Gianni Infantino took centre stage from Lionel Messi and his celebrating Inter Miami team-mates last October to make the surprise announcement that he had adjusted the Club World Cup qualification to accommodate the MLS franchise in its group stage.
Eight months later, Messi and his fellow Barcelona veterans in pink shirts – Sergio Busquets, Luis Suárez, Jordi Alba – found themselves on the end of four first-half goals from Europe’s leading team, in a last-16 Club World Cup tie that was over almost as soon as it began. Beaten 4-0, Inter Miami are out, the last MLS representatives in this home Club World Cup and however far behind Paris St-Germain they might have been in Atlanta, they have served their purpose for Infantino.
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The Fifa president needed the star quality of Messi given that there was an absence of some of Europe’s best-supported teams in the competition, including the actual Barcelona, as well as Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United. Although even Infantino would have struggled to find a reason to include the latter. A US tournament without Messi would have been a difficult sell to an American public that has shown itself occasionally indifferent to the big overseas clubs who have arrived to play in the height of summer.
It was clear from Cristiano Ronaldo’s remarks from Saudi Arabia that he, too, was dangled the opportunity of playing for a Club World Cup team but preferred to keep himself fresh for next summer’s real World Cup. Infantino’s willingness to turn it into an invitational demonstrated the requirement for big names.
Gianni Infantino watched Inter Miami, whose participation he had ensured, get knocked out – Getty Images/Michael Reaves
The problem with shoe-horning in Messi and Inter Miami, was that it was destined to show the US just how far its own club sides are behind those of Europe and South America. Asked how the gap might be closed, Miami coach Javier Mascherano, another Barcelona veteran, passed on the question. “People involved in MLS know better than me what they have to do to progress in the league and be competitive,” he said.
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Miami did at least hold their own in the group stages with a win over Porto and draws with Palmeiras and Al-Ahly of Egypt. PSG are a very different prospect. Having racked up a record margin of victory for any Champions League final – or its European Cup predecessor – over Inter Milan this month, that was always going to be a risk. Mascherano called the first half “a bloodbath”.
Messi is surrounded by PSG defenders on a night when Inter Miami struggled to make an impression – Getty Images/Jonathan Moscrop
There could have been many more in the second half, but PSG relented notably and Luis Enrique substituted some of his biggest names. Goalscorers João Neves and Achraf Hakimi came off as well as captain Marquinhos, midfielder Fabián Ruiz and star left-back Nuno Mendes. The pundits on DAZN, the streaming service that is providing free coverage in the US, did their best to talk up the efforts of Messi and his team-mates in the second half, but the frustration of Suárez told its own story.
Not for the first time in his career Luis Suárez failed to mask his frustration – Getty Images/Sandra Montanez
Infantino had used Miami’s victory in the Supporters’ Shield element of the MLS season to justify their inclusion – they finished top of the league table. Nevertheless, the champions of MLS are the MLS Cup winners and that was LA Galaxy, after Miami went out in the play-offs first round to Atlanta United. LA Galaxy did not compete at the Club World Cup but then neither did the champions of England, Spain or Italy.
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The mistakes from Miami that helped PSG race into a commanding lead in Atlanta showed that many MLS sides have to balance the European or South American stars in their sides with relative inexperience elsewhere. Poker-faced as ever, Messi did what he could. He had a promising free-kick towards the end of the game but, after much dramatic anticipation, it was struck into the defensive wall. He had a header saved in the second half and there was a fine flick into the path of Suárez, which he mis-controlled.
Messi will have to wait longer for his rest. Miami are scheduled to be in Canada on Saturday for a game against strugglers Montreal. His club are sixth in the MLS Eastern Conference but have now played as many as four fewer games as some sides in the division. As things stand the Miami regular season does not conclude until October 18. Come next summer, back in the US, Messi will lead Argentina in their defence of the World Cup – a competition that will figure much larger in his mind than the one from which he and his Miami team-mates have just been eliminated.
