Miami edged Porto to pick up three points in the Club World Cup – and tactically, it required more than just Messi's heroics
So that Lionel Messi guy is still rather good, eh? Anyone who has watched MLS for the last two years or so could tell you that. There is still magic in those legs, even if they move a little slower and walk a lot more these days. And that free kick to bury Porto? Magic, the kind of stuff that he's been doing for years.
It's those moments, of course, that grab headlines and dominate social media. After all, that's the most clickable stuff – and to this point, the most memorable moment from the 2025 Club World Cup.
But delve a little deeper, and this was also a defining moment for manager Javier Mascherano. On Thursday, his side ditched dominance for pragmatism, picked control over chaos. And even though they were outshot by a good Porto side, the way that the Argentine set up his side gave Miami a 2-1 victory and three richly deserved points – and handed him his biggest moment in club management.
GOAL analyzes Inter Miami's win over Porto, and why it was so much more than "give ball to Messi."
Getty Images SportBenjamin Cremaschi, everywhere
For a while, Benja Cremaschi's main problem was that he could do too much. The USMNT fringe player is a phenomenally active ball of energy, covering almost too much ground. Throw him into a team that needs to play positionally, occupy spaces, and slow the game down, and he looks a bit lost.
He is a rare South American footballer that looks so much better without the ball than with it. The issue is, that's not Miami's thing. They want controlled possession. And when it goes wrong, Yannick Bright is the guy charged with winning the ball back. But Bright is injured, which means Miami have a problem.
Mascherano's solution in an eventual 0-0 draw with Al Ahly in the Club World Cup opener was to use Federico Redondo. The Uruguayan is good with the ball and positionally smart, but badly lacks legs.
Porto, then, was a perfect forum for Cremaschi. Miami weren't going to be chasing shadows all evening, but they needed legs in midfield, especially against Porto's fluid 3-4-3 system. Cremaschi was the key to it all. He started, nominally, as a right midfieler, but switched into the center when needed.
A few minutes later, he was on the right again. And while Miami needed subs here and there, Cremaschi never stopped running. He finished the game with more tackles and interceptions than anyone else on the pitch. It was of little surprise.
On the ball, he was handy, too. The heat map suggests that Cremaschi had the majority of his touches on the right inside channel, basically receiving passes and dumping them off to Messi. But he also offered width on the right when needed, making all of the runs to stretch the defense for passes he knew would never come. So much about playing with Messi is dragging defenders out of the way so the Argentine can do his thing. Cremaschi's selflessness was vital.
AdvertisementGettyA defensive line, lower
It has been almost comical, at times, to see how high Javier Mascherano wants his defense to push up. A high defensive line is, objectively, very fun (just ask Hansi Flick's Barcelona.) But it relies on four crucial elements:
+ That your forwards know how to press (Miami's do not).
+ That your midfield is athletic (Miami's is not).
+ That your center-backs have legs (Miami's do not).
+ That your goalkeeper is athletic enough to routinely come off his line and bail your team out (Oscar Ustari is two years younger than his manager).
The result is a badly exposed defense that is always running towards its own goal. Throw in some hilarious individual decisions – Maxi Falcon is basically just a young David Luiz – and you have a paper-thin unit. Yet Mascherano has insisted that his team push up. This is fine against the lesser teams in MLS that Miami will thrash. Against a European power, though, it's folly.
So on Thursday, Miami bunkered in a bit. Their defense was markedly deeper than usual, and the pressure on the ball was lighter. Rather than forcing Porto into rash decisions, they squeezed all of the spaces – and challenged the Portuguese side's diminutive playmakers to make things happen.
Of course, some individual quality was on display, here and there. Porto still created chances. Samu was a real threat up front. But Miami, despite conceding 14 shots, allowed just three on target. One was a penalty. And although Falcon was called upon for a remarkable goal line clearance, the Herons were much sturdier from the opening kick.
AFPSergio Busquets stays static – and that's a good thing
There had been a lot of talk after Miami's opening game of the CWC about the state of Sergio Busquets' legs. This is nothing new. Busquets is not exactly youthful, and he has never been a great runner. But he was markedly poor against Al Ahly – and too often bypassed by a younger midfield.
The "football has left him" dialogue picked up quickly. Well, the dirty little secret about Busquets – that he never seems to get credit for – is that the Spaniard is unbelievably versatile. He is thought of, and quite rightly, as the archetype of the modern No. 6. But he can also play a bit of center-back, and operate a little higher up the pitch against possession-heavy teams.
Most of all, though, Busquets is very, very clever. Ask him to bunker in and defend, and he will do it with aplomb. Running into Busquets looks an awful lot like careening into a very spindly brick wall. There is not an ounce of fat on this man, and even at 36, he is a duel-winning expert.
And so it went against Porto. He won the third-most duels on the pitch, completed all but one of his tackles, and did the usual Sergio Busquets thing of getting away with countless fouls, avoiding bookings, and using minimal contact to get the referee to blow the whistle.
Perhaps most importantly, though: Busquets didn't really move. He sat just in front of Miami's back line, received the ball, swiveled his hips, and found a pass into Messi. He did that over and over again. No other Miami player had more touches, and no one else played more passes into the final third.
Messi often talks about how mastering the art of walking helped lengthen his career. Busquets' ability to stay relatively static actually carried Miami to a win.
Getty Images SportLionel Messi, magical
Argentina's World Cup winning side in 2022 all acknowledged, at various points, that their job was to fight all of Messi's battles, and then sort of get out of the way. It seems a bit silly in the abstract. There are some really good footballers there – why would you ask them to do menial stuff, all for one guy?
Well, when that one guy is the best to ever kick a ball, it makes a whole lot of sense. And indeed, the strategy of "Give Ball to Messi", or, more appropriately "Balon a Messi" is still a viable thing when pieced together correctly.
Turns out, ultimately, that's what worked for Miami against Porto. The thing about Messi these days is that he still has the ball a lot. While many aging players have fewer touches and prefer to operate in moments, Messi is ever pleasant, sometimes literally just staying warm with a five-yard pass here and there.
Such was the case on Thursday. Messi had the second most touches of any Miami player, but spent a lot of his time knocking the ball about, waiting for the right moment to strike. And of course, he made his mark. Telasco Segovia may have scored the equalizer with a wonderful finish, but Messi started the move with an angled ball down the right.
He created two chances, finished the game with more expected assists than any other player, and, of course, rounded it off with a free kick for the ages. If in doubt, give the ball to the lad in the No. 10 shirt.
