Forty-two million dollars can buy a lot, but apparently he cannot buy an MLS championship, because for the second time in as many seasons, Inter Miami failed while trying to go to a League title.
This time, it was Atlanta United, the lowest seeded of the 18 team playgrounds, a team that has played the last five months with an interim coach and one with a wage bill less than half the size of Miami, who delivered the fatal blow, Beat the Lionel Messi team Saturday in the decisive match of a series of qualifiers for the first of the best three.
This destroyed the MLS plans – which has almost recurred Messi Soccer League – and its distribution partners at Apple, who were both invested in the drawing of a massive world audience for a championship match with Messi in its center.
Cinderella, however, ruined the coronation by proving that the mentality is even more precious than money, the grain can still beat the greed and the magic of the elf dust should never be underestimated.
“GRINCEING, guy. GRIDING. To believe. Resilient,” said Atlanta's age-free goalkeeper Brad Guzan, who stopped nine shots in the 3-2 victory, said his team's performance. “There is fairy dust in our wardrobe.”
Guzan and his teammates were not the only ones to celebrate because Miami's defeat opened a large path for the MLS Cup To return to southern California for the second time in three years. Laftc and the Galaxy Are the greatest remaining seeds of the playoff tournament, which means that if the two won their semi-finals from the West Conference in two weeks, the title match will certainly be played here, no matter who wins the final of the conference.
There is also an advantage for the upheaval for MLS.
The global philosophy of the League since its foundation is parity, an objective that its Byzantine salary rules have been designed to support. And the loss of Miami – for a team whose salary is 35% of its payroll – means that the best paid team will not win the MLS Cup for the seventh consecutive year and the 12th time in 13 seasons.
According to figures compiled by the Spotrac website, the last time that the highest wage team in the League was also the most efficient, it was in 2017, when Toronto won the only three -way in MLS history with a salary mass of $ 22.5 million. In the past six seasons, only one MLS champion – Columbus in 2020 – ranked among the first three in expense. In a sport where species often determine the champions, it is something that MLS should applaud.
Messi could be a world cup champion – in addition to winning 10 liga titles, four crowns of the Champions League, three World Cups in FIFA clubs, two Ligue 1 titles, two American COPA and an Olympic gold medal – but he never raised the MLS Cup.
This is also something that the league should boast.
The best player in history arrives in MLS, scores 21 goals and obtains 18 assists in 25 regular season games in a season and a half, but his team has rebounded in the quarter -finals of the CONCACAF Champions Cup and the 16 series of the League Cup. It didn't even make the playoffs last year.
Messi and Barcelona Buddies Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets have done a lot to enhance the profile of the league and transform Inter Miami into a global brand. Now, this projector can be used to highlight the strength and competitiveness of the league as a whole.
Even with the defeat, this was not a completely lost season for Inter Miami since the team broke the record for seasonal points of the League and won the supporters' shield, which goes to the team with the best record before the qualifiers. It is a trophy that many players consider more important than the MLS Cup because it recognizes excellence on a complete reason rather than the last six weeks.
However, coach Tata Martino, who won an MLS cup with Atlanta in 2018, is not interested in consolation prices.
“It is not a success when you lose in the quarter-final,” he told journalists after Saturday's defeat. “If we consider the expectations we had for these qualifying series, we were very short.”
He was even more direct in an interview with The Athletic last August.
“When you win the MLS Cup, you win this star over the badge,” he said. “The day I am given a star for having won the supporters shield, it will be worth it.”
Martino is now the third of the three MLS coach candidates to lose the first round of the playoffs. Do you know who has not been eliminated? THE real Best coaches of the year – Greg Vanney of the Galaxy and Steve Cherundolo du LAFC.
Vanney guided a Galaxy team who won only eight games last year for a record season, the one in which he equaled the modern era for the victories (19) and the goals (69). If he had not conceded a score on the final sidelines of the regular season, the team would also have won its first conference title since 2011.
Cherundolo, whose rebuilt alignment ended at the top of the conference table, is the only coach to take his team to two cup finals in 2024, win the American Cup and lose against Columbus in the League Cup. By reaching the MLS Cup final, which Lafc won two years ago, Cherundolo will become the first person to take his team to the title of the League title three times in as many years since 2007.
Now, both coaches are within the reach of their second titles. If Lafc, which has the fifth highest payroll in the league, can beat Seattle on November 23, and the galaxy, whose pay is seventh, obtains the Minnesota United the next day, the neighbors will meet during the final of the Western Conference.
The winner of this match will win the right to hang on to the championship championship match – a game in which neither money nor Messi will influence.
This is something that deserves to be applauded, for MLS, its fans and its corporate partners.
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