Lionel Messi wins record 46th trophy — because Inter Miami was great with and without him

Inter Miami clinched Major League Soccer’s regular season title Wednesday, and the primary reason for their supremacy was, and is, of course, Lionel Messi.

Messi has transformed Miami from “a team that habitually lost for years,” as head coach Tata Martino recently said, to “a team that habitually wins,” and to perhaps the greatest MLS team ever.

He helped beat the Columbus Crew, the reigning MLS champs, on Wednesday with two goals out of nowhere. The first unshackled a tight, choppy game. The second, a trademark free kick five minutes later, stunned the Crew and left a sold-out crowd in awe.

“He had one-and-a-half opportunities,” Crew coach Wilfried Nancy later said, “and he scored two.”

They were Messi’s 16th and 17th goals of the MLS season — in his 17th game. They left the league’s best defense in a daze. They lifted Miami to a 3-2 win, and to a 10-point lead atop the table — a gap that neither the Crew nor FC Cincinnati nor the LA Galaxy will be able to close over the season’s final two weeks.

Miami, therefore, won the Supporters’ Shield, the trophy that goes to the best team throughout MLS’ regular season. It is not the league’s primary prize — that is MLS Cup, which goes to the winner of the playoffs. But it is a prize nonetheless.

It’s also Messi’s second trophy in Miami, and the 46th of his unparalleled career — more than any other player in the history of professional soccer has ever won.

Ironically, it’s the one 2024 trophy that Inter wasn’t favored to win. Prior to the season, only two of 14 pundits surveyed by the league’s official website picked Miami to win it.

Their reasoning was simple and understandable: Messi would probably miss a dozen games. His former Barcelona teammates — and especially Luis Suarez — would rest plenty as well. They’d preserve their aging legs for the playoffs, which they’d undoubtedly reach. The regular season felt secondary, and the Shield didn’t seem feasible.

What those predictions didn’t consider is that Miami had built, and Messi had attracted, a team that could win without him.

The Herons have actually taken more points per MLS game without their legend (2.13) than with him (2.11) this season.

They are, to be clear, much better with Messi. Their goal differential is 15 goals worse in games he didn’t play. Their Expected Goal differential without Messi is negative.

But they gutted out wins, again and again, with Messi absent. While the GOAT was with the Argentina national team for Copa América, and then sidelined by an ankle injury suffered in the final, they won eight of nine games — six by identical 2-1 scorelines. In September, after three months away, Messi returned to a team that was seven points clear of the chasing pack.

Miami were clear, in part, because sporting director Chris Henderson and his staff worked salary cap magic. They added more than a dozen new players between July 2023 and July 2024. They surrounded Messi, Suarez, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba with Federico Redondo, and Diego Gómez, and Tomás Avilés, and Julian Gressel, and others.

And they kept goalkeeper Drake Callender, who sealed the Shield with a penalty save in the 83rd minute of Wednesday’s wild match.

Messi had scored twice just before halftime. Columbus got a goal back shortly after the break. Suarez scored two minutes later.

Crew forward Cucho Hernandez then converted from the penalty spot in the 61st minute to cut the lead to 3-2. A couple minutes later, Columbus went down to 10 men — but still, Miami couldn’t keep them at bay. Before and after Callender’s penalty save, the Crew threatened. A shaky Miami defense wobbled.

But Inter held on, and secured the top seed in the Eastern Conference, and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.