Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi has expressed his displeasure with the new MLS rule that requires an injured player to leave the field for two minutes, saying: ‘These kind of rules… it’s bad », after having paid the price in his team’s 3-2 victory against CF Montreal on Saturday evening.
In the 40th minute of the match, Montreal defender George Campbell committed a foul on the Argentine striker, who immediately collapsed holding his knee. Miami medical staff rushed onto the field to treat the player, but Campbell did not receive a yellow card for the contact.
According to the new MLS rules, “if the referee stops play due to potential injury to a player who remains on the ground for more than 15 seconds and medical personnel enter the field, the player may be forced to leave the field for two minutes.
Messi came off the field at a crucial moment, after the foul resulted in a free kick for Miami, in an ideal position to score.
During his brief time on the sideline, the player turned to the camera to express his disdain by shaking his head angrily.
After the game, Miami head coach Gerardo Martino expressed the team’s frustration with the new rule, adding, “There are situations that need to be reviewed and corrected.”
“In Leo’s case, there was an obvious fault. The player deserved a yellow card, which would mean Messi never left the pitch for two minutes. If I understood correctly, it was the team which suffered the fault which was punished. With these new rules, there are situations that must be reviewed. The offense was clear and deserved a yellow card, and in the end it was us who lost Leo for two minutes. »
The team then experienced another new MLS rule when Luis Suárez failed to leave the field in less than 10 seconds when he was replaced by Leo Campana in the 92nd minute. Suárez’s slow move to the bench forced the fourth official to delay the substitution for a minute, leaving Miami down to ten in the final moments of the match.
“In the case of Suárez we had a very important difference with the fourth referee regarding the minute. We thought Suárez was off the field in less than a minute, he didn’t see it that way and therefore Leo Campana’s entry into play was delayed,” Martino said.
According to MLS, the rules state that “if multiple substitutions are made at the same time by a team, each player leaving the match must leave the field within 10 seconds after the fourth official raises the substitution board for the last one.” change “.
Despite the problems that arose off the field, the victory allowed Inter Miami to maintain their place at the top of the Eastern Conference with 27 points in 13 games and an 8-2-3 record.
