"It's not human" - Mascherano on managing Messi and Miami in sub-zero clash

Inter Miami coach Javier Mascherano praised the sacrifice of his players in Wednesday's 1-0 win over Sporting Kansas City in a match that featured a Lionel Messi goal and was played in extreme temperatures of around -15 degrees Celsius with a wind chill of -21.

“I'm very proud of the players because I think it's impossible to play in these conditions. It's not human,” Mascherano said at a press conference. “So I'm very proud of them because they gave 100% with intensity, with a lot of attitude. We are happy, we are halfway to qualify and now to try to rest after a very difficult match for us,” he added.

The coach, who was making his debut in an official match with Inter Miami, acknowledged that he had never experienced “a situation like this with so much cold”. “We didn't have any feeling outside, especially in the extremities of the body.... There came a time when I couldn't feel them. We talked to the players and the same thing happened to them. It's very difficult when after 5-10 minutes you no longer start to feel your feet, your hands,” he described.

“And of course, in the end football is a sport where you need a certain sensitivity and if you don't have it, it's very difficult to develop your game. I think we adapted thanks to the attitude and personality of the players, who have had a great personality to play this kind of matches knowing that we were going to have to fight, that many times the conditions of the field, because of the hard ground, because of all the snow, were going to be annoying. And we knew how to play it and we got a result that is obviously very important for us”, he added.

In addition, Mascherano praised Messi's goal, which he described as “fantastic”. “Maybe for the people who know him it is normal because he has done things like this a thousand times, but we are very fortunate to have him in our team,” he acknowledged.

Finally, the coach insisted that a priority for his Inter Miami is “to be well organised defensively, to try not to give too much space to the opponent and to adapt to each opponent we face.

“I think the team never lost its shape, was always organised, knew how to live with periods of the match where we knew we were going to suffer a little and we did it naturally. It is always important to finish with a clean sheet, knowing that we, from the midfield forward, have people who usually make the difference”, he argued.

 

February 20, 2025