Flaws exposed: Lionel Messi and Inter Miami turn in disasterclass in MLS playoff exit, but in truth, upset was entirely predictable

At first, everything seemed fine. It had been widely assumed that Messi was going to be an Inter Miami player. When the club announced his signing in July 2023, it only seemed fair that Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets were to join him. Suarez's arrival, rumored for some time but confirmed in January, made sense. The vibes were good. The Barcelona boys were back. There they were, smiling together in training, laughing with Tata Martino - their former Blaugrana manager - Miami's Galacticos assembled in full, ready to run MLS.

And for long stretches of the season, they did just that. Busquets sat at the base of midfield, dictating the tempo, moving the pieces around. Alba pushed up the left. Suarez stayed high. Messi, in the middle, mastered the spaces in between. When all four were on the pitch, and, crucially, the regular season game's tempo slowed to a crawl, Miami were near-impossible to beat.

The Barca legends were playing at half speed, but thinking quicker than everyone else. The other pieces - Diego Gomez, Yannick Bright, Julian Gressel and Co. - just had to fit in.

It's important to note, though, that this was an unusually constructed roster. Rarely are MLS teams so laden with stars. The big names offered quality, sold shirts, and packed stadiums like MLS had never seen before. But they were a real change from MLS Cup winning sides of old.

In a sense, then, it was little surprise that Miami managed to keep ticking along when Messi and Suarez left for Copa America. Martino still had the spine of a good team. Leo Campana, a bench player for Miami who would start for MLS sides - proved his quality during June and July. Gressel, Gomez, Bright, Robert Taylor and others are all solid MLS players in their own right.

And with Alba and Busquets still around, Miami continued to pick up points. It is too simple to suggest that Miami don't need Messi to win - and scandalous to say that they are better off without him. But in the dog days of the season, in which everyone is impacted by the international tournaments and the whole thing becomes a bit of a slog, Miami had a real buzz and energy.

It proved to be something of a paradox, though. That success - eight wins in nine games without Messi - showed that this can still be a winning side. The bones of a typically successful MLS team were in place. their playing style changed. Busquets played center back for a while. Alba's assist numbers dropped.

A more athletic Miami, not as buoyed down by its old legs, picked up points. In a sense, it all showed that there was multiple ways in which Miami could win. But there was always going to be a pivot to the style of old.

Atlanta, ironically, were the first team to really expose all of this in the regular season. It was Sept. 18, and Messi was on the fringes of the return from his high ankle sprain sustained in Argentina's win in the Copa America final. Everyone else was back, and Miami tried to play in their typical, high-possession sort of setup.

The Black and Red ran rings around them in a 2-2 draw that really should have been a win for the home team. They imbalanced Miami, moving the ball side to side quickly, before hitting the ball long. The Herons, hammered by injuries and looking leggy, were constantly running backwards towards their own goal, an imbalanced unit gasping for air.

This was chaos, frenetic football. Fantastic entertainment for the neutral observer, but immensely concerning for Martino. Of course, Messi entered the fray, Miami got their goals, and a late curler from Aleksey Miranchuk salvaged a draw. The box score suggested an against-the-run-of-play sort of comeback for Atlanta. But watch the game, and the signs of how to beat this team were starting to appear.

Martino, though, never changed. He tinkered with his system here and there. Sometimes he played a back three, other times a back four. But the weaknesses remained the same. Miami were too light in midfield, too slow at the back, too easily manipulated off the ball. It is, admittedly, the curse that every manager in possession of great attacking talent faces. Martino's main job, in effect, is to get the most out of Messi, and put together a solid enough structure around him to ensure that Miami don't get outgunned.

For long stretches, he did the former. But as the season went on, injuries racked up, and tired legs started to show, the latter became a real issue. Miami's game two setup perfectly summarized it all. He started in a shrewd back three, with Bright operating as a do-it-all center midfielder. The Herons took a 1-0 lead into the break - a stroke of luck from a rare Brad Guzan goalkeeping error giving them a slight advantage at half time. This was hardly a scintillating attacking showing, but there was a relative solidity to things.

The first mistake was not having an adequate replacement for Bright after he left with an injury. The Italian might have struggled on the ball, but the hardworking midfielder had consistently been one of the Herons' better defensive players throughout, was among MLS's leaders in interceptions per 90 minutes. Even when sloppy, his presence and energy alone offered something. Martino should have opted to play Gressel, who offered some similar traits. Instead, Benjamin Cremaschi - a far lighter and more attack-minded player - came on. Miami were simply played through for the equalizer after an hour.

And in the 84th minute of game two, with the score locked at 1-1, Martino lost the series. He took off center back Noah Allen - Miami's best player on the night - and switched to a back four. The idea here was presumably to go for a win and tie things off. Instead, Miami were all over the place, and the 94th-minute Atlanta winner was thoroughly deserved.

Significant credit has to go to Atlanta, of course. There is no doubt that this was a monumental upset. Miami were 34 points better than the Black and Red over the course of the regular season. Atlanta was a ninth seed, that snuck into the playoffs via a wildcard game. They were widely expected to be attendees at the start of Messi's first MLS Cup run. Throw in that they had fired their sporting director and manager, and sold $40 million worth of their best players this summer, and this all seemed like a matchup destined for failure.

Not so fast.

Throughout the entire series, the Herons had most of the ball, but Atlanta were ferociously direct. Miami lacked legs in the midfield, couldn't press from the front and were slow at the back. The solution for Atlanta? Pass the ball very straight, very fast, and run. There's nuance here - Atlanta weren't playing kick-and-run soccer, instead they were setting themselves up in a fiercely direct way.

"The idea was to drag one of the outside center backs and play into the space behind," interim coach Rob Valentino explained after game three.

All they needed to do was take their chances. In game one, they failed to do so; only the brilliance of the 40-year-old Guzan in goal kept the scoreline close. Game two, they were simply more efficient. They had less of the ball, fewer shots, but limited Miami to a handful of clear chances. Meanwhile, the other end, they were opportunistic.

Game three was the perfect cocktail of both. Guzan enjoyed his moments - and there were many of them - and Atlanta's forwards capitalized on theirs. Series done.

Of course, there remains the assumption that Messi can fix all of these things. He is, after all, the greatest to ever do it. The eight-time Ballon d'O winner had 26 goal contributions in just 19 MLS games over the season, becoming an MVP frontrunner. His name was already etched onto MLS Cup before a ball was kicked, or so it was assumed. The truth is, Messi was poor in this series.

Atlanta defended him very well. Miami have little width to speak of, so they simply crowded the center. Messi barely had room to breathe, and not much movement around or behind him to make things happen. A younger Messi, with more legs and a more agile body might simply dribble round the four or five defenders that often surrounded him. But at his age, these things are more difficult.

The game, when slowed down, without much energy, becomes a lot more difficult. It is fair to hope for - if not expect - a moment of magic. Valentino admitted after game three that he was nervous when Messi stepped up to take a free kick with a few minutes remaining in normal time. But that one clanged off the wall. It is, ironically, rather cruel that Messi's goal for Miami came from a header - a method in which he has found the net just 26 times in his career.

There were compelling contradictions here. Messi's $20M total compensation from Miami was about $5 million more than the entire Atlanta payroll. Martino tried to put it all in perspective after the game, saying "If you look at the context in which this began, it seems to me that the progress of the club is important... What happened this year, the bad and the good in general have been better than everything that happened last year and I would say even from the entire life of the club."

But in the decisive game, Messi was crowded out, Atlanta smashed the ball long, game over. Social media will have its fun here. From an attendance and ratings perspective, MLS won't be happy, with the highest-profile player the league has ever boasted making an early playoff exit.

But what seemed such an upset was, in truth, an entirely predictable thing. There was a clear formula to beating this Miami team, one that had been developing despite the regular season wins. Make Suarez gasp for air. Drown Messi out. Smash the ball long.

Atlanta, like any shrewd team, simply followed the cues. And just like that, the playoffs are wide open, and Messi and Miami are going home.