SAN JOSE – Christian Espinoza was simply 21 when his Spanish membership, Alavés, subbed him onto Barcelona’s Camp Nuo pitch earlier than 74,237 followers. Ten minutes earlier, fellow Argentinian Lionel Messi entered for Barcelona to thunderous applause.
“It was really special to play against players that you grew up watching,” Espinoza recalled Tuesday of that 2-1 upset win in September 2016. “To have the opportunity to do it again is a really special opportunity for me and my team.”
Espinoza and the high-scoring San Jose Earthquakes (5-1-6) will host the legendary Messi and Inter Miami (6-3-2) tonight in MLS’s marquee attraction earlier than PayPal Park’s sellout crowd of 18,000.
zInter Miami ahead Lionel Messi, heart, practices on the San Jose Earthquakes’ coaching area on Monday, Could 12, 2025, in San Jose, Calif., forward of Wednesday’s match. (Dai Sugano/Bay Space Information Group)
“The biggest mistake you can make is just to focus on Messi,” Earthquakes coach Bruce Area stated. “He’s too good of a participant to suppose you’re ever going to take him out of a sport.
“We need to respect Messi for what he is, and he’s one of the greatest players to ever play this game,” Area added. “Be aware of him on the field, but also respect his teammates who are quite good as well.”
Area’s Earthquakes are proving fairly good at scoring, too.
No workforce in MLS has scored extra targets than their 26. Tied for the league lead are Chicho Arango with eight targets and Espinoza with seven assists. Neither participant, as respectful as they’re to Messi, is making an attempt to duplicate the incomparable Messi.
“It’s not easy to understand Messi’s way to play, because he’s such a different player,” Espinoza stated.
Arango, by means of an interpreter, stated: “Yes, Messi is a big player, but there are no things I take from him. My game is totally different. … I’m in a good spell right now and I feel good.”
Arango has 4 targets in his previous 4 video games. He was with Actual Salt Lake the previous two years and served as its captain in final season’s opening loss at Inter Miami in opposition to Messi, who had an help in a 2-0 win.
Messi has scored 5 targets in eight video games this season for Inter Miami, together with his workforce’s lone one in Saturday’s 4-1 loss at Minnesota. He has 26 targets and 15 assists in regular-season motion since becoming a member of MLS late within the 2023 season, a yr after successful the World Cup with Argentina.
“You just try to do the best you can to close down the spaces when he has the ball,” Espinoza stated. “Just be ready, because he can change the game at any moment.”
As for the Earthquakes, Area’s takeover as coach is searching for to show them right into a playoff contender. He known as the Earthquakes’ offensive output “a real positive,” noting that their ending of performs has vastly improved since his first six video games as coach.
San Jose is coming off a 2-0 shutout win Saturday at Colorado, which adopted a U.S. Open Cup win final Wednesday in opposition to Sacramento Republic and a 4-1 residence victory the earlier Saturday in MLS motion in opposition to Portland.
“We have a variety of players that can get goals for us, so that’s a real positive,” Area stated.
One other constructive is the big-game aura, one thing Area has skilled each at a nationwide workforce degree and earlier in his MLS teaching profession.
“I coached David Beckham (with the 2008-12 Los Angeles Galaxy), so it was similar in some ways when we went into venues around the league,” Area recalled. “They were well-focused and interested in the game.”
That included a 2008 win over the Earthquakes earlier than 39,872 on the Oakland Coliseum.
“We have a long tradition of success in this market as a soccer club, but over the last couple of years, we’ve lost a little bit of attention in the marketplace,” Area stated. “This game will be a real plus and draw a lot of attention. It’s good for the league and for the San Jose Earthquakes as well.”
