Next up, Lionel Messi: Atlanta United ready for Inter Miami in MLS Cup Playoffs

How do you stop a player like Lionel Messi?

“That’s the golden question,” Rob Valentino said on Tuesday, after Atlanta United advanced to face Messi and Inter Miami after beating CF Montreal in penalties in the MLS Cup Playoffs Wild Card round.

Yes, Atlanta is unbeaten in two matchups against Messi and Inter Miami this season: Saba Lobjanidze’s two stunning goals helped them to a 3-1 win on May 29, a night where Messi played the full match and scored. Messi was a 61st-minute entrant on September 18 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium during a 2-2 draw that Atlanta very well could have (should have) won.

But the postseason is a different beast. And a player that has won four UEFA Champions League trophies, a World Cup, and eight Ballon d’Ors simply isn’t going to be fully kept out of the picture, much less in a best-of-three playoff series.

The discussion, then, perhaps turns to how Atlanta can lessen the damage he can cause.

“He’s arguably the best player that’s ever played, so we’ve faced him a few times, and we know, obviously, his qualities,” Valentino said. “He’s a talented player, and we need to talk about blocking areas, and just be hyper alert. When he’s on the pitch, we need to know where he’s at.”

Of course, when you talk about Messi, you have to talk about the players around him.

Messi, himself, scored an eye-popping 20g/16a in just 19 regular season matches, including a hat trick against the New England Revolution on Decision Day. Equally as lethal is Luis Suarez (20g/9a in 27 appearances), the duo recalling their days as part of FC Barcelona in the late 2010s.

Leo Campana with eight goals, though, has shown his quality before and during the club’s pre-Galacticos era. Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets obviously need to be thrown into the conversation, as does Benja Cremaschi, one of the top young midfielders in MLS and part of a cache of talented youth in the Miami squad.

“They ve got other players that are good, too, so there has to be a focus on (both Messi and) his team,” Valentino added. “We know what the games are like with them. So we have that experience.”

Needless to say, Atlanta United are a much different side than the one that were played off the pitch by the Herons in last year’s Leagues Cup. They’re certainly not the same side they were as recently as a few weeks ago when a Josef Martinez brace at Mercedes-Benz Stadium against Montreal presumably ended their playoff hopes.

Twenty days later, despite Martinez continuing his white-hot late-season form with another two goals, the ending was much different. And now Atlanta has won their last three matches, their longest win streak across all competitions since September 10-18, 2021.

Bear this in mind: Atlanta is the only team in MLS to have not lost to Miami in the regular season. Maybe a team that’s been “making its own luck” over the past several days has a little more in them.

“They’re persistent and they keep showing up,” Valentino said. “I don’t have a perfect answer (why it’s happening now), but I’m just glad it’s happening now.”

Atlanta and Miami open Round One on Friday at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale (8:30 p.m. ET) before shifting to Mercedes-Benz Stadium for Game 2 on Nov. 2 (7 p.m. ET), Atlanta’s final home match of 2024. Game 3, if necessary, is back in Fort Lauderdale on Nov. 9 (8 p.m. ET).