A Lionel Messi-inspired Inter Miami have already lifted silverware in 2024, securing the Supporters’ Shield after finishing top of Major League Soccer’s regular-season standings, but there is still work to be done if they are to be crowned champions.

Saturday’s 6-2 win against the New England Revolution, in which Messi scored his first MLS hat-trick, meant they topped the table in record-breaking fashion with 74 points—the most by a team in MLS history.

In MLS, though, as in American sports generally, the champion is not the team that tops the regular season standings but the team that wins the post-season play-offs, which begins this week.

It means Messi and his fellow former Barcelona buddies Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets, and Jordi Alba, coached by former Barcelona and Argentina boss Tata Martino, will play their biggest games as Inter Miami players in the coming weeks.

Messi mania—but some fans are disgruntled

The Supporters’ Shield win means Messi has already claimed two trophies during his short time in Miami, the first of which came shortly after he joined the team in July 2023, when he was thrust into the limelight of a newly expanded Leagues Cup competition.

The Leagues Cup pits every team from MLS against every team from Mexico’s Liga MX in a World Cup-style, mid-season tournament, and at the time it felt like one made especially for Messi. Inter Miami went all the way, defeating Nashville on penalties in the final, but that was very much a sideshow. The MLS Cup play-offs are where this team will be judged.

The challenge for Messi now is to claim MLS’ flagship title. There is a sense that it would be good for the league for him to do so, given the attention it would attract.

But this has led to a backlash against some aspects of ‘Messi mania’ from fans of other teams as most of the attention on the league falls, perhaps understandably, on Inter Miami and the Argentine superstar.

As is the case when any side is successful, or expected to be so, and is given more coverage as a result, they soon become the team everyone wants to beat.

Having a team that provokes the ire of the opposition can be good for a league’s competitive spirit, which can sometimes be lacking in a relatively new league such as MLS in which 18 of the 29 teams qualify for the post-season, and there is no traditional league title winner and no relegation.

Amid all of this is a general appreciation that one of the best players of all time is plying his trade in the US, and fans have turned out across the country to watch Messi.

If Inter Miami go all the way, it will be one of the most keenly anticipated MLS Cup finals of all time, at least for those looking to attend the game itself.

When it comes to TV viewership, though, MLS has sacrificed a potentially larger TV audience in favour of putting Messi behind an Apple TV subscription service.

No holiday as veteran gets stuck in

Although Messi often went on holiday in Miami before moving there for work, his time in MLS has not been an end-of-career vacation.

The determination to succeed with Argentina in the latter part of his international career has been reflected in his conduct with Inter Miami at club level.

His captain status is not merely a token gesture. The 37-year-old remains highly competitive with a desire to turn Inter Miami into serial winners.

He has mucked in with the whole group, from supporting youth players such as Brighton-bound 21-year-old Diego Gomez and 19-year-old local youth product Benjamin Cremaschi, to forming familiar partnerships with Suarez, Busquets, and Alba.

Martino was the ideal head coach to bring all of this together. Not only had he previously coached Messi, Alba, and Busquets, but he also won an MLS Cup with Atlanta United in 2018.

He and sporting director Chris Henderson have created a functioning team around these star players, one that continued to get results when the stars were unavailable.

MLS carries on playing through international breaks, so Messi and Suarez missed several games because of national team call-ups. The 2024 Copa America took place in the middle of the MLS season and left Inter Miami without the services of both for five league games.

Messi missed the entire 2024 Leagues Cup, in which Columbus Crew eliminated Inter Miami in the round of 16, as well as an additional four MLS games due to an injury he sustained at the Copa America.

In the run of nine games without Messi around the time of the Copa America, Inter Miami won eight of them.

As much as the brilliance of Messi and Suarez contributed to Inter Miami’s successful regular season, it was this run of wins in their absence that made the record-breaking Supporters’ Shield win possible.

Can Messi and Inter finish in style?

Columbus Crew, a team from the same Eastern Conference as Inter Miami, will likely be their biggest rivals going into the playoffs because of their exciting brand of play under coach Wilfried Nancy.

Western Conference table-toppers Los Angeles FC, and the team finishing just behind them on goal difference, LA Galaxy, could also pose a threat.

Challengers for the league’s individual awards will also come from these teams. Coach of the year will be between Nancy and Martino, MVP will be between Messi and the Crew’s former Watford striker, Cucho Hernandez, while newcomer of the year will likely be one of Suarez or LA Galaxy’s brilliant Brazilian winger, Gabriel Pec.

The Golden Boot winner is already decided, though. It went to former Aston Villa, Liverpool, and Crystal Palace forward Christian Benteke who has had an outstanding season with DC United, scoring 23 goals in 30 appearances.

Suarez finished alongside Messi as Inter Miami’s top scorer with 20 goals from 27 appearances, continuing the form that produced 17 goals in 33 games for Gremio in 2023 and saw him named player of the year in the Brazilian league.

Though Messi played little more than half a season’s games in MLS in 2024, he has still been one of the most productive players in the league with 20 goals and 10 assists in 19 appearances. This, plus his wider impact, makes him favourite for the MVP award.

His mere presence at the David Beckham-owned franchise which joined the league in 2020 has helped transform them from a team that finished 14th out of 15 teams in the Eastern Conference in 2023 (27th out of 29 teams overall) to one that broke the regular season points record in 2024.

This stellar regular-season performance gives Miami benefits going into the play-offs. As the top seed they will retain home advantage throughout, and the MLS Cup final is played at the home of the highest-seeded team involved which, should they get that far, would be Miami’s Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale.

Messi lifting the Supporters’ Shield has served to increase the esteem in which the regular-season title is held. He and his former Barcelona team-mates, used to playing in a football culture where the league winner is the champion, will certainly have valued it, but they recognize that this is a new adventure and a different way of doing things, and they want to succeed in this culture too.

The coming weeks will decide whether they do.

Credit: BBC Sports