Club World Cup: Inter Miami validates the Messi project, but proves an exception to the MLS rule

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MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — For Major League Soccer, the Club World Cup was a test. “A chance,” MLS commissioner Don Garber said, “for us to showcase our growing competitiveness on the global stage.” And on that stage, last Thursday in Atlanta and Monday here at Hard Rock Stadium, Inter Miami passed the test in historic fashion.

It advanced to the Club World Cup’s Round of 16 with a 2-2 draw against Brazilian power Palmeiras. It nearly won Group A, having beaten FC Porto last week, 2-1. “We [showed] the world,” Miami coach Javier Mascherano said after the Porto win, “that we can compete against any team.”

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But what, exactly, did MLS show?

Hours before Inter Miami survived Group A, the Seattle Sounders bowed out of Group B without a point. LAFC, the third of three MLS teams, crashed out of Group D before it even got to a decisive third game.

Nine countries sent multiple representatives to this novel Club World Cup. On a points per match basis, collectively, the U.S. and Mexican reps have been the worst. CONCACAF, the region encompassing North and Central America, has been outpaced by South America and Africa. Its teams have been competitive, but results have been underwhelming.

The only exception to the rule, thus far, has been Inter Miami.

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Which makes sense. Inter Miami is the exception to many MLS rules. It has Lionel Messi, who earns more money than any other MLS club’s entire roster. He has won more career trophies than MLS has played seasons. He has elevated Inter, on and off the field, to this stage, and to levels the league has never known.

The question, then, is whether their progress to the Club World Cup’s knockout stage says all that much about the league’s broader progress.

Built in his image

Messi is also the primary reason Inter has performed onstage. He has elevated the Herons with his on-ball brilliance, with his goals and gravity, with his alien-like skills — but also intangibly. He propelled them to Thursday’s win over Porto with a classic free kick, but “beyond the goal,” Mascherano said, “he’s a player who guides us. His hunger, his resilience, his desire to continue competing at any level — he shows us where we need to go.”

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He has elevated Inter Miami over the past two years with his aura, his standards and his professionalism. The team, Mascherano said, has been “infected by his spirit, his winning spirit.” Homegrown kids have played beyond their years and above their pedigrees. On Thursday, an unbalanced squad won as a coherent, confident unit.

It is unbalanced, of course, because MLS roster regulations and spending caps make it so. Messi, though, has been the ultimate workaround. He lured three former Barcelona teammates to Miami, two of them — Luis Suarez and Jordi Alba — on under-market contracts. He also wooed several young South Americans, who came, in part, for a chance to play with the GOAT. His god-like pull made recruitment “much easier,” former Inter Miami sporting director Chris Henderson told Yahoo Sports last year.

The end product was the best roster in league history, the most regular-season points in league history, and now the first-ever win over a European club in official competition.

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That Porto win was a dream-like showcase for a 5-year-old club with grand ambition. Saturday’s Round of 16 match against PSG, the European champion, will be another. It will validate the Messi project, which began with a years-long courtship. It will boost Inter’s brand globally.

What it will do for MLS is up for debate. Messi and Inter Miami have become so distinct, so distinguishable from the rest of the league, that Seattle and LAFC probably tell a more accurate story.

‘Nowadays, any team can compete with you’

Seattle and LAFC have played five games and lost all five. LAFC could make it 6 for 6 on Tuesday against Flamengo. On paper, it’s a semi-humiliating haul for MLS. On the field, however, it has been more respectable.

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The Sounders bowed out with pride. In a 2-1 loss to Botafogo, they nearly overwhelmed the Brazilian champions in search of a second-half equalizer. Against Atlético Madrid and PSG, they never looked capable of winning; but they never looked comically overmatched either. Cristian Roldan and Obed Vargas battled with some of the best midfielders in the world. Their only glaring defect was the lack of a dynamic forward — in part because their best one, Jordan Morris, missed almost all of the tournament due to injury.

LAFC also held its own against Chelsea. Its downfall was a downright ugly performance against what was, per Opta, the 258th-ranked team in the world, Espérance Tunis.

LAFC’s 1-0 loss to the Tunisian champs was the biggest stain on MLS at the Club World Cup. For all the league’s talk of challenging Europe’s Big Five, and perhaps even reaching soccer’s summit in a decade, its top teams remain roughly on par with the kings of overlooked leagues on other continents.

They also don’t spend enough money on enough difference-makers. In the Sounders case, academy product Paul Rothrock was perfectly capable of hassling opposing defenders. But no one was capable of doing what Botafogo striker Igor Jesus did, or what Chelsea’s Pedro Neto did to LAFC.

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“Nowadays, any team can compete with you,” Jordi Alba said Sunday. “Physically, they’re all [mostly] on par.”

It’s individual quality that so often tips or wins games. And that’s what MLS clubs don’t have quite enough of.

Superteam, still standing

The exception, once again, is Inter Miami. Even beyond Messi, beyond Sergio Busquets, it has Suarez, who astutely created Monday’s opening goal. It has Tadeo Allende, an Argentine winger signed from Celta Vigo in Spain’s La Liga, who sprinted away from the Palmeiras defense and finished.

Inter, a 2020 expansion franchise, has nowhere near the history of Palmeiras or Al Ahly. It has nowhere near the social impact. It has been a quasi-away team twice in its own city at this Club World Cup. The tournament has reinforced just how young MLS clubs are, and just how much deeper the passion for soccer is elsewhere.

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But MLS had the infrastructure; Miami had the lifestyle; Inter owner Jorge Mas had the relationships and the money. They attracted Messi. Together, they assembled an MLS superteam. Together, over three games, they were better than the most powerful club in Africa, and just as good as perhaps the most powerful in South America.

Suarez all but finished the job with a bulldozing run, straight through the heart of the Palmeiras defense. His 65th-minute goal triggered triumphant celebrations. Players and coaches and owners pumped their fists, as if to punctuate the statement.

Instead, Palmeiras punctuated the night with a comeback. With two late goals, O Verdão stormed back to the top of Group A.

But Inter escaped, into the knockout rounds, toward the bigger and better things they want to chase.

This news was originally published on this post .

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