Multiple Authors
SYDNEY — There’s been no opponent that Patrick Yazbek has faced more across his young career than Lionel Messi and Inter Miami CF. And, after finally getting one over on the Argentine maestro as he helped eliminate Miami from the Concacaf Champions Cup, the Nashville SC midfielder has arrived in Socceroos camp with new confidence and his sights set on the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Yazbek, 23, logged a full 90 minutes across both legs of Nashville’s continental clash with Miami earlier this month, a tie that saw Messi net the 900th goal of his career, with the Coyotes advancing through to a quarterfinal clash with Mexican outfit Club América.
The two-legged tie made it seven competitive fixtures the 23-year-old has played against Inter Miami, surpassing the six clashes with the Central Coast Mariners Yazbek had logged as a youngster at Sydney FC.
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And while he’d featured in Nashville’s win over Miami in game two of their MLS Cup series last year, the Florida outfit’s subsequent triumph in game three of that clash meant this recent meeting was the first time the Aussie had got one over on his idol.
“Messi, I’ve faced him like [seven] times now [and], yeah, finally, we got him,” Yazbek said. “We got him good.
“For me, he’s the greatest player of all time, so to come up against him and to get one over him is, I think, a massive honour.
“What I’ve learned is that he’s not unstoppable. There are definitely ways in which you can manage him — but you need to respect him a lot. It teaches you about yourself, [that] I’m capable of playing against a player like him and, putting up performances that I did, means I have more belief in myself now than I did before.”
Now in his third season in Tennessee, Yazbek has made a good start to the campaign at GEODIS Park, starting six of his side’s nine games across league and continental play and providing two assists. Nashville remains undefeated, sitting atop the Eastern Conference, and has supplanted LAFC atop ESPN’s MLS Power Rankings.
Previously featuring for Australia against Japan and Saudi Arabia — wins that sealed the Socceroos’ place at this year’s World Cup — this hot start to the season has seen Yazbek earn a recall to coach Tony Popovic’s squad for send-off games against Cameroon and Curacao in the March international window.
Patrick Yazbek, left, has faced Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami more times than any other team his fledgling career. Peter Joneleit/Icon Sportswire
“You always want to be peaking, I guess that’s the idea of being a footballer,” Yazbek said. “But I’m very proud of the way I’ve started the season, and the club has started the season.
“We’re in a really good space. I’m in a really good space, playing every week. I’m respected by the club. I feel appreciated, which is a very great feeling. And performing well.
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“I’m gonna look forward to this camp and enjoy this camp, but, obviously, I know that there’s still a lot to do back in Nashville.”
Of course, if Yazbek was fortunate enough to be named in the Socceroos’ 26-player squad for the World Cup, that would bring him into line to face the United States in the second game of Group D in Seattle.
As an Aussie based in the USA, like follow Socceroos Kai Trewin and Aiden O’Neill at New York City FC, and Kye Rowles at DC United, it’s a fixture over which chat has already flowed in the Nashville dressing room.
“A lot of my peers and a lot of my staff members are all Americans and have ties with the American national team,” laughed Yazbek. “My coach [B. J. Callaghan] was the former American interim head coach.
“They’ve already said a few words, but I tell them to shut up … it’s going to be really fun. And I think it’s a good match-up for us; someone that we’ve experienced [last October], and it’s a massive opportunity for us to go and show the States that we’re here to play.
“They can say what they want; it just gives us more motivation and more reason to go out there and beat them.”
