Lionel Messi has only been with Inter Miami for a little over a month but he’s already established himself as Miami’s miracle man. Since he arrived, it’s been moment after moment. He already has a trophy in hand and, after yet another display of late-game heroics, Messi has Miami in position to compete for a second piece of silverware in the very near future after a U.S. Open Cup semifinal triumph over FC Cincinnati.
However, for now, the cup competitions are in the past. Messi has dominated those competitions, creating at least one goal in each game so far. This weekend, though, Messi begins life in MLS, and the situation he’s walking into isn’t pretty.
Messi may be Miami’s miracle man, but, even for him, salvaging the club’s MLS season may just be mission impossible.
As they prepare to face the New York Red Bulls this weekend, Inter Miami sit dead last in MLS. With just 18 points and 22 goals from 22 games, Inter Miami have looked nothing like a team capable of earning a playoff spot throughout the MLS season.
Much has changed since they last played in MLS, obviously. Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba and Tata Martino, among others, have arrived, rebuilding this team almost instantly. The team that existed before the Leagues Cup break is long gone, and the one built in its place seems like a juggernaut ready to be unleashed on the rest of MLS.
But time might be against Miami for this MLS season, and getting them into the postseason looks like it might be Messi’s most impossible challenge yet.
The season so far
Inter Miami’s season can easily be broken down into two sections: before and after Messi. Those two sections are unrecognizable from one another. As good as Inter Miami have been with Messi, they were just as bad without him.
After a solid 2022 season highlighted by one last push from Gonzalo Higuain, Miami entered the 2023 season with somewhat high hopes. Their roster was nowhere near the best in MLS, for sure, but they had the flexibility to make the moves they did end up making this summer.
Unfortunately, Phil Neville wouldn’t survive in his job long enough to see those moves be made. He was dismissed on June 1 because it had gotten so bad. It wasn’t solely on Neville, though. A string of injuries to key players, headlined by captain Gregore, left Miami incredibly shorthanded through the first half of the season. For months, Inter Miami looked like an incomplete team, and the results proved that they were.
Heading into the Leagues Cup break, Miami found themselves dead last in MLS. It was during that Leagues Cup break, though, that all of Miami’s dreams came true.
Messi arrives
Where do we even begin?
Messi’s run with Inter Miami has been nothing short of magnificent. It’s been storybook stuff, really. Every time Inter Miami needs something wild to happen, Messi is there to provide just that.
It started against Cruz Azul with his last-gasp free kick, a goal that was just an introduction into what was to come. In total, Messi has scored two goals after the 85th minute while assisting another on Leo Campana’s 97th-minute equalizer in the U.S. Open Cup win over FC Cincinnati.
In total, Messi has 10 goals and six assists in 10 games. More importantly, he already has a trophy in hand, having led Inter Miami to the club’s first silverware in the Leagues Cup, with the potential of another soon to follow in the U.S. Open Cup.
It’s been night and day since Messi showed up in South Beach. With the Argentine leading the charge, Inter Miami have quickly emerged as MLS’ most unstoppable team. They’ve scored 25 goals in eight games, having scored just 22 in their 22 MLS matches. No defense has found a way to truly stop Messi and co. and, given what we know about Messi’s quality, it’s pretty likely there won’t be one that will.
However, even if that’s true, even if Miami are just short of unstoppable the whole rest of the season, it very well might not be enough for them to dig themselves out of the hole they put themselves in before Messi showed up.
A bad spot in the standings
If Messi’s eight games in Miami were played in the league, Miami would have collected 18 points from those eight games. Throughout Messi’s run, Miami have unfathomably won three consecutive penalty shootouts, missing just once from the spot in those moments, but those would only count as draws in league play.
With 12 games remaining, if they somehow, someway, continued on that pace, they’d collect 27 points before the end of the season. And if they do that, finishing on 49 points, they’d still finish with just one more point than they had last year when they barely squeaked into the playoffs.
In order to make the postseason, Miami would need to accumulate points at a record pace. It’s not impossible, especially with Messi, but the Herons would need to be nearly perfect to pick up the results needed to get into the postseason.
If they were able to pull it off, it would be one of the most incredible runs in MLS history, if not the most incredible. They’d certainly head into the MLS playoffs as favorites, fresh off the most impossible turnaround imaginable.
However, the schedule ahead is loaded with tough matches as Inter Miami will have to survive a gauntlet featuring some of MLS’ best to even give themselves a chance.
The road ahead
It’s not just the amount of points that will make this difficult, but rather who those points will have to be earned against.
Of the 12 games remaining, six will come against teams currently in the playoffs. That includes FC Cincinnati, LAFC and Nashville SC, who are, by all accounts, three of the toughest teams in MLS. Luckily for Miami, only that LAFC game is away from home but, even still, those will be tough, tough games.
A rivalry match against Orlando City is also on the schedule, and every MLS fan knows that rivalry games are never predictable. Miami also have a Josef Martinez/Tata Martino derby clash with Atlanta United mixed in there as well.
On the surface, that schedule would seem manageable but, realistically, two or three bad results could be all it takes to keep Miami out of the postseason. There’s just so little room for error, and there are plenty of teams that can play Miami into making those errors.
Fatigue sets in
Martino admitted it just before the U.S. Open Cup semifinal: at some point, Messi will need a rest. And not just him; Miami has been in go mode for the last month and eventually, everyone will just run out of fuel.
“You have to take into account the large number of games that we played in 45, 50 days,” Martino said. “Leo and many other players are reaching an important physical limit and from today we will start to evaluate this – how do I face at least the next three games.”
It’s a lot to ask of a 36-year-old forward with over 1,000 games in his legs. The travel, the heat, the games… eventually, it’ll catch up to Messi and everyone else on Miami.
For Martino, that’ll be the big struggle: finding places and moments to get rest. The cup games, so far, haven’t offered any. Messi went the full 120 against FC Cincinnati in the U.S. Open Cup semi after going a full 90 in the bulk of Miami’s Leagues Cup games.
In an ideal world, Messi will help Miami simply blow teams away quickly to earn moments of rest, but this is MLS, and this league is never played in an ideal world. Martino will have to pick his spots, and picking wrong will likely end Miami’s season.
Can Messi and Miami do it?
All of the reasons above make this seem impossible. So many tough games, so little room for error, all for an exhausted team that is still building towards one more cup final.
Impossible. It has to be, right?
If there’s anyone that can do it, though, it’s Messi. He’s already done something seemingly impossible by getting Miami this far. A month ago, most weren’t sure if Miami could even win a game in the Leagues Cup. Now, they have that trophy in hand and are eyeing the next one.
Messi has been phenomenal, as have the rest of his Miami teammates during this run, but they’re unable to let up now. There is reason to hope, even if it all seems so unlikely.
Miami has already conjured magic in Miami, but his biggest test begins this weekend. If he can pull this off, if he can drag Miami to the playoffs from the depths of the Eastern Conference…. Well, what else is there to say? This is Messi, after all, and with Messi, anything seems possible.
