Inter Miami had Lionel Messi and the most valuable roster in Major League Soccer. It had Luis Suárez and Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba and a starting 11 stocked with young South American talent. It had the highest payroll in MLS history and eyes on regional supremacy, so there was a hope, perhaps even an expectation, that Messi and co. would reach the CONCACAF Champions Cup final.
But on Wednesday, for the second time in six days, the Vancouver Whitecaps were simply better.
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They were unheralded and hardly hyped, but in the second leg of a semifinal, they dumped Inter Miami out of the Champions Cup, winning 3-1 on the night and 5-1 on aggregate.
And they made Messi and Suarez look old. They kept both off the scoreboard for a fourth consecutive game. They outran and outsmarted Miami, and left the Herons wondering how the heck they’ll ever be able to climb to the top of CONCACAF.
This was the competition that Inter had prioritized. This, like the Club World Cup, was a chance to prove that, with Messi, they were not merely the best team in the U.S., but the best in North America. It was a stage on which they could establish themselves as a global brand, as a club, and maybe even a team, that could compete internationally.
But over 180 minutes, for a second consecutive year, those ambitions unraveled.
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They unraveled most of all in the second half of Wednesday’s second leg. Vancouver scored two quick-fire goals, and eventually a third. Brian White and Ali Ahmed, Pedro Vite and Sebastian Berhalter galloped into gaping holes in the Miami midfield. Berhalter’s incisive run, and White’s clever finish in the 51st minute, canceled out Alba’s first-half tally, and left Inter needing three more goals to wipe out Vancouver’s aggregate advantage.
And two minutes later, the Herons needed four. Vite’s deflected shot looped over Oscar Ustari. Miami fans dug their faces into their palms.
Eighteen minutes after that, Berhalter — the son of former U.S. men’s national team coach Gregg — drove home the dagger.
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Vancouver, one of the five least valuable franchises in MLS, is heading through to the Champions Cup final.
Inter Miami, a phenomenon without parallel in league history, is out.
