Playing the GOAT: the Good & the Ugly

I have never really written about any of my sons’ soccer play. But when one of your boys gets to play against the greatest footballer of all time, there is good reason to consider doing so. And when there is an on-field “incident” between your son and the GOAT, it becomes hard not to say something, but perhaps not for a reason one might expect.

Miami had scored 16 goals in the last four games with Messi contributing to a stunning 13 of those 16 goals (14 of you count by MLS rules). And it isn’t just Messi, of course. Suarez remains a top tier player, someone defenders must keep an eye on. Miami’s attack calls on defenders to play aggressively, without being reckless.

I think George did just that. With his parents, brothers, a couple of his cousins, girlfriend and other friends in the stands, George Campbell was playing what I thought was a great game. He was even (two hand) thrown to the ground by Suarez early on, likely out of frustration for my son’s good, physical play.

And then, in about the 40th minute came the incident. In The Athletic, Cardenas wrote “Messi took a studs-up tackle from Montreal center back George Campbell late in the first half.” To be more precise, my son headed a ball away from goal, hoping to clear it from danger. It fell to Messi whose first touch put the ball between him and my son. George quickly pounced to try to recover the ball, but a soft touch from Messi had my son’s left foot over the ball and just missing Messi’s leg. But, as George charged by, his right leg collided against that golden left leg of Messi’s. I wouldn't have called that a studs up tackle, but it was clearly a foul and more importantly, Messi immediately went down.

Messi is clearly the GOAT. He has been and continues to be a game-changer for soccer. And he is MLS’s greatest asset. Still, fútbol is a physical game and I’m dang proud of my son for playing his game, playing aggressively regardless of or particularly in light of who was on the pitch.

As we watched Messi stay down, my oldest son turned to my wife and said “Mom, he has to get up.” That wasn’t just an expression of concern for the GOAT. We knew that there would be a serious price to pay for anyone who hurt the man who means so much for Major League Soccer, so much to so many fans, and so much for the game of soccer generally.

When MacNaughton (Nashville) delivered a foul tackle on Messi just a few weeks prior, folks came for him online. I’m still not sure that MacNaughton’s been able to resume posting on his IG account. He got everything from the angry face and pig emojis to threats of violence.

And so as soon as Messi went down, we knew something would come. Sure enough, within seconds, folks were on my son’s IG page. There were some of the same thinly veiled threats and angry emojis as in MacNaughton's case—knives, middle fingers, poop and clown face emojis, and so on.

Sprinkled in were also the monkey, gorilla, and banana emojis, flashing Ns, and someone spotted some more explicit commentary before it got taken down automatically. Thankfully, while the total count of comments on the then most recent post rose to over 300 and though there remains a trickle of new comments on more recent posts, the trolls seem to have moved on for the most part.

Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised. I am fully aware of the far worse treatment that Black footballers have to endure in leagues around the globe—everything from in-game chants, gestures and things thrown from the crowd to the same racist tropes spewed online. I believe that in my son's case, he will be able to shrug off what I suspect is at most a few dozen ignorant people who felt compelled to reveal their racist attitudes. Still, it was an unfortunate, noteworthy reminder of how little it takes for racist sentiments to be surfaced.

In the end, all of us—me, my wife, his brothers, other family and friends— will laugh it off as part of the day we all got to see someone in our family play against the GOAT and play a great game. Ultimately, the only message that matters is: Love you son and loved being at the game. Proud of you. Keep working, keep learning. And enjoy.