Can LAFC stop Lionel Messi? Not really, because ‘he’s an extraterrestrial.’
LOS ANGELES — Giorgio Chiellini greeted the question with a furrowed brow and a wide smile.
How do you stop Lionel Messi, he was asked. For Chiellini, it was as if he had been asked how to swim without getting wet.
“I tried to do it. Sometimes it works, sometimes no,” the LAFC center back said. “One thing is sure: you cannot stop him with just one man. It’s impossible.”
That’s the painful lesson teams across North America have learned since Messi, arguably the greatest soccer player of all time, joined MLS with Inter Miami in late July. In 10 games spread across three competitions — the Leagues Cup, U.S. Open Cup and MLS regular season — Messi has 11 goals and six assists in 804 minutes, contributing to a score every 47 minutes.
Before Messi, Inter Miami was 8-14-4, averaging 1.08 goals a game. With him, the team has gone 6-0-4 and averaged 2.7 goals a game. His success has transformed not just a team, but the
