Daniel Morcate

🚨 New England Revolution goal keeper Matt Turner on Messi’s headed assist: “I saw Messi running into our box with two of our defenders following him. Both were considerably taller than him, so when the ball went into the air, I wasn’t particularly worried. Then Messi headed it across, Berterame scored, and both defenders turned around looking at me. I don’t know what else they expected me to do. We had two people there to deal with one of the shortest players on the pitch.”

🚨 German Berterame on playing alongside Lionel Messi after Inter Miami’s comeback against New England Revolution: “I’m going to tell you something about Leo that people watching on television probably won’t understand. Sometimes you make a run because you know he’s going to find you. Other times, you make a run because you have absolutely no idea what he’s planning, but you don’t want to be the person who wasn’t ready. Today was one of those days. We’re losing 1-0, and obviously everybody is trying to find a way back into the game. Leo gets involved in the build-up. We’re moving the ball around, trying to create an opening, and suddenly I see him making a run into the penalty area. I look at him. Then I look at the defenders. There are two of them following him. And these are big guys. Much taller than Leo. Now, normally, when you see a player of Leo’s height between two defenders like that, you’re not expecting him to be the one winning a ball in the air. But the ball comes in. And I’m thinking, ‘Okay, let’s see what happens here.’ Next thing, Leo gets his head on it, and the ball is coming towards me. I’m not even going to pretend I understood how he managed it. All I know is that I suddenly had a chance to score. So I finished it. And when we were celebrating, I said to him, ‘Leo, you know those two defenders were much taller than you, right?’ He looked at me as if I was asking him something completely unnecessary. I said, ‘I’m serious. What made you think you were going to win that header?’ And he just said, ‘I knew where the ball was going.’ That’s it. No long explanation. I think that’s the problem with asking Leo questions about football. You want him to explain something incredible, and he answers as if you’ve asked him why he put his boots on before the match. But then he scored the winner. And that one was even worse. Because I was watching the defender. He was close enough to challenge Leo. He hadn’t completely lost his position. Then Leo started moving his feet. You know when you’re watching somebody and you think, ‘Okay, he’s going to go this way’? And before you’ve even finished that thought, he’s already gone somewhere else? That’s what happened. The defender was trying to react to the first movement, and Leo was already preparing the next one. And then he scored. I remember turning towards one of the guys and saying, ‘How are we supposed to explain this to people?’ Because he’s 39 years old. Thirty-nine. I’m not saying that to disrespect him. But you have to understand how strange it is when you’re on the pitch with him. You see young players working on their speed, their dribbling, their finishing. You see how hard everybody trains to improve those things. Then Leo walks onto the pitch and does something that makes you wonder whether he’s been playing a different version of football his entire life. And the funniest thing is that he doesn’t seem particularly surprised by any of it. We were losing, he helped us equalise, then he scored the winner. For us, that’s an incredible comeback. For Leo, I think he probably just wants to know what time training starts tomorrow. I told one of the boys after the match, ‘You know, when he eventually retires, we’re going to have to learn how to solve some of these problems ourselves.’ And he said, ‘Don’t remind me. I’m enjoying this while it lasts.’ I couldn’t disagree with him.”