The Athletic's Melanie Anzidei was in the stands with her Argentine family to watch Messi take over the New York area.
The Argentina captain’s presence attracted soccer-crazed fans from all over the world, as it has for his entire first month in North America, with South and Central American flags hung proudly at make-shift tailgates, waving alongside Inter Miami banners with Messi stretched across them.Argentines arrived in droves wearing their national teams’ colors and carrying bottles of Fernet and Coke, the unofficial drink of Argentina. Some even had their own World Cup trophies.
The August heat did little to deter fans, including my own family and friends. We were a group of 13 and most of us were either Argentine or Polish – bonded by our lifelong love of football. We all were family by blood, brought together by playing soccer or had close ties to someone in the group who had.
This is not the first time we have come together to celebrate our ties to La Albiceleste. We’ve seen the national team play at Giants Stadium and even here, at Red Bull Arena, nearly a year ago. We were there when hundreds of fans took to Times Square on December 18 after the men’s team won the World Cup.
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