Six games, nine goals, one finals appearance. Lionel Messi continued to amaze Tuesday night in Inter Miami CF‘s 4-1 win over the Philadelphia Union in the semifinals of the Leagues Cup at Subaru Park.
First-half goals from Messi, Josef Martínez and Jordi Alba staked the visiting team to an insurmountable lead as Miami marched into the inaugural Leagues Cup final, winning every one of its games since the Argentina World Cup champion joined the club in July.
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Gerardo Martino’s team will face the winner of Tuesday’s late semifinal between Liga MX club Monterrey and Nashville SC in Saturday’s final.
For opposing manager Jim Curtin it was more disappointment, with the Union having lost on penalties in last year’s MLS Cup final, exiting in the semifinals of 2023 CONCACAF Champions League this spring and losing in the 2021 MLS Eastern Conference finals.
“Takes a complete team effort to have a chance against a team like Miami,” Curtin said after the match. “First 20-30 minutes, made too many mistakes, they punished us. It wasn’t us that first half, but they’re very good.
“Hard to lose and concede four goals, that part hurts. Doesn’t feel normal to walk off that pitch after conceding four.”
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As Miami has done throughout the Leagues Cup, it scored early and never looked back with Martinez’s goal shortly after kickoff marking the fifth time it had scored in the first 15 minutes of a Leagues Cup match.
Messi then doubled Miami’s lead with the second-longest goal of his career, catching Union keeper Andre Blake out with a low line drive more than 30 meters out for his ninth goal of the Leagues Cup.
With the Union, which hadn’t lost a game at home all season, looking to get into the locker room down two goals, Alba gave Miami its third. The former Barcelona star snuck in behind the defense and ran down a through ball from Robert Taylor, then calmly fired past Blake to make it 3-0.
Chris Donovan missed a wide-open chance to get Philly on the board and then saw his goal-bound header saved by Miami keeper Drake Callender early in the second half as the home side tried in vain to get back in the game.
Alejandro Bedoya managed to pull one back for the home side later in the second half, but substitute David Ruiz scored Miami’s fourth of the night to put an improbable comeback well out of reach for Curtin’s team.
Since Messi’s arrival in Miami, the team has scored 21 goals in six games — netting four in four of those contests. Prior to him getting there, it had managed just 22 in 22 MLS matches.
“Crowd was amazing, great atmosphere. Was there a lot of pink? For sure,” Curtin said. “Going to be like that anywhere [Messi] goes. He is global, the best to ever play our sport. And he’s humble. To produce like he does over and over when he doesn’t have to…he’s a winner.
“He’ll go to a final now, hurts we’re not the ones to go.”
Information from Reuters was used in this story.
