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’ Defend and an MLS factors document, 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 rapidly realized the workforce might relaxation 37-year-old Messi when essential and nonetheless qualify for crucial 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 permits you to fail in sure video games — the knockout part of a continental league does not; it means you are out,” Mascherano mentioned 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 an extended season that finally boils all the way down to a continental cup the place knockout phases are the norm, and in the long run, you may’t fail.”
As Miami prepares for the Membership World Cup, which begins Saturday, the membership has been saving its greatest participant for when it actually wants him.
Successful as many video games as doable is not essential for a profitable season for an MLS workforce. It is about profitable the precise video games. The Membership World Cup, the Concacaf Champions Cup and the Leagues Cup are knockout video games by which Inter Miami makes certain to play Messi if they’ll. 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 an alternative, the U.S. league encompasses a playoff system by which the highest seven groups from two divisions on the finish of the common season instantly qualify for the postseason match.
Within the newly revised MLS guidelines, slots eight and 9 on every convention desk compete in a one-game sequence for the final spot within the playoffs. Every convention has 15 groups, which suggests greater than half of groups in MLS make the postseason.
Prior to now two years, groups that amassed 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 a variety of matches with out negatively impacting their probabilities to make playoffs, the primary bar to clear for achievement in MLS. Although Atlanta United stood because the final workforce to qualify to the postseason with a 10-10-14 (W-D-L) document in 2024, the workforce went on to get rid of Miami, the Jap Convention leaders and Supporters’ Defend 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’ Defend, however as soon as they qualify for the playoffs, something can occur.
In 2023, followers noticed Martino relaxation Messi for inconsequential matches, maintaining 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 accessible MLS regular-season matches not as a consequence of harm, however simply so he might relaxation.
Towards the top 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 essential rhythm for the first-round playoff sequence 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 mentioned earlier than the playoffs. “We have been in a position to full our two goals. One was to provide gamers some relaxation and in addition to win the sport due to what it means from a motivational standpoint to be in place to interrupt the factors document.”
And now, in 2025, the sample continues. Per ESPN Analysis, Messi has performed 73% of the accessible 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, taking part in one sport each three days in worldwide locations. The workforce rapidly transitioned from the offseason into two demanding competitions, forcing the membership to change the coaching schedule to accommodate the immense quantity of taking part in time. Though Mascherano insists that Messi is accustomed to taking part in 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 workforce had a schedule crunch: Vancouver in Canada on April 24, FC Dallas at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale on April 26 and at last the second-leg CCC match in opposition to the Whitecaps on April 30.
The workforce 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] sport [against Vancouver] properly. Clearly he was fatigued. Taking part in on artificial grass could make a participant much more fatigued as a result of flooring.”
Messi sat out the regular-season MLS match in opposition to Dallas totally. 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 mentioned after the Dallas match. “However he is good; he skilled in the present day, 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 workforce aimed to stop any kind of fatigue because the later levels of the worldwide match rapidly approached.
“Since we need to maintain him and we do not need to make him really feel fatigued, we determined to provide him relaxation, realizing the dangers we’re going through,” Mascherano mentioned to the media on March 6. “Clearly, not having the very best participant on the earth is sophisticated.”
At 37 years outdated, Messi has managed to adapt his method on the sphere and create a coaching regime off the sphere to maintain taking part in at a excessive degree. However as he mentioned himself final yr: “Relaxation is essential these days. As we become older, all the pieces is harder.”
“I do know that as quickly as I consider that I can now not carry out, or now not benefit from the sport, or am not in a position to assist my teammates, then I’ll cease,” Messi mentioned.
Relaxation and skipping fewer essential 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 might emerge then, too.
