Wednesday night’s match between Atlanta United and Inter Miami at Mercedes-Benz Stadium may or may not feature the world’s greatest living footballer. Whether Lionel Messi dresses for Miami or not might not matter – for either team.
Miami, for one, is on 62 points after a 3-1 win over the Philadelphia Union on Saturday. Messi, who hadn’t played competitively since his injury in the Copa America final between Argentina and Colombia, essentially didn’t look like he missed a beat as he scored twice and assisted on Luis Suarez’s 17th goal of the season deep into second-half stoppage time. The next closest team to Miami in the Supporters’ Shield standings is the LA Galaxy, but the Herons have six matches remaining to LA’s five.
In other words, Inter Miami, who have long been qualified for the playoffs, has one hand, maybe even one and three-quarters hands, on their second trophy in club history and, in turn, a spot in the Concacaf Champions Cup. Why risk Messi’s recovery in a midweek game when you have plenty of breathing room? Even without him, they’re really good, they being Suarez, Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets, and the rest of the squad.
Atlanta United? Not so much.
This team was played off the pitch by an inferior Nashville SC side on Saturday, one that hadn’t won in eight tries in MLS play and hadn’t scored in 436 minutes. Naturally, Nashville scored twice against Atlanta.
Does anyone think Wednesday will be any different against a team that could win a double, becoming just the ninth team in MLS to do so?
Perhaps we can take solace in the fact that Atlanta pulled off a shock 3-1 win against Miami in Fort Lauderdale a few months back against a lineup that featured Miami’s Big Four. That’s been the problem all season long, and even dating back to last season: they can get up against teams they have no business beating, but when a team further down the standings comes to town, that goes out the window. Why?
“I think it’s maybe because we have that mind frame of maybe they’re actually better than us,” Derrick Williams said in a lifeless locker room after Saturday’s match. “So we have to do the extra hard work. So I know for a fact we’ll do that Wednesday.”
One would certainly hope so because, by all accounts, it looks as if Atlanta United is destined to play out the string at this point. Even if they were to make it to the playoffs, they’d probably draw no better than the 8/9 game. A win in that one would earn them the prize of — drumroll please — Inter Miami in the first round.
As for whether or not Messi plays on Wednesday? We’ll see, especially after he missed Miami’s trip to Atlanta last season, and given Tata Martino might not want the face of the league to risk further damage to his ankle on an artificial surface after playing just days ago. If he does, I suppose seeing him will be a nice treat for fans in attendance, especially those who couldn’t make it to Argentina’s Copa America match at Mercedes-Benz Stadium during the summer.
Whether or not Messi makes the trip, the Atlanta United that will take the field on Wednesday against Miami is a shell of their former self. And the offseason can’t get here soon enough.
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Happy that I get to see Messi, Suarez, Jordi Alba, and Busquests for the first time in my life! Also, won’t Gressel be coming back to town? That’ll be cool.
“Any given…Wednesday?” Like said before, we never know which team will be the one to take the field so do we lose to the worst team in the East then win against the best? Only we’d figure out how to do that.
It matters if he plays because the whole of MLS looks like a joke when he only plays Argentina games, Leagues Cup and home games.
They played him 90 minutes the other night just so they have an excuse for him not to come here. I hope I’m wrong but I’m on my last legs supporting Atlanta United as it is, and MLS as a whole.
Supported MLS since the beginning but it’s becoming very hard and the Messi situation (Beckham never pulled this) is getting old.
Zlatan did.
No, Beckham just forced his way to Milan via loan two straight years to stay fit for 2010 WC. He missed half of the 2009 MLS season after initially stating he’d be back for the opener. He missed a bunch of the 2010 MLS season (and the WC) with an Achilles tear he picked up with Milan that season. He also spent the 2011 MLS pre-season training with Spurs, who tried to buy him only for LAG to say no. He did end up playing a few “full” seasons and winning hardware with LAG, but let’s not pretend like Beckham was fully bought in to the MLS life his whole time with LAG.
These mega-stars are always going to have their own agendas. Messi is turning out to be oft injured at this stage in his career. I’m guessing he’s probably being more cautious due to his age and the stakes just not being the same. I hope he plays in Atlanta tomorrow, but don’t expect him to. If anything, maybe he’s a super sub. That just seems like prudent protocol when returning from injury.
The only reason I haven’t written Wednesday’s game off completely yet is because it’s clear there is absolutely no way to know which AU will show up on any given day. Is it MLS Cup Favorite AU? Or Wooden Spoon-Bound AU? I used to mentally walk into games with my own outcome predictions, but I finally stopped doing that probably sometime last year because it was just exhausting.
At any rate, if the us that shows up Wednesday is the us we aren’t anymore except for special occasions, then we stand a decent chance of beating whatever lineup Miami brings out.
you think messi is starting? or playing
Not sure what you meant by decent but Atlanta’s best performance Wed and Inter Miami’s worst still likely makes an Atl win the least likely outcome after a tie and Miami win. I think this team has reached the point of psychological defeat and will be lucky to win another game the rest of the season. The goose is cooked.
yall think messi is playing?
It matters because it’s about the only thing that will make this game interesting.
Or worth attending
That’s it right there. Will anybody go to the game? If Messi is not playing I imagine it will be very, very low attendance. Maybe the lowest they’ve ever had. But if he’s there they may fill every seat available. And that matters when you’re selling hot dogs and beer.
Miami’s beatdown of Atl will be substantial with or without LM…karma is a bitch.
Is karma’s name Carlos Bocanegra or Don Garber? Because those are the two names responsible for Atlanta being bad and Miami being good respectively
Causes are almost never singular. For example, in the case of CB, pretty sure he was hired by and reported to others and allowed to continue. Etc. To dig a bit more deeply, doesn’t seem unfair to blame a few players for certain decisions. And for that matter, I see some of the fan base as having played a part in the last few years. Does Bocanegra owed a fair bit of blame…probably. But responsible…maybe more debatable.
Consider for a moment…perhaps an unpopular opinion but I think had the club stuck by FdB and instead jettisoned the attitudes, even with CB, I think the club would have been in a much better position over the last couple of years and on a more stable footing. Would it have been Inter Miami…no. But think the outcome would have been much more positive with something to build on…I’d wager a fair bit on that. The club has been guilty of a lot of short sighted decisions. And at this level, the constant changes don’t bode well. In many respects stability has long term value…slow and steady…unless you’re Miami I guess. Anyway…it is what it is.
Not sure what FdB could have done had he stayed longer. JM was out injured and CB had mostly already blown up the roster by that point. Maybe if FdB had been given more control over the new players brought in? What role did the fan base play in this thought? We had high expectations? Shouldn’t we though?
The real short-sighted or mis-informed decision was pivoting to FdB in the first place. The team wasn’t quite as talented as 2018, but still very, very good. And it was built to run like hell, not slow down the ball and try to break down low blocks. They won in spite of FdB’s tactics and there was a mini-mutiny over this in July of 2019. They really should’ve hired a coach that would be more tactically similar to what Tata was doing, because that is how the roster was built.
I also do not think FdB wanted to really in in MLS/Atlanta. I think he needed an image rehab. He had a great run with Ajax (granted with an immense amount of talent coming through there at that time), but was fired from Inter after 15 games and Crystal Palace after 5. He mutually parted ways with Atlanta to take the Netherlands NT job, where he lasted 15 games (at least it was about 18 months). Then he went to Al Jazira, where he lasted another 14 or 15 games. It seems like FdB may have a problem either connecting with his team/FO and/or implementing a system that works with the talent provided.