With the Major League Soccer season laced up and ready to go for its 29th season, there will be one team and one player that will command much of the attention, Inter Miami CF and eight-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi.
This will be Messi’s first full season with the American club after flourishing in their first few months together. Messi joined the Herons in July of 2023, just in time to lead them to victory in the Leagues Cup while helping them to reach the final of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.
Despite the success the 2022 World Cup Champion brought to the club, his arrival couldn’t have helped the Miami-based team dig itself out of a massive deficit in the Eastern Conference playoff race and the MLS playoffs.
Going into this season, Inter Miami are definitely favourites to take it all, especially with them boasting one of the most talented rosters ever seen in MLS history with the likes of Messi, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba and Luiz Suarez.
However, even with all the experience and sheer class within the Miami team, it doesn’t mean they slide right into the “champions-to-be slot”, even with the G.O.A.T. himself Lionel Messi on the team. Sure, the squad is star-studded, but also the stars are also aging. Simply qualifying for the playoffs in the stacked Eastern Conference will be a challenge for Miami, based on the teams they will be up against and their poor pre-season performances.
Time and time again throughout their pre-season tour, the backline was carved up, and with the attacking talent in the MLS, opponents will be salivating at the chance to attack this Miami backline. It’s not just the backline, either. Miami’s front two of Messi and Suarez offer nothing defensively. Busquets, meanwhile, for all of his intelligence, isn’t the most mobile; therefore, there will be gaps to exploit, and if there is anything that will prevent Miami from claiming MLS top honours, it’s their defense.
Expectations are sky-high for a team unlike any in MLS history as the Herons enter their fifth MLS season. With the new campaign underway, no MLS season has had this much hype, and no team has been under the microscope more than Inter Miami. Anything less than transcendent success won’t cut it for a club that is now built upon a promise of more.
Will all the eyes put pressure on these star players? Maybe, however, they’re all used to pressure and used to not being able to accept failure as any sort of option. But make no mistake, the world is watching, and if this Inter Miami project does fall short, the world is unfortunately waiting to laugh at their expense.
