Trying and failing to scheme a way to defend Lionel Messi is not unique to MLS clubs. For two decades, the greatest player of all time has made just about every opponent he has come across look silly.
In MLS, it’s been no different. On Tuesday, the Philadelphia Union was the latest to try and fail, falling 4-1 to visiting Miami in the Leagues Cup semifinal. Messi scored his ninth goal in his sixth Stateside game en route to victory, extending his Leagues Cup scoring lead. Aside from putting Miami one win from their first trophy in club history, it also qualifies the Florida side for next year’s CONCACAF Champions Cup for the first time.
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The win may also prove that there is simply no planning for what Miami can do to other MLS teams with Messi’s gravity in the lineup.
Miami’s run to the Leagues Cup final had been extremely impressive, but it came with caveats. Miami played all but one game at home (at FC Dallas) until Tuesday’s semifinal. The quality of opponents wasn’t the strongest, as Miami avoided Liga MX giants like Tigres, Monterrey and Club America on the other side of the bracket. If they were indeed for real, the thinking went, a successful trip to Chester, Pennsylvania would eliminate those doubts. If any team in MLS had the right ingredients to make the game difficult for Miami, it was Philly, a team that was seconds away from winning last season’s MLS Cup and has been among the best regular-season MLS teams in recent history, with a reputation for being especially tough to beat at home.
What they found was an uncharacteristic performance from the Union. Three-time MLS goalkeeper of the year Andre Blake conceded all four of Miami’s shots on target. The backline anchored by reigning MLS defender of the year Jakob Glesnes didn’t make an impact and neither did Jose Martinez, the Venezuela international regarded among the best defensive midfielders in the league.
“We usually have a good team in the sense that we really make teams earn their goals and I thought tonight, even just looking at the expected goals … we conceded four goals on like a 0.6 expected goals, so we gave up goals that we shouldn’t have,” Union head coach Jim Curtin said. “I think there is a little bit of we were too excited, maybe showed a little too much respect, but we got punished by a good team. We got humbled a bit.”
Indeed, on Tuesday the Union showed what can happen when a team deviates too far from its comfort zone in an attempt to handle Miami’s revamped attack. Though he usually deploys a 4-4-2 formation, Curtin instead opted for a more combative midfield to pair with a back five, leaving a more creative midfielder in Jack McGlynn on the bench with Leon Flach starting in his place.
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With leading scorer Julian Carranza unable to play due to injury, Curtin opted to play one natural striker in Chris Donovan and slid Daniel Gazdag, typically a No. 10, underneath to play as a second forward rather than sticking with the Union’s typical two-forward setup in front of an attacking midfielder.
They were defense-minded tweaks, clearly made with Messi, Sergio Busquets, and striker Josef Martinez in mind.
“The thinking was to be a little more defensive with a team that we knew would have the ball,” Curtin said. “With Messi now, they’re leading every possession statistic, so we knew we wouldn’t have the ball, so that’s why we chose the guys that we did and the shape and formation that we did.”
The moves backfired spectacularly. Philadelphia conceded within just three minutes on Miami’s very first shot, with Martinez running on to a long ball played by center back Serhiy Kryvstov, who was under no pressure whatsoever near the midfield stripe.
Just. Like. That.
Josef scores EARLY for @InterMiamiCF! #LeaguesCup2023 pic.twitter.com/z525trOgZI
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) August 15, 2023
The Union then conceded on Miami’s second shot in the 20th minute, this time via Messi himself, as he seemingly caught the Union defense and goalkeeper Andre Blake by surprise by firing accurately into the bottom corner from 36 yards out — his longest goal in a club match since 2012.
What can't he do?! 🐐
Make it NINE goals in six games for Leo Messi. pic.twitter.com/HLf3zBFTmV
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) August 15, 2023
Then the Union conceded on Miami’s third shot just before halftime, as left back Jordi Alba’s run into the Union’s penalty area went untracked and he finished past Blake.
Three shots, three goals, and a mountain to climb that turned out to be insurmountable.
“The first half was great for us,” Kryvtsov said, politely omitting the Union’s own role in Miami’s dominant display.
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“Look, Messi has done this to every single team in the world,” said Union captain Alejandro Bedoya, who came on as a second-half substitute. “He has this ability to find space. … But I think we were a little bit too respectful, not even of just him. Just look at the second goal. We have three center backs and they have one No. 9. Josef Martinez picks up the ball alone and is able to turn, lay it off to Messi. That says it all. I thought we could be more aggressive tonight.”
Curtin made a double change at halftime, bringing on McGlynn and forward Mikael Uhre, and switching back to the team’s more traditional 4-4-2 tight diamond. The changes helped the Union look much better in the second half, though that could also have been explained by game state as well as the tactical switch; of course Miami would sit deeper and concede more possession while up three goals in a knockout match.
“It’s not easy to say (what went wrong in the first half),” Union midfielder Daniel Gazdag added. “Maybe we were a little bit scared of the names, they have a good team, but they are not three goals better than us.”
In the end, it was another test passed by Miami, though the scoreline could have been closed despite the Union’s missteps. The Union outshot Miami 16-5 and had a handful of big chances, including a one-v-one for midfielder Gazdag when the game was still 1-0, but Inter Miami goalkeeper Drake Callender came up big in the moments he needed to.
“We knew Philly was going to be a tough game, they’re always a tough game,” Callender said. “To be able to have a lot of possession early in the game and create chances was big for us.”
Given the way Miami has dispatched opponents so early in Messi’s tenure, it now has to be considered a (very early) threat to win the CONCACAF Champions Cup and qualify for the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup. Before Messi’s arrival, Miami scored 22 goals in 22 MLS matches. With Messi, they’ve scored 21 goals over just six Leagues Cup matches. This is now a completely different team from the basement dwelling side in MLS play.
“It takes a complete team effort now and it takes 11 guys at their maximum to have a chance against a team like Miami,” Curtin said. “If you go back and look at the first 20, 30 minutes, we made too many mistakes and they really punished us. I think we were in position to clear balls, I think we even had numbers against Messi and dropped off of him when we had five guys around him in that moment where he scores, so yeah, you have second thoughts and you second guess yourself — again, maybe emotion, whatever, too much respect, whatever it might be — it wasn’t us.”
(Photo: ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
