Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami were eliminated from the MLS playoffs after losing 2-3 at home to Atlanta United, who won the best-of-three series.
Big disappointment in Miami. The big favourite for the MLS title, Leo Messi’s Inter Miami, was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.
With a historic points record in the MLS and with the Supporters Shield title (regular league) in their pocket… but also with the feeling of having been eliminated from the tournament too soon.
This is how Lionel Messi concluded his second year with Inter Miami, a season marked by some clear successes, but also with a bitter end. Messi and the pink team derailed this Saturday in the first round of the MLS Cup playoffs against an Atlanta United that surprised everyone by winning 2-3 to take the best-of-three series 1-2. The team managed by Gerardo Martino was the favorite for the MLS Cup after finishing first in the East, winning the MLS Supporters’ Shield (trophy for the best team of the regular season) and breaking the league record for points with 74. Perhaps because they were so high up, the fall was more painful.
Their surprising elimination came against an Atlanta United (Martino’s former team) that was ninth in the East with 40 points, that entered the playoffs as eighth through the ‘wild card’ and that, after the departure of mainstays of the squad such as the Argentine Thiago Almada or Giorgos Giakoumakis, is in the process of rebuilding with Rob Valentino as interim coach.
In 2024, Messi and company have achieved their second title with the MLS Supporters’ Shield, but in the rest of the competitions they have been left wanting more.
The Florida team fell this year in the quarterfinals of the Concacaf Champions Cup against Monterrey and lost in the round of 16 of the Leagues Cup against the Columbus Crew.
However, FIFA, due to his great performance in the MLS regular season, gave him the invitation that the host country (USA) had for the expanded Club World Cup in 2025.
Messi missed two and a half months of MLS (from June 1 to September 14) due to his participation in the Copa América and the injury he sustained in the final won against Colombia.
Messi, who was recently awarded by MARCA in Miami as the player with the most titles in the history of football, has, at 37 years of age, achieved fabulous individual statistics: he only played 19 games in the MLS regular season but that was enough to achieve 20 goals and 16 assists.
CREDITS:
Directo: Alejandro Bernal
Text: Max Hackenbroich
