With Lionel Messi not appearing in Inter Miami’s 0-0 draw at Orlando City due to injury, the talk of MLS on Wednesday night ended up being a raccoon. During the first half of the Philadelphia Union’s match against New York City FC, a raccoon invaded the pitch for an extended period of time.
Play was halted while Subaru Park staff chased the raccoon around the pitch with a trash can.
RACCOON ON THE FIELD!!!
MIDWEEK @MLS AT ITS FINEST pic.twitter.com/tO8AJUrkJw
— Andrew Wiebe (@andrew_wiebe) May 16, 2024
Normally a human pitch invader can only evade security for a precious few seconds before they are escorted away, but this raccoon was more formidable and covered more ground than a box-to-box midfielder.
“This is marvelous entertainment,” said play-by-play commentator Callum Williams.
“At what point are we just rooting for him?” added Calen Carr.
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In the end, the raccoon, dubbed “Raquinho” by the studio crew on MLS 360, managed to spend 161 seconds on the field — an unofficial record for a raccoon in MLS history, according to the league’s official PR account on X. But getting caught in a trash can seems more like a reward for a raccoon than a punishment.
Unofficially, Raquinho the Raccoon spent 161 seconds on the field tonight, which was the most by a raccoon in @MLS history. https://t.co/0UON9qSDbT pic.twitter.com/RayNNzj17w
— MLS Communications (@MLS_PR) May 16, 2024
And yes, in this age of advanced analytics, there was even a heat map for Raquinho.
Heat map for R. Raccoon #DOOP #MLS https://t.co/zzzaddCHjY pic.twitter.com/m6EOdTyP7e
— Mark McClure (@mrkmcclr) May 16, 2024
NYCFC went on to win the match 2-1. Hannes Wolf scored the winning goal in incredible fashion to earn player of the match honors…
Hannes Wolf, oh my! 😮 pic.twitter.com/13wyDAX7BM
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) May 16, 2024
…but the real star was the raccoon.
— New York City FC (@newyorkcityfc) May 16, 2024
(Photo: Terence Lewis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)