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.
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. 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 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)