The Argentine World Cup (and everything-else) winner spent that night in street clothes, his injury failing to heal in time despite training the day before. A TV camera, as directed, never left his face while he watched on from the stands. Each tick and twitch of worry was captured. So was Messi’s reaction to Dorsey’s sensational opening goal in the 24th minute that kicked the door open for a Houston Dynamo win and a halted, if only for a brief moment, Inter Miami’s coronation as the biggest thing in the American game since the arrival of Pele to the Cosmos a generation before.
“A buddy sent me the video [of Messi’s reaction to his goal] after the game and it was pretty funny,” said Dorsey, who celebrated that night’s win, Houston’s second Open Cup triumph, with his grandpa. “But we did everything as a team. We went into the game not knowing who was going to play or who wasn’t [for Miami] but that look that was on Messi’s face, it was our plan to have someone put it there.”
The goal was a work of art, with an undercurrent of lung-straining endeavor. Midfield schemer Artur held the ball up at the edge of the penalty area for the advancing Dorsey, surging up the right side on yet another overlapping run. A measured pass led to a thundering finish.
Dorsey seemed to put every ounce of his energies behind the shot. The force of it lifted him off his feet and left him flat on his back. When the ball hit the net, it silenced the raucous South Florida crowd who fully expected to add another trophy to the inaugural Leagues Cup they’d recently won.
“To win that game, someone was going to have to do something like that,” added the 25-year-old Dorsey, born and raised in Evergreen, Colorado. “I’m just happy I did my part.”
He’s become a Dynamo cult hero since those Cup-Final heroics. Internet memes and GIFs claiming him the new GOAT were plentiful. And his improvement, and transformation from fringe player into the most modern and reliable of wingbacks, has him standing out in a Dynamo team crawling with big names like Mexico legend Hector Herrera and Coco Carrasquilla.