Inter Miami CF are currently last in the Eastern Conference standings with 15 points from 17 matches. The Herons are seven points below the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs line at the halfway point of the 2023 season.
Should the greatest player on the planet arrive this summer, as Lionel Messi has stated his intention to do, can Inter Miami make the playoffs this year?
That was part of the discussion on this week’s Extratime episode, with The Athletic’s Tom Bogert joining Andrew Wiebe and David Gass to discuss Inter Miami’s current roster, their room to make moves in the Secondary Transfer Window (in addition to the one making worldwide headlines) and yes, do the Herons have postseason hopes?
Gass believes the roster, as currently constructed, is set up for Messi to make a seamless arrival in South Florida. They'd need to reach ninth place or higher to qualify for the playoffs.
“I think the base of this team makes sense once you have that ball-dominant piece in Messi,” Gass said. “Right now, they can’t create chances so the game becomes really difficult. Any time they give up early goals they’re out of it and they're behind, they have to throw numbers into the attack to try and create chances. You know how you fix that? The greatest attacking player in the history of the game.”
Miami’s roster, Gass argues, is more complete than Toronto FC's was a year ago when Italian internationals Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi arrived.
The difference, though, was Toronto had an established head coach in Bob Bradley at the helm. Currently, Javier Morales is serving as Inter Miami’s interim head coach after the club parted ways with Phil Neville earlier this month.
"Who’s going to be the coach? And when is that coach going to put any ideas in place and when does that get established? That I think is going to be a moving target because Messi is the presence he is,” Gass said. "If it’s not Tata Martino, I don’t even know the names on the list. Who is going to command respect in that moment and it’s hard to think there’s one, that's not Tata, that has any knowledge of MLS.”
For now, Wiebe said, it’s paramount for Miami under Morales to secure as many points as possible, by any means necessary, to be in prime position for a second-half push should Messi arrive.
“On the road that might mean just straight parking buses and saying Leo Campana, we're going to bang it up to you, Josef Martínez, same thing. They’ve got to get points,” Wiebe said. "They didn’t get them in New England this week, a 3-1 loss, but you do whatever you can to try to get as close to the line as you can so when Messi comes he can make the difference.”
Inter Miami, which just lost winger Corentin Jean for the remainder of the season to an ACL injury, are next in action on June 24 at the Philadelphia Union (7:30 pm ET | MLS Season Pass).
