Cavalier played in front of over 30,000 fans at the National Stadium on Thursday. Three days later, less than 1,000 fans were on hand at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex for their Jamaica Premier League (JPL) game. Head Coach Rudolph Speid, however, says they have moved on from their ‘Messi moment’ and are fully focused on their domestic objectives.

Cavalier returned to league action on Sunday with a 1-0 win over Dunbeholden, despite missing many of their key players including captain Richard King and defender Christopher Ainsworth, who are now with the Reggae Boyz squad.

The victory comes days after their 2-0 defeat to Major League Soccer (MLS) club Inter Miami in the second leg of their Concacaf Champions Cup round of 16 tie, which saw them lose 4-0 on aggregate.

Argentina’s World Cup winner Lionel Messi graced the Stadium pitch for just over 37 minutes, coming on as a second-half substitute and found the back of the net with the last kick of the game. Supporters weren’t the only ones in awe as Cavalier players and technical staff did all they could to interact with the football icon.

However, Speid told the Jamaica Observer that his team returned to reality after 48 hours.

“That is gone,” he said. “Nobody is thinking about that anymore. There’s no more adrenaline. As a matter of fact, I thought we didn’t do as well as we should based on the opportunities we got. The way the goals were scored against us, with three of the four goals being unforced errors.”

“So, from Saturday morning, I made sure to speak to the players and say, yeah, we did well because I’ve seen [Inter Miami] give teams 8-2 and 6-2 and 4-1 over one game, so we did well, but the truth is we could have done better and we should be disappointed with ourselves.”

Speid, though, recognises the significance of the accomplishment in competing against some of the world’s top players and is hopeful that it will inspire various generations of Jamaicans.

“I don’t stress a lot on social media, to be honest, but I can see a lot of people think positively, there’s a few who are going down a different track, but I’d say 98 per cent have been positive about our effort and the idea that we got an international superstar to come here for a competitive game. Also, [Inter Miami] were worried to carry [Messi] to Jamaica because if they had blown us out in the USA, probably they would have brought him because they were trying to manage his load,” he said.

“I just hope it inspires another 20,000 kids to want to start to play the game, inspire referees and coaches to get better because they can see what happens if you push harder and try to be the best you can be, which is what Cavalier is all about.”

Cavalier’s participation in the Concacaf Champions Cup this season, and the 2024 Concacaf Caribbean Cup came from winning the JPL last May.

Following their win over Dunbeholden, Speid says the team’s attention going forward is strictly on the league, with the hope that it will lead them on another regional journey.

“You can see that we’re back and we’re focused,” he said. “Even playing without five of our starters, we had a very good standard in how we played, except for a few nervy moments in the end. This is the third round so most times for the first two rounds we would have just played our game model or whatever we want to play, give a lot of young players chances but now we’re just fine-tuning for the play-offs and by that time, you’ll see our best 11 on the pitch at all times.”

“We decided that we’re just going to focus on the league and give everything we got because we can do better. We want to go back to the same place next year but you have to qualify all over again, so that’s what we’re all about now.”

Cavalier are fifth in the JPL table on 48 points, which would secure them a spot in the play-offs with nine games to go.