HARRISON, N.J. — By the time the 60th minute rolled around, the boisterous — and largely pro-Lionel Messi — crowd had nearly reached a fever pitch at Sports Illustrated Stadium.

Messi, whose footprint had largely been all over Inter Miami’s 3-1 lead, finally found the back of the net himself in Saturday’s 5-1 Inter Miami win over the Red Bulls. And when he scored his second goal of the match in the 75th minute, the stadium shook with excitement.

Chants of “Messi!” echoed all around the building.

The Argentine superstar had set up Miami’s first two goals in the opening half before scoring for himself on a breakaway, faking out Red Bulls goalkeeper Carlos Coronel and easily putting the ball in a virtually empty net. Luis Suárez sent a cross into the box to Messi, who settled the ball then booted in for his second goal, and to take control of the Golden Boot race.

While Messi’s first goal was celebrated fervently, Red Bulls head coach Sandro Schwarz expressed frustration and “shock,” alluding to the notion that the play should have been called offside.

Video replay seemed to back up Schwarz, showing Messi appearing to be ahead of the play.

“We can’t analyze the second half after the third goal,” Schwarz said. “’I’m shocked about that. If you see the line, this is unbelievable. … No one is talking about this, for me, I can’t understand. No one is talking on TV about the situation. No, we’re talking about the celebration of Lionel Messi.

“Everyone knows he’s a great player, the best player in the world, but come on.”

For many of the fans in attendance, it was the perfect ending to a match they had turned up to in order to get a glimpse of arguably the sport’s greatest player.

Hours before the match, fans had waited outside the stadium with signs, hoping to greet the Inter Miami bus as it pulled in, and a loud roar occurred when Messi took the pitch for pregame warmups.

More cheers broke out when Messi waved — as if he were a member of the Royal Family — to supporters hoping to get his attention before the match.

“I think because of Leo, it’s common now,” Miami midfielder Federico Redondo said of the reception. “Everywhere we went this year, we feel the same support.”

Red Bulls supporters did their best to drown out the South Florida invaders, as did the team on the pitch, but both couldn’t contain Messi mania as much as they tried.

“The problem was we lost the ball so easy, we gave them the opportunities to counterattack and this is how you give them strength,” said Alexander Hack, the Red Bulls’ lone goal scorer. “We didn’t secure each other, we didn’t defend forward — in the last third this is something that’s very important. We missed that today, and we also have to say Miami has a great quality.”

The Red Bulls had gotten off to a much better start than Inter Miami to open the game, keeping much of the play in Miami’s end through the first 20 minutes of the match.

Hack had given the Red Bulls a 1-0 lead in the 15th minute when he got his foot on a corner kick by Emil Forsberg, but the momentum swung moments after the Red Bulls had taken the lead.

Nearly 10 minutes later, Messi made a good pass into the box to Jordi Alba that allowed the Spanish footballer to bury a shot in the corner from a sharp angle in the 24th minute.

Inter Miami once again showed off its star-powered skill as Messi made another strong pass to Alba, who moved the ball over to Telasco Segovia for the one-timer to give Miami their first lead of the night.

Segovia scored again in stoppage time before the end of the first half to extend Miami’s lead to two.

The Red Bulls are clinging to the last playoff spot.