They came for Lionel Messi.
They came and packed MetLife Stadium on Tuesday night to the tune of a full sellout, for the chance to see this once-in-a-generation superstar play for Argentina in a 1-0 victory against Chile.
After the Argentines won their first World Cup since 1986, 18 months ago in Qatar, and with Messi now 37 years old and approaching the twilight of his career — it’s not clear whether this Copa America will be his last major tournament — there is a rock concert farewell tour vibe to his matches.
Fans wearing No. 10 blue and white jerseys filled the parking lots hours before the 9 p.m. kickoff as if this was a fall Sunday.
Before the game started, they were bouncing in the lower bowl, belting out lyrics.
This didn’t feel like New York taking in Messi, it felt like Buenos Aires taking over New York — from the belting rendition of the Argentine national anthem to the video that surfaced Monday night of Messi waving out his hotel window to fans camped out, as if he was in the royal family.
“For a football player, there is nothing better than this atmosphere around you,” Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said via interpreter. “The one that we saw today, that motivates you to do the best, to compete, to do more. To us, our fans are happy or joyful and that is transmitted to you.”
If you walked into this stadium without knowing a thing about what was happening, you still would have been able to tell when Messi had the ball at his feet because of how the noise changed.
At no other point was the audience so rapt, so fixated.
When Messi slalomed through two defenders to set up a scoring chance 38 minutes into the game, there was applause in the press box.
This building hosted Taylor Swift last summer. Tuesday may be the closest it’ll get this year to an encore.
Instead of Messi, though, what they got was Lautaro Martinez, the Argentine striker who scored 24 goals in Italy’s Serie A last year.
For all the parking lot and pregame atmosphere, this game took until the second half to come alive.
Chile, for 70 minutes, took a defensive posture that Argentina largely struggled to break down. Finally, after Rodrigo Echeverria recorded Chile’s first shot — after 17 mostly listless attempts from the Argentines — the game opened up.
After a series of chances marked the late stages of the game, Martinez finally broke through for Argentina off a corner kick in the 88th minute, kicking in a rebound off the initial header.
That proved to be the only scoring, meaning the closest anyone got to witnessing Messi’s magic was more subtle than anything that will end up on highlight reels.
That hardly mattered.
“Messi is very active and decisive,” Chile coach Ricardo Gareca said via interpreter. “He’s back and he’s a really dangerous player. There’s nothing else I can say. He’s focused and our players did a great job defensively, but it is of course painful to lose this way.”
Everyone who came to see Messi was just as happy to see an Argentina victory, which will likely secure a Group A victory with one match remaining.
And the tournament organizers, after this match, should have been as thrilled as anyone.
This Copa America has produced fine attendance numbers, but those have been overshadowed by the image of empty seats — a product of an insistence on playing these games in football stadiums.
When Bolivia and Uruguay meet in New Jersey on Tuesday, that’s liable to be a problem. Tuesday, Messi was a one-man solution.
The last Argentina fans didn’t leave until 11:27, more than 30 minutes after the final whistle
Copa America is run by a different federation, CONMEBOL, than the World Cup.
But this was in essence the first, very early, dress rehearsal for the 2026 World Cup final that will be held at MetLife Stadium.
Propelled by Messi, the atmosphere passed with flying colors.
