Lionel Messi wins a record 46th trophy – because Inter Miami was great with and without him

Inter Miami secured the Major League Soccer regular season title on Wednesday, and of course the main reason for their supremacy was and is Lionel Messi.

Messi has taken Miami from “a team that has consistently lost for years,” as head coach Tata Martino recently said, to a “team that consistently wins” and perhaps the best MLS team of all time.

He helped beat the Columbus Crew, the reigning MLS champions, from nowhere with two goals on Wednesday. The first unleashed a tight, turbulent game. The second, a trademark free kick five minutes later, stunned the team and left the sell-out crowd in awe.

“He had one and a half chances,” Crew coach Wilfried Nancy later said, “and he scored two goals.”

They were Messi’s 16th and 17th goals of the MLS season – in his 17th game. They left the league’s best defense dazed. They led Miami to a 3-2 victory and a 10-point lead at the top of the league – a gap that neither the Crew, FC Cincinnati nor the LA Galaxy can close in the final two weeks of the season.

Miami therefore won the Supporters’ Shield, the trophy that goes to the best team in the MLS regular season. It’s not the league’s top prize – that’s the MLS Cup, which goes to the winner of the playoffs. But it’s still a price.

It is also Messi’s second trophy in Miami and the 46th of his unprecedented career – more than any other player in professional football history has ever won.

Ironically, this is the only trophy in 2024 that Inter were not favorites to win. Before the season, only two of 14 experts polled on the league’s official website chose Miami to win.

Their reasoning was simple and understandable: Messi would probably miss a dozen games. His former Barcelona teammates – and Luis Suarez in particular – would also get enough rest. They would preserve their aging legs for the playoffs, which they would undoubtedly make. The regular season felt secondary and the Shield seemed unfeasible.

What those predictions didn’t take into account is that Miami had built and attracted Messi a team that could win without him.

In fact, the Herons have scored more points per MLS game this season without their legend (2.13) than with him (2.11).

They are, to be clear, much better with Messi. Their goal difference is 15 goals worse in games he didn’t play. Their expected goal difference without Messi is negative.

But they kept missing victories because Messi was missing. While the GOAT took part in the Copa América with the Argentine national team and then missed the final due to an ankle injury, they won eight of nine games – six of them with identical 2-1 results. In September, Messi returned after a three-month absence to a team that was seven points clear of the chasing pack.

Miami was clear in part because athletic director Chris Henderson and his staff conjured up salary cap space. They added more than a dozen new players between July 2023 and July 2024. They surrounded Messi, Suárez, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba with Federico Redondo, Diego Gómez, Tomás Avilés, Julian Gressel and others.

And they retained goalkeeper Drake Callender, who secured the win with a penalty kick in the 83rd minute of Wednesday’s wild game.

Messi scored two goals just before half-time. Columbus scored shortly after halftime. Suarez scored two minutes later.

Crew forward Cucho Hernandez then scored a penalty in the 61st minute to cut the lead to 3-2. A few minutes later, Columbus was down to 10 men – but Miami still couldn’t contain them. Before and after Callender’s penalty save, the crew threatened. A shaky Miami defense faltered.

But Inter persevered and secured first place in the Eastern Conference and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.