Eight games have now been played by Lionel Messi and Sergio Busquets. Inter Miami haven’t lost any of them.
They won the inaugural Leagues Cup last week for the club’s very first trophy. Then, they qualified for the U.S. Open Cup final just a few days ago. Now, the uphill quest for an MLS playoff spot begins.
A lot of Inter Miami soccer has been played in the last month — eight games in 35 days to be exact.
Eventually, Inter Miami coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino said Friday, Messi and other players will not be available. He did not specify, however, when exactly that may be or to what capacity it would look like.
The first instances of those changes were made Wednesday against Nashville. Four new starters entered the lineup with Inter Miami utilizing five defenders and two forwards rather than the typical 4-3-3 formation. Basic matchup tactics may have played a part in that decision, but by the way Inter Miami played before making their first substitutions in the 58th minute, fatigue appeared to be a factor.
Messi, Busquets and their other FC Barcelona teammate Jordi Alba played the entire match, but likely will need time off at some point. That could be as soon as Saturday night at the New York Red Bulls, but there aren’t any strong indications in either direction as of Friday afternoon.
“After Cincinnati, we had a training session in the hotel — just a recovery session yesterday,” Martino said through an interpreter. “Soon, we’re gonna be going to the field, but still prioritizing recovery.”
Making the MLS playoffs seemed like an insurmountable task when the trio of superstars signed with Inter Miami. But now given how the last month has played out, nothing seems out of the realm of possibilities.
“Honestly, I didn’t think it would be such a good success,” midfielder David Ruiz said.
Here’s the current situation.
The top nine teams in each conference qualify for the playoffs. The eighth and ninth seeds are considered wild cards and face each other in a single-elimination match, similar to the NBA’s Play-In Tournament. The winner faces the conference’s No. 1 seed in a best-of-three series.
Inter Miami (5-14-3), in last place, are 14 points behind the Chicago Fire, which hold the ninth seed. Miami hasn’t won a regular-season match since May 13. Montreal sits at eighth place with the same amount of points as Chicago (32). To Inter Miami’s benefit, they’ve only played 22 regular-season games while Montreal and Chicago have both played 24.
The problem is Inter Miami only have 12 regular-season games remaining. It’s a fairly balanced schedule though, with half of the games at home and six of their opponents above the playoff line. Two of their toughest matchups include a Sept. 3 road match at LAFC, the defending MLS Cup champions, and an Oct. 7 home match against FC Cincinnati, who has the best record in the league.
If Inter Miami win all 12 of those games, that’d put them at 54 points and almost certainly in the playoffs. Montreal and Chicago both are playing at a 1.3 points-per-match pace, aligning them to finish with 45.3 points. Charlotte finished in ninth place last year with 42 points and Columbus did so in 2021 with 47 points. That means Inter Miami can only afford to lose a couple matches if they hope to clinch a playoff spot.
“Now after the Cincinnati match, we can start to think about the league and talk about our chances with the players,” Martino said. “We intend to compete to see if we can, at the end of the season, find ourselves in one of the playoff spots at the end. “
Their first test against the Red Bulls comes against a club that’s made the playoffs 13 years in a row. They currently sit three points out of the playoffs, but six of their seven wins have come at home.
Inter Miami are 2-5-0 all-time against the Red Bulls. Last year was the first time in the club’s history that they’ve qualified for the playoffs.
“It’s incredible how we came obviously from not doing our best in the league to now just winning back to back games where everybody (is) coming to the field knowing there’s going to be a good match,” Ruiz said.
Sergii Kryvtsov called up to national team, Harvey Neville loaned away
Two separate roster implications were announced this week.
First, starting center-back Sergii Kryvtsov was called up by the Ukrainian national team for the 2024 UEFA Euro qualifying matches. He will remain with Inter Miami for the next three matches before joining the Ukrainian team.
Then, defender Harvey Neville was loaned for the remainder of the season to Loudoun United FC of the USL Championship. He is the son of former Inter Miami coach Phil Neville, who was fired in June.
Kryvtsov has stepped up his game immensely over the last few games as a steady defender. He also had a highlight-reel assist against Philadelphia in the Leagues Cup semifinal on a long pass he completed to forward Josef Martinez.
Harvey Neville hasn’t played since June 24.
