since Lionel Messi joined in Major League Soccer Has become one of the most difficult teams in the league for opponents.
When the current World Cup champion made his eyes on American football after a historic career And Paris Saint Germain Champions League LaLiga After winning the trophies in the past, opponents knew that no one would survive the talent of one of the greatest figures of the game. For his credit, Messi immediately pacified the concerns of how seriously he would take while making his debut against this continent. blue Cross With a spectacular goal and captaining Miami to win the inaugural League Cup trophy. उस क्षण से, argentina Legend proved the opponents that he would play to win, and he became a problem for any challenging in Miami’s calendar.
With their guidance on and outside the field, Herons lead the Eastern Conference and Supporters Shield Standing, and they are on the way to break the record of the highest marks recorded in the MLS regular season with 64 in 30 games so far. Inter Miami became the first team to finish 2024 MLS playoffs a few weeks before other teams.
Messi’s consecutive goal contribution forces each team facing the Herons to ask themselves the same question: how will you stop the eight -time Ballan D’Or winner?
As if it is not enough, coaches also have to think beyond Messi. Miami pose a unique danger in MLS with many of her former Barsa teammates – Luis Suarez, And Sergio Basquets –Supporting the Argentine forwards in the final third. सिर्फ पूछना sporting kansas city Head coach Peter Worms.
“How do you really prepare for a team that are Messi, Suarez, Buscoatts and Alba?” Verms told ESPN. Each coach can adopt a different approach to answer the question, but the goal of stopping the team adorned with stars is the same.
“With Miami, they are the only team in the league that I would say, you have to think in this way: they have Messi and then they have surez,” said the verms. “Busquets are a separate animal. Because I don’t misunderstand, he is very important for the picture, and alba too. But apart from Messi, Suarez also brings a little to the table – not up to Messi levels, but not to Messi levels, but वह मेज पर लाता है।”
Verms landed on the brief purpose of playing against Herons: “Collect the middle”, where Miami’s team has abundance of world class players.
“With that team, it’s about strengthening the middle, because they have a very strong spine in the middle,” he said. “So if you’re compressing the middle against them, you’re taking out their strengths. It was all about trying to keep Messi off the ball as much as possible. And just make sure you You know, when you have the ball, if you want to drop it, drop it far away from the goal, right?”
New England Revolution Head coach Caleb Porter took a similar approach, focusing on defending World Cup champion Messi, trying to deny service in the box, thereby muting Suárez.
Porter said, “Our focus has to be on Messi, because he’s so important to how they play – him and Suarez because Suarez actually has more goals than him right now. People forget about him, but he Also a world class player.” , “You can’t stop Messi, but you can limit his touches in key areas. Because when he’s in key areas around the box, he’s lethal. Unstoppable in some ways.”
Since Porter faced Inter Miami, Suárez is second in the Golden Boot standings with 17 goals, while Messi is 12th with 14 goals. ,DC United‘S Christian Bentke Still in the lead with 19.) Messi has missed 10 MLS games this season due to injury, leaving him behind in the race for the Golden Boot. However, the Argentine forward has now become the fastest player to reach 15 goals and 15 assists in MLS, having done so in 19 games across the 2023 and 2024 seasons. Sebastian Giovinco had previously set this record by completing it in 29 games.
Despite what the statistics say at any point throughout the season, Porter was clear: it’s all about limiting Messi. “We can’t man-mark him, so we have to do it by committee where he swims,” he said.
Like any opponent, the coach will spend hours preparing, studying the opponent and devising a specific plan. Vermes shared with ESPN the tactical booklet he created for each of Sporting KC’s opponents, each including drawings, analytical images of set pieces, lineups and tactical components. The first page of the scouting report contained over 600 words of further analysis of the opponent’s projected starting XI. The second consisted of four detailed graphs showing the progress of movements made by the opposing attack in the build-up to a goal, with explanations on each individual photo.
The team’s coaching staff studies the report before presenting the case in a concise summary for the players to understand.
However, with Miami, such preparation becomes even more important. Inter is at the forefront of the league in terms of scoring goals per game in this season and no team in MLS converts more than Herons (19.7%) to goals or is not on more (46.3%) target , making the attack especially powerful. Messi is a large part of it – his 1.9 goals and per game assistance is almost a complete goal compared to any other player in the league.
Stopping Messi may not be guaranteed to defeat Inter Miami for MLS teams, but it is the best blueprint to them. Miami is 13-9-5 when Messi does not play in all competitions since the arrival of Messi on July 21, 2023, but when he plays it is 18-6-8.
“When we have Leo, every team plays against us like it’s the final,” the defender said. Marcello Weigandt“Then we have to play every game as if it is a final if we want to achieve what we want to achieve.”
‘You have to be careful with these people’
However, once the games start, and the fantasy plans turn into reality, Miami proves why they may be the hardest team to predict in MLS.
Kansas City did well defending Messi in the first half early this season, restricting him from the final third and limiting his ability to distribute the ball. SKC took an early lead and the plan almost worked – until Messi fired a shot that, if attempted by most players, would not have gone in.
After finding a place among the three sports players, Messi completed a luxurious long distance strike from the exit of the box to the upper right corner of the goal and shocked the audience and left a permanent impact on the vermiz. From that moment, Messi continued to play his magic by penetrating the defenders, by running a run timing and providing the right pass to Suarez.
“The second goal, that goal, statistically, there’s a 2% chance of scoring from there. And so, that’s the difference,” Vermes said. “In our game (from Messi), she was the lowest touch compared to any other MLS game played by her. And she assisted and scored 3-2 win. She is the only team that can do so .
“So, instead of stopping Messi, the whole idea was to try to refuse to serve him. The surprising thing is that, I do not know how much we could do on that goal. We had one really one. There are good chances that we didn’t finish – I will tell you that if you have Messi in your team, he finishes those chances, I’m not being disrespectful to our players and that’s the reality in the league.”
It was a similar story against New England this season. Messi scored two goals and an assist to lead Miami to a 4–1 comeback victory and break the record for most goal contributions in the first seven games of a season.
Despite strict security from revolution, Messi saved himself through three players, using his understanding of spatial awareness and guiding a narrow strike in the net correctly and guiding a narrow strike in the net. Took. The second goal saw the classic Messi-Buskates trick: after communicating with his former Barcelona team partner, Messi crossed the wall of the guards and deployed himself well to score fast.
“I don’t think (Messi) had a lot of impact and influence at the beginning of the game,” Porter said. “But he’s the same, he shuts you up.”
And again the story itself was repeated, this time the opposite philadelphia union at Chase Stadium, when the forward returned from injury on September 15 after two months out and led Inter Miami to a 3–1 win with two goals and an assist.
After a slow start to the game, Messi figured out how to break down Union’s back line with minimal touches and got on the scoresheet twice in less than five minutes.
“Messi made some plays we could have done better on,” Philadelphia head coach Jim Curtin said. “The second goal, of course, is a little soft and goes into the middle. We probably could have got a block even earlier in that instance, but good players punish you.”
1:42
Lionel Messi marks MLS return with quick-fire brace and assist
Lionel Messi returned in style for Inter Miami, scoring two goals in four minutes to turn the game around and then registering a late assist against Philadelphia Union.
In the matches against SKC, Union and Revs, the plan to limit Messi’s touches could have worked, but then Messi proved how much damage he can do in such a short time on the ball.
“You have to be careful with these guys – you respect them,” guard ईएसपीएन को बताया। “They are world-class players. The mentality in the game – you have to be more aware.”
Orlando lost 5-0 to Inter Miami earlier this season as Messi scored twice and played an integral role in heading up Suarez’s first strike. His ability to understand the game and rhythm proved to be the difference maker, often deceiving slower opponents before finding the faster seams to set his teammates up for success. In that game, Miami broke its own records for most goals scored and largest margin of victory in a single game.
A few weeks later, Argentina produced a record-setting performance, winning 6–2. New York Red BullsMessi scored one goal and five assistance to break the league record of the most aid in the same match, along with the highest goal contribution in a match. At that time, he also scored and assisted in six consecutive MLS matches.
Messi’s three assists to Suarez were a reminder of his time at Barcelona. While living in Spain, Argentina provided 39 assistance to Suarez, the highest compared to any other player. On the other hand, the Uruguay player entered the MLS by assisting Messi on 47 occasions during six years at Camp Nou.
Years of friendship and teamwork turned into a record-spear performance that night.
New York Red Bulls head coach Sandro Shwarz said, “This is the quality of Suarez (for the last goal) in Lionel Messi’s last pass, these are their actions, their retaliation – this is the top quality.” “It is not so easy to defend against Inter Miami of this quality even with our four back line. You need focus and concentration for 94 or 95 minutes at a high level.”
It is clear that every team is trying to stop Messi’s Inter Miami, but no one has traced it on the basis. A lot can be done only by limiting his touch on the ball. Fueled by Messi, Miami leads MLS in points and are looking like a team destined for the playoffs.
“At the end of the day, you are talking about Messi, the greatest player in the world,” Vermes concluded.