Lionel Messi shattered quite a few records against the NY Red Bulls. The most prominent is a record 6-goal contribution in an MLS game. The Argentine superstar made 5 assists and scored 1 goal. No player before has 5 assists in a single MLS game. But, how did the Inter Miami star react after his historic performance? Teammate Julian Gressel has revealed his cool moment with La Pulga in the dressing room.

On the player-manager podcast, Gressel revealed that in the dressing room, he daps everybody up and offers a high-five. But, his encounter with Lionel Messi was not straightforward. The defender explained, “When it comes to Leo, I go by and give him a high-five and I was like 5 assists today? And he was like yeah. All shy, like just look down.” Gressel added that it was a ‘cool moment’ to see the playmaker so humble. He concluded, “Obviously, He was happy, we were all happy. Just a normal Leo, almost like nothing happened.”

Against the NY Red Bulls, Lionel Messi became Inter Miami’s all-time assist leader. The soccer icon has now provided 16 assists in 25 games, overtaking teammate Robert Taylor. Furthermore, La Pulga has amassed over 1200 goal contributions in his career. His fierce rival Cristiano Ronaldo on the other hand stands just over 1140. While Messi’s performance was magical, coach Tata Martino’s tactical change in all fairness unleashed the playmaker.

Tata Martino’s ‘genius move’ that helped to unlock Lionel Messi

While Lionel Messi ended the Red Bull game with 6 goal contributions, he had 0 in the first half! It was a quiet first half for the superstar before Martino made the game-changing substitution. He brought on midfielder Matias Rojas for the 2nd half and the game turned upside down. MLS expert Sacha Kljestan believes that this was the game-changing moment. He said, “You have to remember with all of this is that Rojas comes on at halftime for this game, it’s a genius move from Tata Martino to bring on a player who can make a difference. It was a game-changing move from Tata and Rojas showed his quality.”

Within 3 minutes after coming on, Rojas scored the equalizer. It was a vicious strike after a clever Lionel Messi pass. Messi soon took things into his own hands and doubled the lead for the Herons. Rojas scored soon after and then Luis Suarez joined in the party with a hattrick. While La Pulga stole the headlines, it is safe to say that Martino played a key role in his magical performance.

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