'Human cheat code' - Apple TV's Andrew Wiebe on MLS playoffs, Lionel Messi's 'nuclear form' and how Inter Miami can become league's 'greatest team of all time'

GOAL: The First Round of the MLS Playoffs starts Friday. Who do you have winning the whole thing?

Wiebe: In the modern era, great teams with great players win the MLS Cup. In terms of MLS Cup, there are no lucky winners. So all of which is to say, I have a hard time believing Inter Miami won't pay this project and this season off without the MLS Cup. Messi is in nuclear form, and they get to do the whole thing in South Florida, apart from one game in Atlanta. The only thing that can stop Miami is themselves, and that's been true all year. Nobody in MLS can compete [with them] on just attacking talent and championship pedigree.

GOAL: A debate that is picking up steam is whether or not Inter Miami is the greatest team in MLS history. What are your thoughts?

Wiebe: Inter Miami is the single greatest collection of talent MLS has ever seen, that much, I'm sure of, and yes, that's sort of a cop-out to your question. Are they the greatest team? Not yet. To be the greatest team, you need more than ability and the on paper side of it, you have to pay it off. Messi is the GOAT, not just because of the goals and historic, absurd stuff that we've seen for years and years and years, but because all those individual moments resulted in trophies and collective history. I mean, he's like counting up to 50 trophies all-time.

I think of the Barcelona motto when I think of what's at stake for inter Miami, Més que un club (More than a club). For Messi and Miami, these years are about making Miami more than just a soccer club in South Florida with big players. It's about making Inter Miami an institution. It's about making Inter Miami a club that represents something bigger and grander, something that people can't take away and doesn't shift year to year as coaches and players change. And to do that, Miami have to win, and they have to do it repeatedly...Anything short of historic greatness is below par for this group. So they've got to win MLS Cup.

GOAL: And if they win?

Wiebe: If Miami win the double, I think you'd have to argue they're the greatest team of all time on two fronts, on results and on talent.

GOAL: One thing that's already being discussed is what is MLS and Inter Miami's future going to look like without Messi in it. He can't play forever and when David Beckham left the league, there was a lull for a few years after he left. How does MLS combat that?

Wiebe: Messi is not replicable. So forget replicating Messi or what he brings. The goal of these years with Lionel has to be to set the foundation for the club, and that's what I mean when I say Més que un club. The club has to take on a bigger place than just where Messi played. The beauty for me is that Messi will be part of that project to continue [due to him being a part-owner of Inter Miami]. He has draw and a magic to him that nobody else in this game has.

So I think the challenge for Miami is, how do you rechannel that ambition? Who represents that who can take it into the next phase? And they've got to identify those players. It's not going to be easy, and it's certainly not going to be cheap, but having their own Stadium in Miami will help in having a legacy and a foundation laid by Messi is a head start that almost no other club in the world gets.

GOAL: Does that mean signing global stars in their prime?

Wiebe: I mean, straight up, why couldn't they sign anybody? Why should Inter Miami limit themselves in terms of any signing after signing Leo Messi, they should believe that literally everything is possible. If MLS wants to grow into the places that it envisions, it has to mean signing top-level players in their prime. That goes for Inter Miami, that goes for the rest of the league.

GOAL: Who do you have for MVP?

Wiebe: I voted for Cucho Hernandez. He earned the award this year. I know Messi's per-90 numbers are better, but come on, it's Messi. He's a human cheat code... To me, crucially, Cucho played eight more games. He has 12 game-winning goal contributions to Messi's six. That speaks to results. It speaks to the impact of the course of the whole year. And the Crew can play arguably the most aesthetically pleasing and effective brand of soccer the league has ever seen, because Cucho can play all three spots across the front line at best-in-class levels.

GOAL: Speaking of the Crew, an open question around MLS is what else can Wilfried Nancy really do in this league? There are rumblings that this could be his final year in MLS. What are your feelings about his future?

Wiebe: I fully expect Nancy's tenure in Major League Soccer from today, Oct. 23, 2024 until whenever he leaves to be relatively short, and that's sad for me as someone who loves watching this league. What he's doing is sort of singular in MLS history, but that's the game, that's soccer, that's careers. What MLS should want to be, just as much as being the best league that they can possibly be, is a place where people start and realize their dreams. And Wilfred Nancy started and realized his dream in Major League Soccer.

He did it in Montreal at the Academy level. He took the steps up the ladder. He got the [manager] job. He did things with Montreal that nobody thought could be done. He sold players in mass, for sums that were record-breaking in MLS terms. And then he did it all over again with the Columbus Crew and showed us that wasn't a flash in the pan. His style, and his ability to identify and improve players, are just on a different level.

So it's natural that big clubs and big leagues are going to look at Nancy and say, "I bet he could do that for us, and we would be dumb not to give him the opportunity to do so." Does it make me sad that I wouldn't get to watch and cover Nancy teams in Major League Soccer? Of course it does. But what would make me sadder is that if there wasn't a pathway for, I hope, more Wilfried Nancys - not to say just like him, but in their own way and style. We don't need one Wilfred Nancy. We need a bunch of those guys. And so if he's the first, you know, of his kind, and a bunch more follow him, then I will just sit back and applaud.

GOAL: Speaking of coaches, who is your Coach of the Year?

Wiebe: For a while there, I thought it was going to be RSL's Pablo Mastroianni. I thought he was going to be the guy. First half of the RSL season, I thought this was Pablo's to lose. But now, for me, it's Tata Martino. It's a results business and that's the first thing I judge a coach on and the pressure on Miami to get results is greater than probably the combined pressures of any team in league history.

With that all said, Miami are the new kings of the regular season, they wrapped up the Shield early against arguably the best group of Shield contenders we've ever had. Every opponent, every game, gave them their absolute best possible shot, and their away points per game is better than any team has ever put up points per game in a single season. So they have all that - and Tata didn't have Messi for 34 games.

GOAL: Final one for you: MLS was ranked No. 9 in the Opta league rankings and projects to be the third-most attended league in the world, behind only the Premier League and Bundesliga. What is your assessment of all of this?

Wiebe: Ninth seems like the right ballpark for me. But regardless of how you rank MLS, I do think it's undeniable that the progress the league has made on the field in the last decade, and even more so in the last few years, is extreme and significant. So to me, the strength of MLS is not just the quality of the top team or two teams or whatever, but it's the growing depth of quality.

There are more championship-caliber teams - and that's in MLS terms, and also in regional terms - than ever before. There are more truly ambitious projects paying off in terms of results and player acquisition and player development, and then depending on the moment, player sales, like records are being set in all those places. So regardless of where MLS is ranked now, this is not where MLS's journey ends. Looking at the rankings, I think sooner than perhaps we think, I think that the big five are going to look in their rearview and see MLS charging hard.

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