More than 70,000 fans expected for Messi match in Kansas City

Twenty-eight years to the day Sporting Kansas City made its Major League Soccer debut, the team will take on the league's flashy new guard: Lionel Messi-powered Inter Miami. The highly anticipated match will serve as a showcase for the league.

Drawn by Messi, more than 70,000 fans are expected for the game, according to Daniel Sperry of the Kansas City Star. The game was moved to the Kansas City Chiefs' Arrowhead Stadium to meet ticket demands.

The match also underscores the MLS' generational divide.
Kansas City is careful and conservative while Miami is wild, glitzy and explosive. Both have their place in MLS. But it's important to remember that Miami's journey wouldn't be possible without the dedicated work of less glamorous franchises such as Kansas City. 

Sporting Kansas City, under coach and longtime MLS supporter Peter Vermes, aims to win it on behalf of the old guard.

"I can remember the first preseason in '96," he said of his playing days in the league's first season, per MLS.com. "The East Coast teams came to Florida; we were in Tampa, I think all five teams stayed at the same hotel, had breakfast, lunch together; the teams organized their own dinners together."

Kansas City had a charmed MLS debut, qualifying for the playoffs and advancing to the Western Conference final in its first season. It won the MLS Cup in 2000 and has spent much of its history competing at the top of the pack.

That reliability is key for Kansas City, which attributes its consistency on the field to its consistency off it. Vermes has been in charge of the team since 2009, making him not just the longest-tenured coach in MLS, but one of the longest-tenured coaches anywhere in the world.

Longtime MLS reporter Charles Boehm pointed out that when Vermes became Kansas City coach in 2000, Messi was 12.

Messi, still one of the world's best players, isn't a kid anymore. The 36-year-old Inter Miami star enters this match full of energy, frustrated by his team's 3-1 loss against Monterrey in the CONCACAF Champions Cup and hungry for a statement win.

When these teams met last winter, Messi wasn't available for selection. Miami pulled off a victory anyway with goals from Leo Campana and Facundo Farias sealing a tense 3-2 win.