Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi walks off the pitch after the loss to Atlanta United. — Reuters
FIREWORKS shot out from the rafters of Inter Miami’s Chase Stadium on the night of Nov 9, but there was nothing for the home team to celebrate.
When the final whistle blew, Inter Miami had been beaten 3-2 by ninth-seeded Atlanta United and eliminated from the MLS playoffs. Atlanta had taken the decisive Game 3 of the series and advanced to the Eastern Conference semi-finals.
The pyrotechnics were an awkward way to end an otherwise successful season for Lionel Messi’s club. Wait. How can Inter Miami’s 2024 campaign be considered a success?
To go out at this stage of the playoffs is an embarrassment for a team whose notoriety has skyrocketed since Messi’s arrival in July 2023.
In a temporary home stadium that has become a fortress for Miami this year, Messi and his teammates were eliminated by an opponent that was mediocre for most of the season.
After setting the MLS regular-season points record (74) and claiming the Supporters’ Shield, awarded to the club with the best regular-season record, Miami were, in the minds of many, obligated to win the MLS Cup final at the end of these playoffs on Dec 7.
So what went wrong? And what does this exit mean for the 37-year-old Messi and Miami’s manager, Gerardo Martino?
Atlanta United goalkeeper Brad Guzan makes a save against Inter Miami in the first half at Chase Stadium on Nov 9.
The 61-year-old Argentine Martino was forced to tinker with his line-up at the most inopportune moment of the season.
The ever-reliable Sergio Busquets, suffering from a chest injury, was benched, and Yannick Bright, a ball-winning midfielder with polished possession skills, was unavailable because of a muscle injury sustained in Game 2 in Atlanta.
Messi stepped up on that Saturday, orchestrating the first goal of the game (scored by Matias Rojas) and then, after Atlanta took a 2-1 lead, scoring the equaliser himself.
But the visitors’ winner came when midfielder Bartosz Slisz’s powerful header stunned the Chase Stadium crowd with 14 minutes to go.
Miami had scored 79 goals during the regular season and routinely dominated possession, but their weaknesses were also there for everyone to see.
Atlanta exposed Miami’s high line throughout the series and finished their chances clinically.
Despite their regular-season success, Martino’s side had always been susceptible to the counterattack, and that vulnerability after losing possession cost them.
Miami’s ownership group of David Beckham and brothers Jorge and Jose Mas have spent more than US$70mil (RM313mil) on first-team signings, pushing the MLS salary cap rule to their limits.
Messi, Busquets, Luis Suarez and Jordi Alba brought their spectacular resumes to MLS with one thing in mind: winning titles. A Leagues Cup trophy in 2023 set the stage for a storybook run this season.
With Martino at the helm, a manager accustomed to the brightest lights in world football after leading Barcelona and the Argentina and Mexico men’s national teams, Miami had all the tools, including home-field advantage, to win their first MLS Cup.
To be out this early is a worst-case scenario for MLS and Apple, the league’s broadcast partner.
“It’s not a success when you lose in the quarter-final round,” Martino said.
“If one thinks about where we were last November, there has been progress for the club, not just the team. If one considers the expectations we had for these playoffs, we’ve come up very short.”
An MLS Cup will never define Messi’s legacy – nothing he does while in Miami’s pink and black uniform will dent or strengthen the career of the sport’s greatest player.
Messi, an eight-time Ballon d’Or winner and World Cup hero for Argentina’s triumphant side in 2022, is also playing in MLS for reasons that go far beyond the touchline. Miami signed him to change the trajectory of American football, to become an icon in a country that still turns its back on the global game.
Internationally, the Inter Miami project has been a smashing success, but in America, the Messi phenomenon has been normalised.
It was almost unbelievable to suggest that he would ever come to MLS. Now, after just 1½ seasons, MLS fans complain of Messi fatigue.
He has been a model teammate and a joy to watch, but his unwillingness to talk to the press has lessened his effect stateside.
When Messi speaks, the world listens. When he doesn’t engage with the press in a country whose media landscape is dominated by sports talk shows that discuss anything but football, the silence, as they say, can be deafening.
One can empathise with somebody whose life has been anything but private for more than 20 years.
But MLS cannot afford for him to go unnoticed in America.
This playoff loss against Atlanta proved that big moments can be fleeting. It’s no secret that Messi, who will turn 38 in June, is nearing the end of his illustrious career.
He hasn’t ruled out playing at the 2026 World Cup, which will be held in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
Messi’s contract with Inter Miami runs through the 2025 MLS season, a year before that World Cup and a year before the club’s new Miami-based stadium opens.
With that in mind, Miami’s early elimination puts additional pressure on the club’s owners to maximise Messi’s talent and his massive brand appeal. The clock, seemingly, is running out.
The MLS playoffs will continue without Messi, and for a league that needs as much attention as it can get, Saturday’s outcome in Fort Lauderdale was deflating.
But this is football in America. There’s a long way to go toward relevance. — NYT
