Lionel Messi’s dream of winning Inter Miami’s first CONCACAF Champions Cup title ended on Wednesday with the Vancouver Whitecaps reaching the final with a 3-1 win in south Florida earning it a 5-1 aggregate victory.
Lionel Messi stood in the middle
As his Inter Miami teammates stared in disbelief around him, Lionel Messi stood in the middle with his hands on his hips, straightened his long hair, and repositioned his captain’s armband.
While they waited for the Vancouver Whitecaps to complete celebrating their Concacaf Champions Cup run being knocked out, they had nothing else to do.
Vancouver defeated Lionel Messi and Inter Miami in the semifinals
In their second leg matchup at Chase Stadium on April 30, Vancouver defeated Messi and Inter Miami in the semifinals with a 3-1 victory, 5-1 aggregate score. Brian White and Pedro Vite scored goals in less than two minutes early in the second half, and Sebastian Berhalter added another goal after helping on the first two.
Vancouver leads the MLS Supporters’ Shield
With 23 points, Vancouver leads the MLS Supporters’ Shield and will face Cruz Azul or Tigres UANL in the Concacaf Champions Cup final on June 1. On May 1 (10 p.m. ET on FS2), the LIGA MX clubs will conclude their semifinal match, knotted at 1.
Conversely, following the team’s most heartbreaking defeat of the Messi era, Inter Miami coach Javier Mascherano needs to come up with a swift plan to salvage the 2025 campaign. On May 3 (7:30 p.m. ET on MLS Season Pass), they play their next game at home against the New York Red Bulls.
“You have to accept that they were better. They were much better than us. They are in the final and we aren’t. But if we want to compete, we need to improve and we need to learn from this situation,” Mascherano said after the defeat.
As if the 5-1 cumulative disaster wasn’t awful enough
As if the 5-1 cumulative disaster wasn’t awful enough, this game was the first time since Messi’s arrival in July 2023 that Inter Miami had suffered three consecutive losses across all competitions. During this time, Inter Miami has let up nine goals.
This is a drastic contrast to how they began the season undefeated in 14 consecutive games, including an eight-game winning streak, before falling 2-0 in the first leg of their semifinal match against Vancouver on April 24.
Messi, 37, wasn’t playing at his best in either of the games against Vancouver. When he assisted Luis Suarez in setting up Jordi Alba’s goal in the ninth minute to give Inter Miami some life in the semifinal, he seemed to display some magic. However, in his last four games, he has failed to score.
