CLEVELAND (AP) — Lionel Messi has played in his share of unique environments as one of the top soccer players in the world.
He adds another on Saturday when the Argentine superstar visits the Dawg Pound.
Instead of Cleveland Browns fans barking at opponents from the bleachers in the East end zone, Crew supporters will take over the space on Saturday when Columbus hosts Inter Miami.
The Crew has had the option of holding a match in Cleveland since the Haslam Sports Group took over the franchise in 2019. The Haslams also own the Browns.
“This is a unique moment in time with Messi where we can fill the building and ensure that the first experience that Northeast Ohio has with the Columbus Crew is in a packed house,” said Josh Glessing, the Haslam Sports Group’s chief of strategy development who is also the Crew’s president of business operations.
It will be the 11th match in MLS that Messi has played in an NFL stadium since he arrived in Miami in 2023 after captaining Argentina to the 2022 World Cup title. It is the second time that a club has moved it to a larger facility. The previous matches — nine regular season and one playoff — averaged 61,507 fans.
Last year, Sporting Kansas City drew 72,610 when they played Inter Miami at Arrowhead Stadium instead of their home field, which has a capacity of 18,467.
Atlanta United, Charlotte FC, the Chicago Fire and New England Revolution play in NFL facilities. Last Sunday’s scoreless draw at Chicago’s Soldier Field had a crowd of 62,358, a single-game record for the Fire.
The Crew expect to set a single-game record, surpassing the 31,550 it drew for a 1996 match at Ohio Stadium against the New York-New Jersey MetroStars.
“For Inter Miami to travel around Major League Soccer and for us to be able to take that game into big stadiums and sell them out speaks to the impact he has on Major League Soccer and on the sport. But there’s also an exciting legacy impact that I don’t think a lot of people have realized yet," MLS executive vice president Camilo Durana said.
Cleveland and Northeast Ohio do have a soccer history of their own. The Force of the defunct Major Indoor Soccer League was one of the top-drawing teams during the league’s heyday in the 1980s.
Recently, the region has been fertile ground for youth and club teams. The University of Akron won the Division I NCAA men’s soccer title in 2010, was a finalist in 2018, and has reached the College Cup final four six times.
The Zips have sent many players to MLS, including Crew midfielder Darlington Nagbe.
Cleveland was in the running for an NWSL expansion team. After those efforts fell short, a local group this week announced its plans to field a club in WPSL Pro, a Division II and feeder league for NWSL.
Huntington Bank Field has hosted U.S. men’s and women’s national team matches, including two CONCACAF Gold Cup doubleheaders.
Columbus is one of the original members of Major League Soccer but has found itself in competition with fans in Ohio since FC Cincinnati began play in 2016 and joined MLS three years later.
“We think it’s got a real half-life with the Crew in Columbus. If we can do this right, we can create new fans in Cleveland,” Glessing said. “We hope that these people are going to travel to Columbus in the future to engage with the Crew there because they’ve been exposed to something new for the first time.”
Besides Messi’s fanfare, it is a matchup between MLS’s only two unbeaten teams. The Crew (5-0-3) lead the Eastern Conference with 18 points while Inter Miami (4-0-3) has played one fewer match and sits in fourth place with 15 points.
Messi has three goals and two assists in four MLS matches this season. Crew midfielder Sean Zawadzki, who grew up in Olmsted Falls, is excited for the opportunity to play in front of hometown fans.
“To me, it means a lot,” Zawadzki said. “It’s a place I’ve grown up going to, supporting the Browns and other teams in Cleveland. So to be there, closer to family and friends, obviously is a big part for me. So I’m just really looking forward to the game.”
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/soccer
FILE - Huntington Bank Field, home of the Cleveland Browns, is pictured Feb. 5, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, file)
Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi (10) takes a free kick against the Chicago Fire during the second half of an MLS soccer game Sunday, April 13, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/David Banks)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched a second major drone and missile bombardment of Ukraine in four days, officials said Tuesday, aiming again at the power grid and apparently snubbing U.S.-led peace efforts as the war approaches the four-year mark.
Russia fired almost 300 drones, 18 ballistic missiles and seven cruise missiles at eight regions overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media.
One strike in the northeastern Kharkiv region killed four people at a mail depot, and several hundred thousand households were without power in the Kyiv region, Zelenskyy said. The daytime temperature in the capital was -12 C (around 10 F). The streets were covered with ice, and the city rumbled with the noise from generators.
Four days earlier, Russia also sent hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles in a large-scale overnight attack and, for only the second time in the war, it used a powerful new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in what appeared to be a clear warning to Kyiv’s NATO allies that it won’t back down.
On Monday, the United States accused Russia of a “ dangerous and inexplicable escalation ” of the fighting, when the Trump administration is trying to advance peace negotiations.
Tammy Bruce, the U.S. deputy ambassador to the United Nations, told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council that Washington deplores “the staggering number of casualties” in the conflict and condemns Russia’s intensifying attacks on energy and other infrastructure.
Russia has sought to deny Ukrainian civilians heat and running water in the freezing winter months over the course of the war, hoping to wear down public resistance to Moscow’s full-scale invasion, which began on Feb. 24, 2022. Ukrainian officials describe the strategy as “weaponizing winter.”
In Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, the Russian attack also wounded 10 people, local authorities said.
In the southern city of Odesa, six people were wounded in the attack, said Oleh Kiper, the head of the regional military administration. The strikes damaged energy infrastructure, a hospital, a kindergarten, an educational facility and a number of residential buildings, he said.
Zelenskyy said that Ukraine is counting on quicker deliveries of agreed upon air defense systems from the U.S. and Europe, as well as new pledges of aid, to counter Russia’s latest onslaught.
Meanwhile, Russian air defenses shot down 11 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Tuesday. Seven were reportedly destroyed over Russia’s Rostov region, where Gov. Yuri Slyusar confirmed an attack on the coastal city of Taganrog, about 40 kilometers (about 24 miles) east of the Ukrainian border, in Kyiv's latest long-range attack on Russian war-related facilities.
Ukraine’s military said domestically-produced drones hit a drone manufacturing facility in Taganrog. The Atlant Aero plant carries out design, manufacturing and testing of Molniya drones and components for Orion unmanned aerial vehicles, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Explosions and a fire were reported at the site, with damage to production buildings confirmed, the General Staff said.
It wasn't possible to independently verify the reports.
Katie Marie Davies contributed to this report from Manchester, England.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Kyiv region, Ukraine, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
