Messi scores his first goal in MLS! | NY Red Bull 0-2 Inter Miami Live Postgame Show

Inter Miami and Lionel Messi have done it. They've won their first game in MLS since he joined the team. And I really thought we were going to be having very different conversations coming out of this game. But then that stunner in the 87th, 90th minute, whatever it was, happens. And that is probably going to be the goal heard around the world. What a pass. Ben Ha to find him back in the middle of the box. The flying pass from from Jordi Alba. Absolutely stunning goal to finish off the game. Man, we have so much to get into and no better person to do it with than Gian and Alejandro and I. But on the way back of this ad break, we will have all the postgame reactions for you. Are you ready to transform your space into a masterpiece? Introducing Mosaics, your destination for stones and more. Mosaics is a family owned business serving the community for over 20 years with the best quality porcelain, ceramic tiles and high end Mosaics featuring unique modern designs. Mosaics has everything you need. Dedicated customer service, wholesale distributors and a passion for excellence. Make sure you visit Mosaics.com today to turn your vision into a reality. Hey, welcome in everybody to our Inter Miami postgame show. We've been doing after every single match. And you can catch us here on the 5 Region Sports Network YouTube channel, consistently all season long as Inter Miami make an MLS playoff push. That is the part of the season that we're in now. It kicked off tonight against New York Red Bulls and they do it in style with three points. Let's start off with the inevitable, the goal that Lionel Messi scored. We'll get into the conversations about him starting, him coming off the bench, his impact, how Red Bulls looked against Miami, what Miami's rotational pieces did. We'll get into all of that. But Gian, I cannot overlook the fact that this is one of the most special goals that I have seen in my life. I mean, that goal was incredible. I don't think anybody expected that. I don't even think Grzymaski expected that pass. That pass, I mean, it's beautiful that it all starts with Busey. Busey has the ball in the middle. He puts that ball over to Alba. Alba gets off an incredible pass, an acrobatic pass, which was just beautiful. I mean, that takes a lot of skill. And then to get that ball to Messi, who just happens to have like four defenders around him. I don't even know how he reads that pass. I'm actually here watching the game with my family and my cousin says he sees that pass and he looks at me and he says, man, does he have an earpiece in his head with Antonella giving him the instruction off on the sideline? It was incredible to even find Grzymaski. And if you notice, Grzymaski wasn't even ready for that pass. He didn't even know it was, I mean, he didn't even expect that. He makes the run, puts the ball right back into Messi. That's just, you know, we've kind of coined the term here, the Messi magic. And that's exactly what that was. And it really just, other than it being a beautiful game, or excuse me, a beautiful goal, what a perfect time to kind of just settle them in with a few minutes left in the game because they had been playing a bit defensive until that moment and New York had a lot of possessions. So that just kind of sealed the game for them. It was beautiful. For everybody here watching now, drop your comments. We will get to as many as we can. Drop your reactions, your thoughts, your questions about the game. I couldn't have said much more than Gian just said about the goal. I mean, it was phenomenal. The pass, I thought he was going to shoot. I thought he was going to lay it off. I didn't know what was going to happen. There were times where he was in that same exact area. And I thought he was going to shoot because I guess I just have some sort of PTSD from what he did against Nashville and how great that goal was from that same kind of area. And he took it easy. There was one point where he got fouled and won a free kick, and that didn't go as well as he would have liked. And then this one, you didn't know what was going to happen. And then he pulls that magic off. What a goal to seal the deal. I will say that Miami looks pretty comfortable in this one. I wasn't necessarily affected by the rotations. I wasn't too mad at Tata Martino, as I have been over the last couple of games. If anybody here is a regular, you've heard us talk about all of those kinds of discussions and how this team is meant to go about playing alongside Lionel Messi, with him on the field or off the field. And right now, I think that this team in MLS, after what I just saw against Red Bulls, a team that didn't really necessarily come out firing, I thought that I'd see a little bit more pressure from them. But I think that Miami handled all the pressure that they did get pretty well. And Tata adapted to the game almost perfectly. I think they looked even more comfortable once he started making the substitutions in the 60th minute. It was exactly the 60th minute. I thought he could have waited a little bit longer, but I thought it was perfect. They went to a 4-3-3 with no striker. And for me, that was kind of just a, we're going to hold possession and don't need to go forward. If our wingers want to move up and go, absolutely go for it. But we don't need that kind of number nine to go ahead and go forward. I want to get to this comment that Troy left for us. Troy says, is there any doubt with either of you that Inter Miami will make the playoffs? So this is where it stands. And Gian, I'll let you answer this. I'm just going to give you the facts at the moment. Right now, within the table, Inter Miami sit in 14th place. They have 23 games played. And with the win tonight, they have 21 points. In ninth place, which is the last spot to make the Eastern Conference playoffs, Chicago sits on 24 games played and 32 points. So relatively, you can say Chicago are about, if you want to factor in, Miami could win their next game, give them 24 points. There are eight points behind ninth place, Chicago, if you factor in the game in hand and give Miami the win and are eight points behind with 11 games left, 11 games to go. That's exactly what I think is the biggest issue for Inter Miami. But it's not even the fact that there's 11 games to go. It's that there are that many teams in between them to jump. Miami's biggest advantage right now is games in hand. But with games in hand comes a very, excuse me, comes a very congested schedule. And we've seen the effects of that over the course of Leagues Cup and in the last match against Cincinnati. And we'll see how it affects them going forward into the Nashville game at Driving Stadium. Gian, answer Troy's question here. You have any doubts right now after seeing what they did against Red Bulls in their first league action since Messi joined? So I didn't think that I had no doubts after what I saw in Leagues Cup. I think that that's when the doubts went away for me. I still think that we can't say for certain. There's too many variables, especially with players having to rest, players having to go away for periods of time for international matches. And I think that those are some of the things that are going to play into this. But I think that after what we've seen, how this team has gelled, how the team has collectively become a better team, how individually players have just become a better version of themselves once Messi, Busi and Alba arrived. And I think that I think that we definitely can make the playoffs. I think that with the number of games that we have, we had been talking about, you know, previous to this game being played, it was 12 games left, went about nine or so. Now, you know, we've got 11 games left. We've got to win about eight. And what you see here is a team that, despite Messi coming off the bench, was able to handle an away game with what seems like a lot of pressure with, you know, you're going back into the league. Every game is going to count. You need to win. So I think that they did a good job being under pressure. And I would say just ultimately, I do think that they're going to make it. And I think it's something that we're not I don't feel like we're going to be two or three weeks away from the last match and say, hey, they've got it in hand. This is going to come down to the wire. Most definitely. Yeah, just. But yeah, I think I think we're going to make it. And I think, Austin, I know that you're a bit more skeptical or what do you how do you? Yeah, I think. And Trav, thank you so much for coming. I'll get right to you in just a second. I am a bit more skeptical, but tonight actually gave me a little bit more promise. The Cincinnati and the Nashville games had me on my toes a little bit, and I thought that league play would get really rough for them, given the way that Nashville and Cincinnati approached both of their respective matches and how Miami struggled to, you know, attack a low block and New York Red Bulls did none of that tonight. There wasn't really a low block from Red Bulls. They wanted to play the game in the middle of the park, which is something I think that was a disadvantage for them. They did press at times and their presses were mostly positive. I don't think that Miami broke them down very easily when they were pressing, but at the same time, didn't really threaten on any type of turnover that Miami committed. So that's kind of, I think, where the difference was in this game. And I think if more teams approach it like that going forward, Miami could, you know, be in safe hands. I would like to see them break down a defense a little bit better than what we saw over the last couple of matches. But obviously with Lionel Messi on the pitch and how he broke down that Nashville backline with that pass to Benjamin Krameski, I really think that anything is possible as long as he's on the field. So I'm not going to say I'm overly concerned right now. I do think minimum eight games won in 11 is a tough task in MLS, given the schedule and given the possible games that Lionel Messi may miss going forward because of international duty. But at the same time, I haven't, they have never been beat. They have not been beat since July 21st. So who am I to say that they can't get this done? Travel order your takes on this man. Just that second goal set up. I mean, I'm going to just start with there. I can disregard everything else you guys were saying with that may be the best ball I've ever seen by a single player inside the 18 ever. That was just ridiculous. But no, I think Miami does have a good shot at the playoffs. Miami showed tonight that they can find a way to win without Lionel Messi and Sergio Busquets on the pitch. They did that for 60 minutes. And even though you wouldn't say at any point that they were the better team, they held their own. Diego Gomez finally produced a Leo Campana looked lively. Noah Allen at left center back is insane. I love it. So I think that Miami has a lot of potential and that their biggest question in this run for the playoffs right now will be what happens in those games that not only Lionel Messi and that not only Lionel Messi misses, but that a lot of other players will miss that September 9th match against Sporting KC. We're looking at Messi, Campana, Hosef, Diego Gomez, Kamal Miller, Sergey Kristoff. We're looking at possibly Drake calendar, possibly Drake calendar, possibly Benha Kramosky. We're looking at, you know, possibly a full starting 11 out for that match. So it'll be the question of what do these bench players do in a match like that? You know, do we see more of a Robbie Robinson? Do we see more of Chris McVay or Ryan sailor? So those are the matches that are going to be key to any playoff hopes that Miami has. If they can manage to even get a point in those, then, yeah, they have a really good chance of making the playoffs. Yeah, and those those kinds of debates and discussions will happen when we get there. And I think that there's a lot to there's a lot of food for thought because it's going to get rough down the stretch, and usually it does in the dog days of MLS. If anybody's followed this league, you know what it's like come August and September, pushing into October about how rough it gets for teams in MLS in these dog days of summer. But I want to ask you, Gian, you know, we talked for an hour and a half on the last show. If you guys missed it in our preview, make sure you don't miss another one. Check out Messi and Co on all of your podcast platforms. Just type in Messi in the search bar, and it should come right up with that logo that you see in the top right of your screen. Type in Messi, follow Messi and Co, and you can get all of our episodes on a weekly, almost daily basis. We're dropping episodes in English and Spanish all the time. And you can also subscribe to the Five Reasons Sports Network YouTube channel that you're watching us on right now. Turn the notifications on and get notified when we go live postgame and also throughout the week. Well, we talked for about an hour and 30 minutes, Gian, about what we saw or what we potentially would see in the rotation in terms of what would Tata Martino do. And given the lineup, we were kind of close. I will say that I had mentioned Farias and Campana up top. You guys had mentioned not necessarily David Ruiz, but the midfield of Arroyo and Diego Gomez, even though Diego Gomez looked more like a right winger. We all mentioned the back line looking like Noah Allen as a third center back, Kamal Miller and Tomas Aviles next to him. Given all of those changes and how they looked in that first 60 minutes, can you say that this team is deep enough to play without Lionel Messi and Sergio Busquets for X amount of time when they need rest for the next 11 games to sustain and steady a ship that has to win eight and 11? Are you confident that they can do that? I definitely think they can, especially when because you've got three amazing players in Messi, Busquets and Alba. And I think the key moving forward is there's going to be a rotation where you're going to need at least one of those guys on the field at all times. And that's what's most important here, because and especially in this game when we saw you didn't OK, you didn't have Messi, you didn't have Alba from the beginning. On top of that, you take out the captain, you know, Yedlin or if not Messi, Yedlin. So you have the experience of Alba that's able to be able to talk to the team, be able to it's almost like having another coach on the field. So I think that's really important moving forward. And then you've got a ton of young players, those U-22 players that, man, we saw them today and they played great. Facundo Farias for me, I thought had an amazing, amazing game. I loved, loved, loved that he continued almost that beautiful combination that we saw with Taylor and with Alba that we got used to on that left wing. He went plugged beautifully right into that and was combining, especially at the beginning of the game with Alba. I mean, that was just amazing to watch. I think Aviles is a great player. I think he's still trying to fit into his role. He's still trying to find his game. He seems a little rusty. You know, he made some kind of a few not so good fouls right outside the area. But overall, I like how he played. He's very promising. And then, hey, we've been how many discussions have we had about Gomez? Too many. And we finally see Gomez score his first goal and a very nice goal. So, I mean, if Messi and Busquets aren't on the pitch, if you've got at least one of them, again, with Alba, you've got the U-22 players there. And this formation seemed to work more so, again, for this specific team. I think, I don't know if you can, I'm not, again, a fan of the ultra defensive line of four and then one up top. But in this game, it worked. And I think that's just going to go ahead and continue tinkering with the lineup as depending on what team he plays. But from what I saw today, I mean, I feel unstoppable. Messi on the bench coming in the second half, whatever it is, I'm a lot more confident moving forward with what we've got. First of all, Royal, thank you very much for the starred message, the donation. And I want to say for everybody who has been around 5 Reasons Sports for quite some time and seen, I did my absolute best to teach everything I know to Royal about football and soccer so long ago, years ago. It was all about Inter-Miami. We talked as much as we could, and it just did not click. He did end up liking, I believe, Christian Pulisic at some point, which was great. Now he loves Lionel Messi. Royal, thank you very much. And I'm so glad that you get to get in on the Messi hype train. And that goes for everybody in South Florida in the sports industry. It's been outstanding. You made him like Christian Pulisic? You are a sick man. Oh, it was Gio Reyna. That's who it was. It was Gio Reyna. Oh, that's even more sick. No, it was Gio Reyna. That's who it was. And honestly, I could pull up my Reyna jersey right now if I really wanted to, because that is my guy. But anyway, let's get back to Inter-Miami. I agree, Gio, that, you know, with the three U-22s, that pretty much what you said was that the depth is enough. The depth is more than enough. With your point about Tomas Aviles, I think he is still trying to find, you know, get his bearings. I think that he fits into this back line well, and he does a really good job. And we mentioned this post-game and in our podcast leading up to this match that he does well trying to find passes going forward. And I thought that we saw that tonight. There were a couple of switches of play that he made, one specifically in the beginning of the second half across the field to Jordi Alba that started a break that I thought was phenomenal. And that is something that I really love to see, because without him, or without Christophe on the field, Kamau Miller and Noah Allen don't really possess that kind of quality. Kamau Miller doesn't possess any kind of, you know, vertical threat. Noah Allen's vertical threat is more on the field, finding the green space. I think that you saw a lot of that tonight from him taking the ball forward himself. And I love what he did when he was carrying it. I thought Noah Allen was spectacular tonight. One of the best players on the field. Almost didn't put a wrong foot forward. The only thing he did wrong was wait for a goal kick. And it was actually a corner. He didn't realize it went off an Inter-Miami player. But I'll let him slide by because of the rest of the performance. But yeah, I thought Tomas Abbas was good. He's going to be a regular starter. I think Fulcino Farias is a star in the making. I don't think that that guy lasts on this team more than two years, maybe even one. I really think that Farias has that star quality. And when he gets inserted to the starting lineup at full potential alongside Busquets, alongside Messi, whether it's Joseph or Campana, I think that you have an upgrade on Robert Taylor. And that was pretty hard to say in the beginning of this experiment with Lionel Messi. But now I look at it and say, yeah, that is the guy. Robert Taylor been in more of a reduced role in the last two matches, playing more as a wingback. And it's not my cup of tea. It's not something that I love. But I guess in a back five, if you have to rest DeAndre Yedlin and you shipped off Harvey Neville to USL, you don't have anybody else to play in that role. And Robert Taylor is the only one that's been exposed to that type of reduced offensive role alongside three centerbacks. And I guess that's Tata's only move. Morgan, did you like what you saw from at least the starting lineup without Messi and Busquets there? Is there anything else you would have liked to see Tata do? Or does that make sense, what we saw? Other than maybe Benha for David Ruiz, that's kind of my only thing. I thought Benha probably could have start this one. But he's really easing Benha into this. I think he sees Benha is really important. He's not trying to go crazy with him. And he's given other people opportunities because Benha has kind of solidified himself. But is there any other kind of changes you would have liked to see? Or do you think it went well enough and you were comfortable? I think it was exactly the starting 11. I was expecting, you know, Messi, Busquets, Yedlin. They all need a dresser. He pleased off, didn't even travel for this match. He went home after Cincinnati, you know. So I think it's kind of making the best out of what you had. And it worked well. You know, I kind of disagree with you. I liked having David Ruiz on because Diego Gomez was then being given the freedom to be like, all right, you can go forward. You can attack. You can run into space. And at times he was playing as more of a right winger than he was. He mostly played as a right winger, to be honest. You know, so you need that more defensive midfielder to sit in the middle with Arroyo in that case. And, you know, I love Ben how Ben has my son. You know, if I was more gorgeous, but he doesn't provide that same thing. And especially when you have Gomez going forward, you then need a midfielder who's going to sit back a little bit more. And that's David Ruiz. And David Ruiz is the type that, you know, doesn't care if he needs to break somebody's legs. You know, he's going to go out and do it. I think David Ruiz defensively is fine. But I do think we need to have a conversation about when he's on the ball. Takes way too long. I tweeted last game that it's gives me flashbacks of Rodolfo Pizarro because he does not pass. He waits for the defenders to get two yards away from him so they can stick a foot out and get tackled. He does this thing where he dribbles into space magnificently. He starts the transitional offense. He starts the break. He's got players around him. The numbers are going forward into the box. And boom, I'm going to crash. So frustrating. It's so frustrating. It is so frustrating. He's not an eight. Sure, he's not a type of player that literally should receive the ball from the center back and then dish it to an eight. Then he doesn't fit in. Then if that's the case, and I don't think I disagree with you, he's not that box to box kind of guy. He had no business playing in a 5-2-3, I guess, with a double pivot in midfield in front of five defenders alongside Dixon Arroyo, who is also not going to be that kind of guy to start a break. That's kind of where I go. But yeah, that's the issue, is if you play him alongside a Sergio Busquets who can start that break, or Gregory, or Jean Mota, then yes, he works perfectly. But if you play him alongside an Arroyo who's the same as him, they're both sixes, they're ideally want to only have to take one touch on the ball, and that's it. And they don't want to have to make that progressive pass. A six plays it literally center back six, six to eight, that's it. When you're asking them to play as this box to box midfielder as an eight, they're now expected to either make that progressive pass or make that progressive run. And I don't think David Ruiz is that polished just yet. If he does try to mold his game into that, I'm all for it. But I thought it did hinder Miami a little bit in this match. Jean, you agree? Yeah, I agree. And I think it was especially tough. Obviously, we didn't have Messi's playmaking. On top of that, for the majority of the game, we didn't have Koremaski. That would have helped a lot in that position to be able to get the ball and make the right play. So to Travis's point, you've got two guys, their basically sole job is to recover the ball and get rid of it as soon as they can. And they didn't have the person that they should give it to. And again, Boosie or Messi or Koremaski, and especially with Gomez playing basically forward the entire time, there was a huge gap between those two and how the heck do you get the ball up from there? I think that Ruiz is young enough to still be able to develop that part of his game. Right now, no. But other than that, I thought he was solid. Again, to your point, on defense, he was doing a really good job. Yeah, I think he's not an exceptional defender, but I think he understands the position very well. He gets stuck in, as Morgan mentioned, like he really does try to put in a tackle and will crush you. And he's not afraid to do that. And no team is upset about having that. Especially Inter Miami, who's used to midfielder yellow cards. That's been a staple since year one. But I want to transition back to the Lionel Messi conversation and kind of bring it around to he doesn't play 60 minutes and Miami looks comfortable. I didn't think that, again, and we said this in the beginning of the show, I didn't think that Red Bulls really were the pressuring team that we thought they were going to be right out of the gate. They said they wouldn't shy away from their normal tactics before the match. And it felt like they had their foot off the gas just a little bit, even without Messi off the field. It felt like there were times where they kind of were a little bit more cautious and conservative when game planning for this. And I think that those first 60 minutes after Diego Gomez gets the goal, it opened up the game a little bit, and it was a little bit more of end to end football. But at the end of the day, Drake wasn't doing that much in the first half and leading up the 60th minute. He ended up starting to make some saves, but in reality wasn't really tested. I think Red Bulls only finished with three or four shots on target, and most of those came in the second half. And then Lionel Messi comes on and Miami look even more comfortable. I don't think that there has been a time in inter Miami's history since I've watched. I've watched every single game of this club since the beginning. I've never missed a match. I have never been comfortable with a one nil lead. Never in my life have I watched into Miami and been comfortable with a one nil lead until at least in MLS. I'm not going to talk about league stuff, at least in MLS. And then Messi gets subbed on, Busquets gets subbed on, Yedlin gets subbed on, and I see this strikerless 3-4-3 formation, especially when Farias comes off and Robby Robinson comes on and Benha comes on later on too. I was so, like, relaxed in the fact that, oh, Miami can, not only were they controlling the possession, they were controlling possession on the opposition's half of the field. It wasn't like they were passing it around the back, wasting time. No, they were passing it in between lines and spaces that were picking apart the Red Bull defense and midfield. And I thought that that was really intriguing, and it has to do with Messi's effect on the game. I really want to know what you guys think and the differences that you saw between the first 60 minutes and the last 30 with Lionel Messi and Sergio Busquets on the pitch. Like, the difference is, not only did they, you know, there was no difference in terms of the scoring. They both scored one time, with and without. But in terms of the style and the play, what changed for you? What do you think that now seeing before and after Messi with a full potential roster, because in the Cruz Azul game, none of these guys were here. The U-22s weren't here. Busquets wasn't here. And so Messi came on and completely dominated. But now he has a full team at his disposal. Before and after the substitution, what were the key differences that you saw, and why in Miami are really going to rely on Messi going forward? I think that I'm going to disagree. You and me tend to disagree sometimes, which is funny. But I gotta say, I disagree with, or maybe not disagree. I feel differently than, you know, you stated that you felt kind of at peace having that 1-0 lead. And I didn't, because I've seen the last few games where Miami will have a lead, and their lines, they kind of reverse their lines. They get closer and more compact on their side of the field. They give up a bit more possession than they're used to giving up. And we just start seeing a ton of attacks. And even if some of them don't necessarily end up being too dangerous, it's put us in trouble before, I think, where games end up being a lot closer than they need to. They end up with games where we, it looks like we're basically have the game in hand and the opponent ties it. So that's something that has given us trouble in the past. And I'm not a fan of that type of soccer. To me, when you get defensive and you've got attack after attack after attack, one's got to go in at some point. And it's happened to us in the past. So that one necessarily wasn't the point or what happened here. But I just, I guess, I don't know if it's PTSD or what, off of seeing what's happened to us in the past that I just, you know, when those substitutions were made and we took out, you know, we took out Farias, we took out, we put Messi up top by himself. That gave, we started giving that New York more possession at that point. And again, yeah, there was, they had some chances, maybe not too dangerous here or there, but I was just like, oh no, not again. Like, not again. It didn't, it didn't feel like those, those games to me, like from minute 45 to minute 60. Sure. I get it. And I was trying to look at the, the, the shot differences between the, you know, those, those minutes and where they were coming from. And there was, it was pretty even between, I think there were about six shots in the second half for, for Red Bulls. And I think it was like four from inside the box, three from outside. That's actually seven. That's simple arithmetic. Awesome, Jesus. I thought that, and I do agree, Gian, actually, with you in terms of the past experiences with this one nil lead. And I do agree that this team has struggled from time to time having secure, securing that really. But once the second half started and after those couple of chances were flurried away and the substitutions came. And like I said, with that formation kind of adjustment with Messi kind of playing as like a, I don't even know what to call it. He was just in the middle alongside Benha and Farias and the midfield of, of Arroyo, Ruiz. Then you had Jordi Abba, D'Andre Yedlin. All of that was combining, or Busquets, sorry. Instead of that, Ruiz. All of that was combining so well for me. And I thought that the passes that were, they were stringing together were a different Miami side than what we saw in the first, you know, 60 minutes. And that's why I felt comfortable. Yeah. But so I never felt threatened by New York, even because New York is a team that doesn't one chance for them that they should have been one new early on. That was it. Yeah. So I didn't feel necessarily threatened by them too much in the sense of like they're a team that doesn't score a lot of goals. They're not an overly attacking team. They average a bit over one goal a game, at least over the last 10 games. So I wasn't afraid in that sense. Like, oh man, it's going to come any moment. I guess what I was uncomfortable with, and that's more of it, not threatened, but more uncomfortable with was don't give them any life. Like I don't, I don't think that they're going to score on us, but just don't do that. Continue attacking, continue maintaining possession of the ball. Don't give them that much possession. I guess that that's kind of what I didn't like. But other than that, I was never, I was never really afraid that they were going to come. I was just like, just don't even give them the opportunity in that philosophy. Then would you have liked to see Joseph Martinez get subbed on because they played without a striker for 30 minutes? Yeah. I think I would have liked to find out for, for, for Joseph. I would have liked maybe if maybe Taylor didn't come out and you moved Taylor up and figured maybe, maybe I've done that. But I think also Robbie Robinson being inserted a little bit more towards the end, kind of added a little more of a, of an element of attack that maybe kind of put their defense on their toes, you know? So all in all, I think that's two completely different game plans from first half to second half. First half they were maintaining the ball. They had, they basically had, we basically had three up front Ruiz, Messi and Gomez, which was surprising to see him in that role. I really actually really liked it because that's one of his strengths is going forward. And obviously we saw his first goal. So I love that. And then just a big transition to what we saw in the second half, which was again, just playing with no forwards was kind of weird to me. But at the end of the day, it ended up working and Messi, Messi does what he does and just calms the game down with that last moment goal and, and put it away for us. Yeah. That's a good way to put it. I feel like Messi calmed the game down because especially after that first goal that Gomez scored, like I said earlier, it did open up a little bit. And it did, you did see, you know, chances going back and forth. Nothing really too threatening. You saw, I believe Omer Fernandez missed a really clear chance. They probably could have had one note before that goal. But other than that, it didn't really seem like they were breaking through Miami's defense, not until the second half, only one save for Drake calendar in the first half, three in the second. And I was after the substitutions. And it was just because really Red Bulls had to get after the game to try and salvage a result. That's kind of what it comes down to. That makes sense because when teams have to chase games, they're going to be more open. They're going to try and get forward more and, and, you know, force the issue on the opposition, which is into Miami in this scenario. And it does get a little bit worrisome. And if you want to attack fire with fire, and that's your philosophy, then yeah, I definitely understand where you're coming from. But I think, you know, putting up having the luxury of putting players like Lionel Messi and Sergio Busquets on even Deandre Yedlin. Yeah. Having them come on at that time of the game where a team is now forced to really try and go get a goal and you can use that to your advantage and your calmness and your tranquility on the ball. I think that that really works to Tata Martino's advantage tonight. Morgan, I wanted to ask you, you know, going into the Nashville game, how do you see the rotations lining up here? I mean, they've got now Sunday, Monday and Tuesday off. Wow. They get a three day break instead of a two day break going into the next match. Isn't that such a blessing? Do you expect any other rotations? Or how do you see that starting lineup under Tata Martino going out at home and driving stadium, especially for the league's cup trophy celebration? I think we go back to the 433 that we ran so often during league's cup. Now, maybe Robbie Taylor goes to the bench in favor of Facundo Farias. But, you know, I think in that match, Miami is going to go for it. You know, they're going to say we're presenting the league's cup trophy to the home fans. We are playing a team that's going to have a chip on their shoulder. That's going to say we just lost to you guys and lost a trophy to you guys and watch you celebrate on our home field. Oh, what? 10 days before that. So this is a match that I think Miami is going to go full fledged in. They're going to say, all right, everybody's starting. And, you know, maybe especially because, you know, we then don't play again until Sunday. You know, we have that extra day of the week after, you know, another three days fun. But, you know, I do think that they turn around and they go all in for that match because it's such an important match for the home fans. You know, whenever you lift a trophy in front of your home fans, you then want to give them a show afterwards. Yeah, absolutely. And it's important because, you know, we also talked about it on the Potter this week about where Miami stand in the playoff race and what they really need to do. First things first, you got to take care of the home games and MLS. And they're now getting to play their first home MLS game with Lionel Messi on the roster against the Nashville side that proved to be really tough to break down. That's where I see the issue being. And I think Nashville, more than ever, are going to be really inclined to play their game strongly against the side, as Morgan just mentioned, that, you know, just beat them for a trophy. So, Gian, does it make sense to go back to a full-fledged, you know, full-powerful starting 11 for Tata Martino? Or are there some other adjustments that you think you can sacrifice at the, you know, in the hopes that you can get some more rest going into the LAFC game, which might prove to be a little bit tougher away from home, the time difference, the travel, four-day break, all of that? I do think that, to Traveler's point, it's going to be a statement game. You know, what happened in the league scope was not a fluke. This is a top team. And we want to show out with the trophy in hand for the fans. So I think that's, again, to Trav's point, that's probably what they're going to want to do. But at the same time, you said it, four days later, you got a game in LA against a very tough team. So how the heck do you find a balance between what Traveler said and we got this game four days from now? So I don't know. I do agree. I think we go back to a 4-3-3, which is something that worked very well for us, very well for us. But then I do think that, I don't know, maybe depending on how the game pans out, maybe some of your substitutions, I think, are going to be key to make sure that you're able to not put so many minutes on your players. So I would say probably Faria starts, I think. I mean, he needs minutes under his belt to continue to gel with this team. We know that Taylor has already gelled with this team. Rest him if you can. And then on the right side, I think you start Campana. Keep his momentum going. He's done so well. He didn't score this game, but he has some really good opportunities. And really quickly, because you know I love Campana, I think Campana is always, I mean, if he doesn't score, his almost goals are beautiful as well. But I think you start Campana, obviously Messi, Bussi and Alba, but depending on how the game plays out, you try to sub them out sometime in the second half. But you've got to monitor minutes. That's important. With the amount of games that we're going to be having, and again, LAFC four days later, it's going to be important to find a really good balance between a statement game in front of the fans, but you've got to prepare for another MLS game real soon. Well, and the question would be, what's a more important match when it comes down to it? You are directly chasing Nashville for one of these playoff spots. LAFC, sure, it can be seen as basically three points if you win. And it's a big three points because it's against a non-conference opponent. And it's a bigger deal if you lose to them, because then you give your conference opponents more time to catch up to you. But every match against an Eastern Conference opponent from today forward is a six point match for Miami. You're not only gaining three points, you're stealing three points from another Eastern Conference foe that you are going toe to toe with for one of the playoff spots. LAFC is probably, and Gianna, I didn't answer your question very formidably in the last show, but we talked about what games can you look at and say that maybe you don't really go for it in this one. Looking at it, LAFC makes the most sense because it is an away game. You have a lot of travel to deal with, and you are playing against a non-conference opponent. I think that makes the most sense, especially because you're coming into a Nashville game on Wednesday that's at home on a three day break. So I think to answer your question over 24 hours later, that LAFC game is probably the one that I would say is more of a write-off than the other 10 games for the rest of the season. I agree with that. Definitely. You guys both made a good point. You want to focus on that Nashville game, but I will say there's no way these guys are chalking that game off as an L. No, they won't. They won't. And that's the thing. They won't do that with any match. I think Tata Martino proved that tonight by putting Messi on and warming him up in the 50th minute and putting him on the 60th. I think that it was not necessarily a shock to see Lionel Messi start warming up, but with the game at 1-0, and again, Red Bulls not threatening as much as you thought they were going to, I was convinced at some point that Messi wasn't going to play. I really thought that he wasn't going to play. I thought Busquets wasn't going to play, and they were just going to rest him for the entire match and see it through. They didn't. They came on. They sealed the deal, and I think that'll be a common theme throughout the rest of league play as we play the next 11, a point that Zahm and also, I believe, Daschust made. Nashville lost tonight 4-0 to Atlanta, and it was by way of some Thiago Almada just class. He put them up in the first two goals beautifully. He assisted with an outstanding cross all the way across the field, very similar to what Lionel Messi did with Leonardo Campana, except the finish was even greater. It was like a swinging side volley. I don't even know how to explain it. Really good, and then the second goal, he does well to score, so I think that that game is something that Miami will look at. Obviously, they'll look back at the League's Cup Final and look at that game as well to say, hey, how can we attack this Nashville game so we're a little bit more comfortable going forward? Gian, I know you have to get out of here shortly. Any final thoughts and words to everybody watching right now? This is just a continuation for us of what we've seen with Messi so far and seen with the team. It's just beautiful to see that we're building off of not only the three vets, but we're building off of the young guys, so it's exciting for me to see them kind of just flourish within Inter-Miami, and I think that we've got a lot of wins and interesting games ahead of us through a packed schedule, so I just hope you guys stick with us through the rest of it. We've got a lot of stuff coming up for you guys as far as content, but again, just a great game tonight, a different type of game, one that we just weren't used to, and it's just nice to see something different where we've just been so used to what we've seen throughout League's Cup and that sort of thing. It just shows Miami can win in completely different ways, right? So just something great. So with that, I'll leave you guys and I'll catch you guys on the next episode. All right, Gian. Thank you very much. Yeah, that's a really good point, by the way, that Miami have proved to win in different ways. They can win the tough ones. They can win the ones where it's 1-1 going into extra time or penalties, whatever it is. They can win the ones where they thrash aside like Charlotte or Atlanta 4-0 or even Orlando at 3-1. They can also win the comfortable but not flashy ones at a 1-0, 2-0 kind of game against Red Bulls. Trav, how much confidence do you have right now? Because I really, after this match, like I said earlier, I wasn't necessarily down running to Miami in terms of League play, but I thought League play would be tough. I really did think that this Red Bull game would be tough for Miami, especially with considering the break that they've had or the lack thereof and kind of Red Bull style and how they forced the issue. They're traveling away from home. I don't know if they ever even came back to South Florida after the Cincinnati game. I think they stayed away and traveled all day Thursday, and then they didn't train until last night. They didn't train until Friday night before the game, and that's when I guess the entire messy decision was made. After watching that, it's not a great Red Bull side, but after watching that and looking at the other Eastern Conference teams that they play, they play Charlotte twice, they still have to play Toronto, they play NYCFC, all these teams, and even Chicago. They play Chicago, who's in ninth place. All these teams at the bottom half of the conference make up the most of their games. Am I right to be confident in that Miami can actually get the job done and make playoffs? I would be. I thought that the Red Bulls were going to give us a little bit tougher of a test. They're a high-pressing, high-pressure type side, but Miami never really felt that pressure. I was a little worried heading into this match knowing that Messi and Busquets were both going to be resting, and especially because Miami wasn't all that convincing in Nashville or Cincinnati. Coming into this match, seeing Miami play without Messi and Busquets, yeah, I'm a lot more confident than I was before because if they can do that without Messi and without Busquets on the field, they're going to be fine going against sides that are even lower, like a Toronto or even like a Charlotte. I don't know where they are in the rankings. I assume they're near the bottom because it's Charlotte. Somewhere between 9 and 13. That's what I'll tell you. I think that as Miami plays these teams that are arguably not as good as the two teams that did expose them in Cincinnati and Nashville, I think they're going to be fine, whether it's with or without Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets, and Jordy Alba, and more. Yeah, so one thing to note is that, and we mentioned it earlier on, one thing to note is that Lionel Messi will likely not be playing in the September 9th game against Sporting Kansas City, which is, if I'm not mistaken, the direct game after the LFC game this Sunday. It's the first time they'll actually get a week-long break. They have five days in between, Monday to Friday, in between those two games. And that Sporting Kansas City game is at home, and they'll probably lose Messi to Argentinian national duty, where they take on, I know, Ecuador, at least in their Argentinian World Cup qualifiers, which is upsetting for myself as an Ecuadorian that that has to be the first match, because the only way Ecuador ever qualifies for World's Cups is by starting off qualifier strong. And this one just seems like it's going to be tough to do. But yeah, I don't expect Messi against Sporting Kansas City. I don't know what to expect for the LFC game and what Tata Martino will do in terms of rest, but I think that those are the two games in the Western Conference that you don't necessarily have to worry about as much as you do with the other Eastern Conference games. I think that if there is some room for error, and which there is, it's very minimal, but there is. They've got 11 games left. They need about 23 points-ish to hit that threshold to break into that top nine, at least on average over the past three seasons. Then I think that you see a team that goes against Western Conference opponents in the East and say, yeah, maybe this isn't necessarily the one, especially with Messi not in the Kansas City. Now, if they do get a result at home against Kansas City, my word, is that a bonus, right? And the same thing with LAFC. If Lionel Messi is to be used as a substitute or rested and whatnot, depends what happens against Nashville. The whole narrative can change depending on what happens on Wednesday. But I do think Wednesday is a game they absolutely go for. I think Wednesday is a game that you have to go for in front of your fans against a team that you played in the League's Cup final and that you'll be presenting the trophy in front of. I don't know if LAFC is the one. I don't know if supporting Kansas City is the one. And then the week after that, you're playing Atlanta United away from home, who's a direct Eastern Conference opponent. So that is where I think we line up going into September 16th and how Tata Martino has to approach this is kind of tricky. And some sacrifices may have to be made, but they are going to be sacrifices that, yes, have risk, but also extremely high consideration for what has to be done. They have to manage this almost perfectly if they want to make the playoffs. Eight games in 11 is the minimum, I believe, that they're really going to have to win. Draws almost do you no good unless they draw off three and win the other eight. But a minimum of 24 points is what Miami is going to need. And even with that, it's still possible that they need other teams ahead of them to drop some games outside of the ones that they're directly playing. So we'll see how that goes. For everybody watching again, thank you very much. Inter Miami took on New York Red Bulls away from home at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey, and came out with a 2-0 victory. And we'll see what the rest of the MLS season has in store. It's extremely exciting, especially after this 2-0 win. But Lionel Messi gets on the score sheet. He opens his MLS account in his first ever match in MLS. And this was actually done in Times Square as well. It was right on the billboards. I'm sure everybody saw, which is insane to me. But again, everybody, thank you so much for watching. If you haven't already, subscribe to the YouTube channel, Five Reasons Sports Network. It's at the link below. You can turn on the notifications to get notified every single time we go live. We're doing every postgame. And we have our episodes being uploaded to YouTube as well. As for those episodes, look for the Messi & Co podcast on your preferred podcast platform. Just type in Messi in the search bar. 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