moments in this sporting life are bigger than the scoreboard.
In front of 75,824 spectators, Little Leo exceeded all the hype. The GOAT scored two goals, including the game-winner, in a performance young children in attendance will someday tell their grandkids about.
And Denver once again proved there’s no better sports city in the USA.
Why on God’s green soccer earth couldn’t any of our civic leaders have found a way to sell the Federation Internationale de Football Association on the unbridled passion we have for big sports events?
That no World Cup matches will be staged in Colorado this year is a crying shame. For us. And for soccer in America.
Thirty years ago, when the Rapids were born, nobody could’ve envisioned this glorious day, with the possible exception of Phil Anschutz, the billionaire who kept MLS afloat by owning six teams around the turn of this century.
“Phil Anschutz is the father of Major League Soccer. And I would argue, along with Lamar Hunt, he is the most important person to drive Major League Soccer to where it is today,” longtime MLS commissioner Don Garber recalled at halftime of this Rapids birthday celebration.
“We built a soccer nation together. Phil had a vision coming out of the 1994 World Cup that America deserved a proper, first-division men’s league. We needed to build a commercial market, we needed to build billions of dollars of stadiums, we needed to go out and sign great players, we needed to launch brands that resonate in the community. You had to have the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat for decades.”
Without that kind of stubborn belief that pro soccer could thrive in the land of American football, this glorious spring afternoon in Colorado might never have happened for 21-year-old Rapids striker Darren Yapi, a Denver native.
On the same pitch as a soccer god, Yapi scored in the 62nd minute to pull the Rapids even at 2-2. The crowd that came to worship Messi went wild for Yapi.
“If (the Rapids) want to go where we want to go, which is the MLS Cup, these things can’t intimidate us,” Yapi said. “We obviously know Messi is the best player of this generation. But if we want to win the MLS Cup, we’re going to have to play against thousands of people and top players.”
Colorado coach Matt Wells was proud of his side for relentlessly pressing the defending league champions with dogged refusal to let the vibe be “all about Messi.”
But in the end, Messi gave thousands of ticket buyers who chanted his name their money’s worth. And then some.
While hanging out in Denver athletic venues since 1983, I’ve had the privilege of watching a tongue-wagging Michael Jordan dunk, Barry Bonds smash a baseball into the cheap seats and Bruce Springsteen sing “Born to Run” to tramps like us.
But in my 44th year of covering sports in Colorado, I finally was a witness to Messi’s unsurpassed greatness. Not once, but twice.
While oodles of the other 900-plus scores Messi has tallied for club or country have been more spectacular than the goal that gave Miami an early 1-0 lead, he reminded us soccer genius is often subtle.
After a replay review in the 18th minute awarded Miami a penalty kick for a ticky-tack foul in the box, Messi calmly placed the ball on the spot, with nothing except 12 yards of grass between him and Rapids goalkeeper Zack Steffen.
Messi stood over the ball and patiently surveyed the green ahead of him like Rory McIlroy lining up a birdie putt.
As Messi slowly swung back his leg, Steffen boldly lunged left.
And La Pulga didn’t have to do anything atomic. With the same delicate touch that McIlroy wields a putter, Messi rolled the ball low and dead perfect into the back of the frame.
“The best coach in the world is actually out there on the pitch,” Miami coach Guillermo Hoyos said. “We coaches are merely guides.”
And in the 79th minute, Messi delivered magic that causes both coaches and opponents to go slack-jawed in disbelief.
With a golazo suitable for framing, Messi dribbled directly at Rapids defender Lucas Harrington and midfielder Josh Atencio.
The GOAT brashly split them with a cutback move near the right corner of the penalty box and struck a shot that took off like a rocket and blasted by the inside of the back post.
His goal made goosebumps at a mile high. The crowd that gathered in Empower Field at Mile High was the second-largest in MLS history.
“We’ve built a soccer nation of people who really care,” Garber said.
After the match, with the media that cover Messi on a regular basis gawking at him like a futbol god, he departed the visitors’ locker room without so much as making eye contact, much less offering a word.
Pure soccer genius speaks for itself.