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Hello! No Messi, no party? The MLS play-offs are moving on without him.
On the way:
Miami mess: Messi and Co crash out of MLS Cup — but CWC spot already safe
I suppose, in retrospect, well done to FIFA for arbitrarily awarding the final spot at next summer’s Club World Cup to the winner of MLS’ Supporters’ Shield.
It just so happened that the beneficiaries of FIFA’s kindness were Inter Miami, and it just so happened that the decision was reached after the fact. Lionel Messi will be part of it so all’s well that ends well, and nothing to see here.
A relief for FIFA, too, that it didn’t allocate that last qualifying slot to the far more prestigious MLS Cup because Inter Miami crashed out on Saturday, the victims of the biggest upset football in the United States has seen in years. Their coronation was expected to be a procession. Instead, they went down at the first hurdle, their round-one defeat throwing the MLS play-offs wide open.
Miami had everything in place to finish 2024: Messi, a stellar squad and the platform of an exemplary regular season which no other club matched. The stars were aligning. Maybe it felt too easy. Because Atlanta United caught them napping.
Atlanta’s big play
Atlanta were arguably the weakest contenders in the play-offs. Their own regular season was bang average. They sacked their coach halfway through it.
But TAFC noted after the first game of the best-of-three series with Miami that Atlanta made a decent fist of it. That wasn’t to say we predicted Miami’s demise but Atlanta didn’t look like rolling over. And, on reflection, they’d been competitive against Messi and co in the regular term, winning 3-1 and drawing 2-2.
On Saturday, with the series level at 1-1, they fought for their lives. They recovered from the opening goal to lead 2-1. They responded to a Messi equaliser in the second half to score again and hold out at 3-2. Their winner was highly controversial, headed in by Bartosz Slisz while Miami defender Tomas Aviles lay injured in the box — but Atlanta were ruthless in playing to the whistle.
Luis Suarez couldn’t save Miami. Nor could Messi. Miami’s frustration at being put in their place was summed up by Leo Campana dunking Atlanta goalkeeper Brad Guzan into the net after Messi’s goal. They weren’t used to the creep of impending doom. And they didn’t like it.
What next for Miami?
Miami’s coach, Gerardo Martino, can’t dress a humiliating elimination up. To his credit, he didn’t try. “If one considers the expectations we had for these play-offs, we’ve come up very short,” he said. Might that have implications for his job?
The MLS Cup was set up perfectly for players like Messi and Suarez. Both are now 37, though, and if they’re going to make it happen for Miami, they’ll have to go again.
But much as MLS and broadcaster Apple might not want to hear this, Miami’s exit is no bad thing. The absence of Messi from the play-offs is a dent to the product, sure, but it’s good that Miami cannot simply Galactico their way past everybody. It’s healthy that — unlike FIFA’s Club World Cup award — football in the U.S. is not preordained.
Messi’s profile is massive for MLS but for the sake of long-term credibility, the U.S. game needs more than one team, one man. Props to Atlanta for reminding us of that.
News Round-Up
Hands up: who out there had Liverpool leading the Premier League by five points going into the season’s third international break?
Make no mistake, this is a full-on title challenge coming from Anfield. Nine wins from 11 matches is more than just a start. The crowd want a new contract for Mohamed Salah and, personally, I’d let him name his price.
Let’s take a look at who else in the division is trending up and trending down…
Feeling down
Looking up
🎙️ The latest Totally Football Show is picking apart City’s malaise, finding joy at Fulham and asking: will Liam Delap’s goals keep Ipswich Town up?
Real Problems: A win for Ancelotti — but at what cost?
We’ll get Real Madrid’s good news out of the way first: a 4-0 win over Osasuna (fuelled by a sexy Vinicius Junior hat-trick) combined with Barcelona’s 1-0 defeat to Real Sociedad yesterday means the gap at the top of La Liga is down to six points. That’s better.
But the injury crisis at the Bernabeu has to be seen to be believed. It’s horrendous. Carlo Ancelotti was already trying to fit square pegs into round holes but by half-time against Osasuna, he’d lost Rodrygo, Lucas Vazquez and Eder Militao to various ailments. Militao (a second ACL in two years) is out for nine months.
Midfielder Federico Valverde ended up at right-back. Ancelotti is thinking of heading to the academy to source cover. Watch yourself when you walk in, Carlo, because open doors keep slamming in your face.
‘I Didn’t Know I Was A Footballer’
(Getty Images; courtesy of Alberth Elis)
The last time Alberth Elis kicked a ball in anger was February. The former Houston Dynamo forward was playing for Bordeaux in a French second division match when, in the very first minute, he collided with an opponent.
The footage of the incident is pretty harrowing and the head injury suffered by Elis left him in a coma. When he woke up in hospital, with his parents at his bedside, he had no idea what had happened.
“I didn’t remember I was a footballer,” Elis says in this excellent interview with Tom Burrows. “I didn’t remember I was in France, I didn’t remember I was Honduran.” Over time, he had to learn to read and write fully again.
He’s since left Bordeaux and he’s pushing to reignite his career. But his story is that of a player who is lucky to be alive.
Quiz Answer
So, as per Friday’s question, those 11 players who have scored Premier League goals for Chelsea and Arsenal were:
Ashley Cole, Cesc Fabregas, David Luiz, Emmanuel Petit, Kai Havertz, Nicolas Anelka, Olivier Giroud, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, William Gallas, Willian and Yossi Benayoun.
Benayoun stumped me.
And finally…
Look, life at Triestina can’t be much fun. They’re bottom of their league, in Italy’s Serie C. They’ve won once all season. They’ve not got much to cling to.
But nothing says ‘falling apart’ quite like coach Pep Clotet (once of Birmingham City) reacting to a red card for striker Raimonds Krollis in a 1-0 defeat to Giana Erminio by properly squaring up to him. Man the lifeboats…
(Top photo: CHRIS ARJOON/AFP via Getty Images)
