Lionel Messi, Inter Miami suffer first-round MLS Cup playoff exit

Lionel Messi is out of the MLS Cup playoffs.

Messi and Inter Miami, the prize favorite and Supporters Shield winner who set a record for routine season points in 2024, were gotridof from MLS Cup contention on Saturday by ninth-seeded Atlanta United, which shocked Miami 3-2 at home in the last match of the veryfirst round, best-of-three-game series.

Miami took an early lead before falling behind lateron in the veryfirst half. Messi pulled the hosts level midway through the 2nd, however Atlanta midfielder Bartosz Slisz scored the ultimate game-winner with about a quarter-hour of routine time staying:

As he hasactually been throughout the postseason, Guzan, the 40-year-old previous English Premier League and U.S. nationwide group veteran and the second-oldest active gamer in MLS, was a brick wall in objective for his group.

Guzan made 8 conserves on Saturday, consistingof anumberof stops on Messi. Miami started the match without Sergio Busquets, Messi’s longtime colleague at Spanish club Barcelona. Busquets, who had experienced flu-like signs on the eve of the contest, came off the bench soon after Slisz’s objective however couldn’t assistance his team discover a 3rd.

Miami’s first-round exit is a considerable blow for Messi, who earlier this month called winning the American and Canadian League’s most soughtafter reward the Herons’ No. 1 toppriority.

“That’s the genuine title that we desire, MLS Cup,” Messi stated on the eve of the playoffs in an interview with433 “We’re going to battle for that.” 

Messi’s 2nd season in the United States was a marked enhancement on his veryfirst, though, when he showedup mid-season 6 months eliminated from a tradition sealing 2022 World Cup win and immediately moved Miami to the inaugural Leagues Cup crown ahead of 46 other MLS and top-flight Mexican groups.

But the GOAT got hurt down the stink in 2023, and Miami missedouton the playoffs. Tata Martino’s side was the pole-setter from start to surface this year, nevertheless, even without the Argentine legend, who missedouton a 3rd of the season either representing the Albiceleste or recuperating from the ankle injury he suffered in the Copa América title match that Argentina won in July.

Even without MLS Cup, this season was a success for Messi and Inter Miami. In addition to making an extraordinary 74 routine season points, the Supporters’ Shield accomplishment triggered worldwide soccer’s governing body FIFA to award the Herons a berth in next year’s broadened Club World Cup. Miami will host the opening match of that competitors at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.

Messi, who is gettingin the last year of his MLS agreement, is anticipated to signupwith his nationwide group next week for World Cup qualifiers versus Paraguay and Peru. 

Miami’s 2025 season kicks off next February.

Doug McIntyre is a soccer pressreporter for FOX Sports. A personnel author with ESPN and Yahoo Sports before signingupwith FOX Sports in 2021, he hasactually covered United States men’s and females’s nationwide groups at FIFA World Cups on 5 continents. Follow him @ByDougMcIntyre.