7.30pm, Saturday, October 5th, 2024. It’s a cool, clear night at New England Revolution's Gillette Stadium and D.C. United have rolled into town for what is, essentially, an MLS Cup playoff eliminator. The mirage of silverware is present, but their chances of being in the postseason mix are fading fast—they need someone to give them some certainty.
Eight minutes in. A hoicked clearance from centre-half Lucas Bartlett goes up into the air, travels about 50 yards and drops onto the edge of the New England box, where a man is waiting. He watches for the bounce, pauses, and nods the ball past ‘keeper Aljaž Ivačič into an empty net.
It’s Christian Benteke’s 23rd league goal of the 2024 season, a tally that’ll secure him the MLS Golden Boot, an easy three goals ahead of Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez. And these aren’t just empty goals. All season long, Benteke’s been there, bailing out his team, carrying them through the hard times. Becoming a leader.
“Me and Messi go up top together, for sure,” Christian tells me, smiling over a Zoom call on a grey weekday afternoon. The course of a chat that has taken in home and belonging, headers and volleys, has gravitated to dream five-a-sides, the kind where formations don’t matter and you’re throwing players together just for the fun of it. “Messi, Suárez, Cucho Hernández, Denis Bouanga, and me, of course. That would be my MLS team.”
I’m all for experimenting, I tell him, but five strikers? Five?! Who's going in goal, Christian? WHO? I want to say that Suárez had proved himself capable of the role previously, but refrain from doing so. “That’s the thing”, Christian continues, “If you put five top players together, you might not even need a goalkeeper. I’ll have Messi a little bit behind me, and he’ll make the game work for the rest of us.” An unfair distribution of labour, but I let him have it.
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