All through the 2024 Main League Soccer season, Inter Miami captain Lionel Messi performed in a mere 55% of accessible video games. Nonetheless, regardless of his restricted participation in a pink jersey, Messi led the membership to the Supporters’ Protect and an MLS factors report, and he was named the league MVP.
To do this, Messi simply wanted 19 video games (or 1,485 minutes) to show himself final season with 20 objectives and 16 assists.
Then-Inter Miami supervisor Gerardo “Tata” Martino had shortly realized the group might relaxation 37-year-old Messi when obligatory and nonetheless qualify for a very powerful facet of MLS: the postseason. In keeping with ESPN Analysis, groups traditionally have wanted to win solely a few third of their regular-season matches to qualify for the playoffs. With new head coach Javier Mascherano on the helm, Messi’s involvement with Inter Miami follows an identical sample.
“The MLS season lets you fail in sure video games — the knockout part of a continental league would not; it means you are out,” Mascherano stated earlier this season, referring to Concacaf Champions Cup. “However the CCC playoffs put together you for what’s coming in October with the playoffs. In the long run, the MLS is a protracted season that in the end boils all the way down to a continental cup the place knockout phases are the norm, and ultimately, you possibly can’t fail.”
As Miami prepares for the Membership World Cup, which begins Saturday, the membership has been saving its finest participant for when it actually wants him.
Profitable as many video games as attainable is not obligatory for a profitable season for an MLS group. It is about profitable the appropriate video games. The Membership World Cup, the Concacaf Champions Cup and the Leagues Cup are knockout video games wherein Inter Miami makes positive to play Messi if they will. The MLS playoffs are, too.
However the MLS common season? Not a lot. In contrast to Messi’s former leagues LaLiga and Ligue 1, constant success all through the season and first place within the desk doesn’t equate to the trophy in MLS. As a substitute, the U.S. league contains a playoff system wherein the highest seven groups from two divisions on the finish of the common season straight qualify for the postseason event.
Within the newly revised MLS guidelines, slots eight and 9 on every convention desk compete in a one-game collection for the final spot within the playoffs. Every convention has 15 groups, which implies greater than half of groups in MLS make the postseason.
Prior to now two years, groups that collected between 40-45 factors all through the season managed to qualify to the playoffs because the final seeds. In 2024, CF Montreal secured eighth place with simply 43 factors in 34 video games whereas Atlanta United narrowly beat out D.C. United for ninth place with 40 factors.
As Mascherano says, the format is forgiving, as groups can lose plenty of matches with out negatively impacting their possibilities to make playoffs, the primary bar to clear for achievement in MLS. Although Atlanta United stood because the final group to qualify to the postseason with a 10-10-14 (W-D-L) report in 2024, the group went on to remove Miami, the Jap Convention leaders and Supporters’ Protect winners within the first spherical.
The league incentivizes groups to conclude the common season within the first slots of the desk to safe home-field benefit and battle for the Supporters’ Protect, however as soon as they qualify for the playoffs, something can occur.
In 2023, followers noticed Martino relaxation Messi for inconsequential matches, preserving him in reserve for once they wanted him. Down the stretch of 10 or so video games earlier than the playoffs, he missed 25% of his obtainable MLS regular-season matches not as a result of harm, however simply so he might relaxation.
Towards the tip of the 2024 MLS marketing campaign, Martino left Messi out of the beginning 11 within the two video games main as much as the playoffs. Once more, it wasn’t for harm however to relaxation him as a result of Miami had already secured a spot within the playoffs. He performed a mixed 65 minutes all through these two matches, saving power whereas sustaining a obligatory rhythm for the first-round playoff collection in opposition to Atlanta United, the place Messi featured all 270 minutes — and Miami nonetheless misplaced in an upset.
“We made the choice on Friday to relaxation the gamers. It made sense after two full video games that we made some rotations, and we had gamers able to go,” Martino stated earlier than the playoffs. “We had been in a position to full our two goals. One was to provide gamers some relaxation and likewise to win the sport due to what it means from a motivational standpoint to be in place to interrupt the factors report.”
And now, in 2025, the sample continues. Per ESPN Analysis, Messi has performed 73% of the obtainable minutes with Inter Miami in MLS this season, in contrast with 86% of the minutes performed within the Concacaf Champions Cup this season, together with added time. He has featured extra since mid-Could, however that was supposed to get him as much as match health given their elimination from the Concacaf Champions Cup.
Inter Miami kicked off the 2025 marketing campaign juggling MLS and the Concacaf Champions Cup, enjoying one recreation each three days in worldwide locations. The group shortly transitioned from the offseason into two demanding competitions, forcing the membership to change the coaching schedule to accommodate the immense quantity of enjoying time. Though Mascherano insists that Messi is accustomed to enjoying beneath such calls for after doing so for many of his profession, fatigue and cargo administration as soon as once more started to creep into the dialog.
After qualifying for the Concacaf Champions Cup semifinals for the primary time in membership historical past, the group had a schedule crunch: Vancouver in Canada on April 24, FC Dallas at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale on April 26 and eventually the second-leg CCC match in opposition to the Whitecaps on April 30.
The group and Mascherano entered the week with a plan, reverting to the technique seen in 2024 when Miami prioritized worldwide competitors and rested Messi altogether. The captain performed the complete 90 minutes of the primary leg in opposition to Vancouver earlier than incomes a break. He then missed the coaching main as much as the sport vs. Dallas, with Mascherano citing fatigue: “Messi ended the [first-leg] recreation [against Vancouver] nicely. Clearly he was fatigued. Taking part in on artificial grass could make a participant much more fatigued as a result of ground.”
Messi sat out the regular-season MLS match in opposition to Dallas fully. Miami misplaced 4-3 earlier than returning to motion when internet hosting the Whitecaps for the second leg.
“Clearly we determined, like lots of his teammates, to order him after the sport in opposition to Vancouver the place we needed to journey for six to seven hours and play on artificial grass,” Mascherano stated after the Dallas match. “However he is good; he educated right this moment, so he is prepared [for the second leg against Vancouver in the CCC].”
Messi additionally sat out three matches in March to stop fatigue because the later levels of the Concacaf Champions Cup approached. He watched as Inter Miami received two regular-season MLS matches and the Concacaf Champions Cup first-leg round-of-16 match with out him.
On the time, Mascherano cited load administration as the rationale for resting Messi as he defined the group aimed to stop any form of fatigue because the later levels of the worldwide event shortly approached.
“Since we need to care for him and we do not need to make him really feel fatigued, we determined to provide him relaxation, figuring out the dangers we’re going through,” Mascherano stated to the media on March 6. “Clearly, not having one of the best participant on the planet is sophisticated.”
At 37 years outdated, Messi has managed to adapt his method on the sector and create a coaching regime off the sector to maintain enjoying at a excessive stage. However as he stated himself final 12 months: “Relaxation is essential these days. As we grow old, all the pieces is tougher.”
“I do know that as quickly as I imagine that I can not carry out, or not benefit from the recreation, or am not in a position to assist my teammates, then I’ll cease,” Messi stated.
Relaxation and skipping fewer necessary MLS video games has been the important thing for Messi to assist his teammates when it counts. When the Membership World Cup begins, an identical sample could emerge then, too.
