Lionel Messi may make his first start in Inter Miami’s colours on Tuesday against Atlanta United, said Miami’s head coach Tata Martino.
Messi made his debut for the Major League Soccer (MLS) club on Friday and made an instant impact after coming on as a 54th-minute substitute against Mexican club Cruz Azul.
The 36-year-old notched up a stoppage-time winner as his free kick sailed into the top left corner from 25 yards from goal in the dying seconds of the match to send the crowd into delirium.
Martino decided to limit both Messi and Sergio Busquets’ — who joined the club earlier this month — minutes as he wanted to give them some time to adjust on their official club debut.
However both the footballers were so impressive against Azul that Martino is now thinking of starting them both against Atlanta.
"Well, it is very likely that both Leo and Busi will play more time. I even think that if they are going to play more (then) we will change the dynamic and they will go maybe from the beginning,” said the former Barcelona and Argentina coach.
“But we all know that when Leo starts, that amount of time we would be talking about is 90 minutes. Everything will depend on how they feel, it is only the second game that they are going to play," he said.
A win in Tuesday’s game, which is the Leagues Cup match, would secure Miami’s place in the knockout stage of the tournament which consists of MLS and Mexican Liga MX clubs.
However, if Messi and his team lost, then they would have an entire month without a single game scheduled because in MLS, there is paused play during its regular season which lasts till August 20.
Martino also added that everyone in the team is working together to make the best out of their new teammates, who will soon be joined by Messi’s former teammate Jordi Alba.
"We had already started working on changing the way we play but it is clear that with Busquets, Jordi and Leo we will have to (further) modify the way that we play and we also have to work on raising the level in general," said Martino.