Inter Miami & Lionel Messi “in a good place” as MLS Cup chase begins | MLSSoccer.com

Having accomplished just about everything possible during the regular season, Inter Miami now turn focus to their Audi MLS Cup Playoffs adventure, which kicks off against Atlanta United at Chase Stadium Friday night (8:30 pm ET | Apple TV – Free) and, they hope, peaks with an MLS Cup hoist at the same venue on Dec. 7.

The Herons aren’t playing coy with their intentions for this Round One Best-of-3 Series vs. the bottom-seeded Five Stripes.

“I think we’re in a good place, we’re doing things well,” left back Jordi Alba told reporters in Spanish on Thursday morning at the Florida Blue Training Center. “They’ll be a complicated opponent. We have the advantage of playing the first game here at home in front of our people, and hopefully, we can sentence the series in their stadium.”

IMCF carry ample momentum into the postseason. They haven’t lost a league match since July 6, a remarkable run of form that propelled them to the Supporters’ Shield – which ensures that next Saturday’s Game 2 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium will be their sole away game of the playoffs – and a new MLS single-season points record.

“Starting the playoffs at home, I think is huge for us. Having a very important first game, that kind of sets the tone,” goalkeeper Drake Callender said on Tuesday.

“There’s still an opportunity to lift another trophy and compete. So I think it’s great, it’s great for the club. We’re on a forward trajectory and we’re viewing these playoffs as a chance to get another trophy and prove why we got the Supporters’ Shield.”

Their 6-2 comeback Decision Day win over New England provided an opportunity to celebrate all that with their home fans, plus the official revelation from visiting FIFA president Gianni Infantino that they’ve been awarded the final spot in next summer’s US-hosted Club World Cup.

That page has already been turned, they say, with the collective conviction that all of that success will mean little if they don’t follow through and win the hardware that earns them a star above their crest.

“[Celebrating the Shield] doesn’t make us lose sight that the most important thing starts now,” said head coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino in Spanish.

New season

A sequence of IMCF breakdowns gifted the Revolution an early 2-0 lead on Saturday before Luis Suárez and Leo Messi spearheaded a ferocious fightback, prompting Martino to warn his team that the margin for such errors will be far smaller in the playoffs.

“They tend to happen, this is football. And the truth is you fix them with work. We honestly played a fantastic game [vs. New England],” said center back David Martínez in Spanish. “It was a game that had everything – very good things and bad things as well. But by continuing to work, I think we’ll correct those small mistakes.”

Their attacking riches are such that it’s understandable if their defenders don’t sound particularly perturbed about making mistakes, which may be another sign of the sturdy culture their superstar veterans have helped establish in the locker room.

“The key to breaking the points record and everything else was our way of competing, of wanting to win despite leading the standings most of the year. We wanted to keep winning and playing well. And that’s how we’re heading into the playoffs: to try to win,” noted Alba. “It won’t be easy, but I’m convinced we can do it because we have a very good team and the home-field factor, which is very important.”

It’s an MLS truism that the postseason is a whole new ball game. While Miami’s organizational experience of that environment is scant – IMCF have played in two playoff games in their brief existence and lost both without scoring a single goal – much of the current squad can hark back to last summer’s Leagues Cup campaign. And Martino and utility man Julian Gressel helped ATLUTD navigate a demanding road to an MLS Cup title in 2018, which adds another facet to this Round One faceoff with that club.

“My story with Atlanta was very beautiful, we enjoyed it a lot. It was a [2017] expansion team, we enjoyed building and we enjoyed those two seasons, independent of the final result,” said Martino. “So playing against Atlanta will always be special.”

One of one

Miami are heavily favored, in part because they’ve been recuperating and preparing for Friday’s clash while Atlanta journeyed a thousand miles and back to knock off CF Montréal in Tuesday’s dramatic Eastern Conference Wild Card match. That advantage pales in comparison to the Herons’ primary trump card, however: the soft-spoken Argentine who wears their No. 10 jersey.

Messi scored six goals and added four assists last week across Miami’s rout of the Revs and his Albiceleste side’s World Cup qualifier vs. Bolivia, and appears primed and ready for his MLS Cup Playoffs debut.

“With the same natural way in which he’s capable of scoring six goals in five days,” said Martino of the GOAT. “That natural way is also how he lives his life. He’s had a normal week, working well and preparing with the others to play these finals.”

As discourse swirls around Messi’s outlook for the Landon Donovan MLS MVP award, Martino insists their No. 10 ranks firmly among the world’s most elite players.

“If I ask you,” countered Martino, “what player gets the ball 25 meters away from goal with seven opposing players in front of him, and there’s a feeling there’ll be a goal?

“There’s nobody else.”