Final 12 months, Lionel Messi and Inter Miami’s spherical one playoff exit by the hands of Atlanta United was unhealthy.
A repeat this week in opposition to Nashville SC can be a lot, a lot worse.
But that’s precisely the prospect Messi and the Herons are going through this Saturday night time when Sam Surridge, Hany Mukhtar and the Coyotes come again to South Florida for Sport 3 of their collection.
It’s exhausting to overlook how stunning it was when Miami, then the Japanese Convention prime seed, misplaced video games 2 and three of its 2024 collection to eighth-seeded Atlanta.
A loss Saturday for third-seeded Miami in opposition to sixth-seeded Nashville would really feel much less jilting. And that’s an indictment on a Miami mission that has appeared to regress whereas additionally — by outward appearances, no less than — turning into more and more influenced by Messi’s singular preferences.
This 12 months, supervisor Javier Mascherano is Messi’s shut pal and a former teammate with each FC Barcelona and the Argentina nationwide crew.
This 12 months, sporting director Ángel Guillermo Hoyos is Messi’s longtime mentor from his time as a Barcelona academy coach.
This 12 months, the membership has featured as many gamers claiming Argentina as their major nationality as the USA, based on fbref.com, with the Argentines incomes exponentially extra minutes.
And this 12 months, the Herons don’t have a trophy of any kind up to now. In 2023, Messi instantly helped Miami seize the Leagues Cup in his first seven video games with the membership. In 2024, they earned the Supporters’ Defend because the crew with the most effective common season file.
This received’t be Messi’s final likelihood at MLS glory. The 38-year-old simply finalized a three-year contract extension earlier than the opening match of the playoff collection.
But when 2025 was the 12 months the place Miami started constructing extra explicitly in Messi’s picture, that pattern seems nearly sure to speed up.
Two of the Herons’ different veteran stars — Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba — have introduced they’re retiring after this season. The way forward for a 3rd — striker Luis Suarez — stays unsure. Their replacements are prone to be youthful and extra athletic, however with much less dressing room clout of their very own, with traits meant to go with Messi’s nonetheless vital technical brilliance.
Carried out accurately, such a rebuild is perhaps vital to make sure a crew that’s able to extra aggressive steadiness with Messi on the sector. Even at their finest, Miami have by no means seemed invincible in 2025, solely an excellent crew with some very apparent defensive flaws.
However based mostly on the modifications we’ve seen from 2024 to 2025, there’s little motive to be assured the appropriate items can be attained. And there additionally doesn’t seem like any exit ramp as long as Messi is the primary man.
No less than final 12 months’s loss to Atlanta felt fluky, in opposition to an opponent that all the time appeared to have Miami’s quantity and a goalkeeper in Brad Guzan who all the time appeared 10 years youthful when going through Messi.
Dropping to a Nashville facet whom the Herons beforehand had dominated would say much more about Miami than it does concerning the victors, and particularly concerning the tenuous dynamic between the membership’s pursuit of success and the preferences of its famous person participant.
