Messi’s greatness is real and it is spectacular!

Lionel Messi has made his way to Miami, and sufficed to say, he has not disappointed thus far.

The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz is in all their Miami glory enjoying Messi’s exploits. In fact, Pablo, Mike and Chris Cote attended Tuesday’s 4-0 Inter Miami win over Atlanta United. Pablo noted that what Messi is doing feels like what cryptocurrency promised — Leo Messi is as promised and is like a green arrow just pointing toward the sky. Mike follows that analogy up with his own stat of the day — Messi is just two goals way from being in the Top 10 for goals scored in club history. Eat your heart out, Mike Schur!

Mike notes that after an OK start, Inter Miami has been really bad due to a rash of injuries, playing younger talent and really having spent the last two years positioning themselves to make signing Messi a reality. Mike notes that the team took a bunch of L’s with huge holes in their roster to make sure that Messi would take his talents to South Beach and the early returns seem to indicate that it has worked out in Inter Miami’s favor.

Pablo noted that while he appreciated the backstory, part of the greatness of Messi is that you don’t need any of it. All you need to do is show up and you just know that he’s the greatest ever and so much better than anyone else. Pablo wants to geek out over Messi’s sheer greatness and the fact that he’s delivering on the promise that no one has ever been this good in this sport in America and he’s basically just going to score goals whenever he wants.

Of course, not everything about the experience was perfect. The DRV PNK Stadium is not in the Uber app and Pablo found out that Google Maps gives you an address that is actually a tire repair shop, leading to him and a litany of Messi jersey-clad fans to hoof it about 30 minutes in sadness to the actual stadium. Meanwhile, Mike notes that the stadium is itself a decent distance away from Miami proper, leading to people “owning” fans for leaving early once it was clear that Messi’s night was done. However, he says no no, good on them for sticking it out as long as they did because it wasn’t a particularly close match. Mike does note, however, that he stayed until the end as he was an invited guest of MLS (Look at me Louie!). But he does understand the desire to bounce early as he was stuck for an hour in the parking lot after the game to only then have to drive another hour to the center of Miami-Dade County. So, maybe let’s not dunk on the people looking to get home a little easier.

Mike does want to do a little dunking, though as despite all his travel woes, Pablo didn’t just sit in his seat and appreciate greatness, but in fact, missed Messi’s first goal. And why did he miss that goal you may ask?

In his defense, Pablo says he was resembling the conventional wisdom that there was no way Messi was just going to come out and immediately score another goal. Hence, he thought (wrongly, as it turned out), that he had time to partake in some chicken tendies after hosting four hours of radio earlier in the day and not eating. To quote Buford Tannen, you thought wrong, dude. Pablo said he never felt more like a sitcom dad watching through the smudged glass as Messi sent the crowd into a frenzy. In the end, Pablo regretted nothing because he got his tendies and then got to witness Messi score another goal. And as Tony said, “To be honest, if you’ve seen one goal, you’ve seen them all, Pablo. You’re good.” Indeed.

Meanwhile ...

Check out the breakdown of Wednesday’s show below.

SHOW BREAKDOWN

Local Hour: Messi > Chicken Tenders

• The crew describes what it was like to watch Leo Messi’s first start with Inter Miami - where Pablo missed his first goal due to a chicken tender. Plus, do you hate it when someone shows you their phone?

The Big Suey: Whale Watching

• Pablo and Amin discuss contracts in the NBA and how Jaylen Brown is getting the $304M supermax deal. Jess was near a shark attack and there was a pod of orcas in Key Largo - what is happening right now. Plus, is the cure to male loneliness the immaculate grid and a big matchup for the USWNT vs the Netherlands.

Hour 1: Condiment For Your Life + Timothy Burke

• The crew asks if one condiment was taken away forever - which would it be. Plus, there are a bunch of NBA free agents still waiting to sign but Chris Cote is mesmerized by Mountain Dew Hotdogs. Also, journalist Tim Burke who was raided by the FBI joins the show.

Hour 2: Stugotz The Clown Prince

• If your house got raided by the FBI - how would you react? Plus, an Awful Announcing article about our very own Stugotz makes the Shipping Container a little uneasy. Why are there so many Coach K references in The Bear?

Postgame Show: That’s Miami

• Miami and Louisville will start playing for the Schnellenberger Trophy starting this season. Only one question - why?

Watch more below!

VIDEO:

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