Galaxy still alive

At my office we are doing a small pot on the League Cup. Eight of us drew a random team of the eight left in the quarterfinals and in the end the winner get the pot if your draw wins the tournament. Happy to say that I am still in the competition as I drew LA Galaxy, who defeated the current Mexican champions of Toluca 2-1, with the new signing Marco Reus scoring his first goal for the Californians. 

It was all in all a dreadful day for the Mexican sides, who were all eliminated. I watched Inter Miami eliminate Tigres of UANL 2-1. Luis Suarez´s scored both Miami goals on penalty kicks, both called for handball. I personally think they were both very weak calls, specially the second penalty, which came at the end of the match when Tigres were dominating following Angel Correa´s equaliser for the Monterrey side. Not that it was undeserved that Miami won; they had a good first half, but with Tigres´strong second half the match could have gone to either side, and it is a pity it is decided on a penalty kick that should not have been given as it was not a danger situation and the ball hit the player´s arm in a random situation. But in VAR times any handball is defensible, no matter the intention or situation. 

I guess now to support LA Galaxy, who will face Seattle Sounders!

Results in a strange tournament

The 2025 League Cup is happening, and I have been watching some of the matches in a strange tournament that officially is a "friendly" tournament, but the winner qualifies for the CONCACAF Champions Cup, also despite the fact that the tournament is not sponsored by CONCACAF.

The tournament started in 2019 as a confrontation between the MLS and the Liga MX. 18 teams from each league participate and only play teams from the other league, three matches, with three points for a win, two points for a win on penalty kicks (it goes straight to penalty kicks if it ends in a tie), and one point for a tie (so you keep it if you lose on penalty kicks). The top eight teams, four from each league, then progress to play-off quarterfinals.

Yesterday the league stage ended with two top teams, firstly the Mexican champions from Toluca, and secondly Seattle Sounders, who won three straight matches, one a 7-0 destruction of the CONCACAF Champions Cup winners Cruz Azul. Besides Toluca, Pachuca and Tigres the Mexican sides have appeared very weak indeed; mighty America only managed three ties against Real Salt Lake, Minnesota United and Portland Timbers, while other sides than Cruz Azul also suffered big defeats to MLS sides such as Necaxa, Atlas and Santo Laguna. Regarding the latter I watched their 0-4 defeat against an LA Galaxy side with the German veteran star Marco Reus in midfield, and frankly 0-4 was too little in a match where Santos Laguna looked more like a Danish 3rd division side, and on top of that got two well-deserved red cards.

What Santos Laguna showed was perhaps the worst side of Mexican football.

While MLS sides did well overall, there was not much difference between the top four teams, amongst which Messi's Inter Miami ended on second place. In their last match they also proved better than the Mexico City side Pumas UNAM, who may have gone ahead, but then were vastly outplayed by a Miami side with Luis Suarez and Rodrigo de Paul as goalscorers and architects of the goals. I must admit that I have had reserves against Miami, but this was one of the best matches I have seen them play, and are really worth following.

The quarterfinals are in a couple of weeks, and fully replace the league matches in both leagues. All this said, it is more a comparative tournament between two leagues, perhaps more valuable for MLS to show the significant advances that the league is going through. 

The World Cup underway

The Club World Cup is well underway in the USA. I have not been able to follow sufficiently, just seeing highlights, and watched the 1-1 between Real Madrid and Al Hilal and last night’s surprising and happy 2-1 victory of Inter Miami over FC Porto, with a victory goal by Lionel Messi on one of his signature free-kick goals. 

The idea of a Club World Cup is good; club football is much better than the national team football that suffers from excessive nationalism, while seeing how clubs across continents do against one another at the highest level has been something we have been waiting for, and which has been refreshing. Besides Bayern Munich’s 10-0 thrashing of Auckland, the level has been quite high and European sides have not been able to dominate as expected, and last night Europe’s best side, Paris St. Germain, lost 0-1 to Brazil’s Botafogo in yet another upset for European arrogance. 

All this said, the tournament also has problems: the opaque qualification process and playing times to fit TV viewing, but not the health of the players, who are playing in excessively hot weather (also, coming at the end of the season for many teams, the players arrive tired at the tournament). Also, we see the tournament take place in a non-footballing country where stadiums have been only half-full for many matches, and only many of the Latin American fans create anything that feel like a passionate atmosphere.

All this said the tournament appears here to stay, and I hope that FIFA will think about this tournament not only as a money machine, but also as a new scenario to get the best clubs to face one another. 

I hope.

Concacaf Champions Cup semifinals

My favourite Mexican side, Cruz Azul, are in the final of the CONCACAF Champions club for the first time since 2014. The match that took them to the final was a 1-0 victory in a nervous and tactical match against the Tigres of UANL, winning on a late handball penalty (quite harsh) scored by Angel Sepulveda (the top scorer of the tournament). 

Great for a club whom success often eluded (but I bring good luck), although the final will not be easy. They will face the MLS side Vancouver Whitecaps, who already eliminated the Pumas of UNAM in the quarterfinals, and basically destroyed Lionel Messi's Inter Miami in the semifinals with a total of 5-1 (underlining that a football team is not made by stars and names). The Vancouver side is managed by the ex-Brøndby and Silkeborg Manager, Jesper Sørensen, who is looking for the Canadian side's first continental title (it would indeed be the first for a Canadian side, and the fourth for an MLS side, in the sad case that they win).

The final will be on June 1st in Los Angeles.

An evening in Miami

I was in Florida this weekend and took advantage to go watch some football: Inter Miami against FC Nashville.

It was a strange experience in a Chase stadium, a temporary ground that is situated exactly at the spot where the Ft. Lauderdale strikers used to play. In fact, I find it a bit strange that they do not want to dwell into the history of a club that in the 1970s also had some of the world's best players in a league and club that are now defunct...

But I guess Inter Miami wants to create its own history, and there is no doubt whatsoever that Lionel Messi is central to that history. That may be correct at this time of social media and individual focus in a country where football remains largely unknown, but I think it is also risky, as the vast majority of people were not there to watch football, but to see Lionel Messi, the legend, and in a match that was not very good or well-played, Messi delivered with two goals (one a rebound after an excellent play and one on a penalty) and one assist (a studied situation in a corner kick that Sergio Busquets scored on), but otherwise didn't seem to have to make much of an effort.

In my view it is risky because when Messi is gone, one has to wonder what will be left of a full stadium full of Messi shirt, specially if the rest of the team cannot deliver on the much-sought after entertainment.

That said, I had fun, so no doubt that they delivered on that!

Cheers!

First title for MiaMessi

Messi has been extraordinary at Inter Miami, contributing to bring a club that had never won anything to new heights. He has scored 10 goals in seven matches, and now Miami has taken its first title as they won the North American Leagues Cup against Nashville FC in the final. Messi scored a spectacular goal in the final to bring Miami ahead, but Fafa Picault equalized for Nashville and the match went into a long-drawn penalty contest that Miami won 10-9.

This surely makes Miami one of the favourites for the MLS title. In a recent interview Messi said politely he was impressed about the level and that he and his family were very happy in Miami. This probably contributes to his high level of performance and the 37 years old Messi has shown that he is still a high level player, although one has to wonder if the level of the opposition is so different from Europe.

Miamessi

After his spell in PSG and recent announcement that he would leave, Leo Messi is now starting a new chapter in the MLS side Inter Miami. It is obvious that he had other offers, including from FC Barcelona, and millionaire sums from Saudi Arabia. However, Miami appears to be the obvious choice: the city is basically an extension of Latin America where his family can probably settle well, while the football club owned by David Beckham has ambitions in the MLS.

Inter Miami has not fulfilled its ambitions, and have been doing poorly lately. Only one week before the announcement of Messi arrival, the manager Phil Neville was sacked, and an Argentina Javi Morales (with a long career in MLS), was appointed manager. It would appear that with the arrival of Messi a new chapter is to be written into the Miami club's history.

Messi is already a legend, and signing such a legend is sure to bring money and attention to Inter Miami (apparently all season tickets were swiftly sold out), but it will be seen what impact Messi can have on a club that has struggled. Whatever happens, it will be interesting to see.