Champions Cup: Inter Miami hosts Sporting KC tonight
The Herons hold a 1-0 advantage on aggregate after eking out a first-leg win in freezing Kansas City last week.
Inter Miami must win tonight.
Well, technically the Herons can advance to the Concacaf Champions Cup’s next round with a draw or even a loss, depending on the final score. Teams with the greater aggregate score after home-and-away matches advance, and away goals are tiebreakers. It’s complicated.
Concacaf Champions Cup; Inter Miami vs. Sporting Kansas City; 8 p.m. EST, Chase Stadium, Fort Lauderdale; Watch: Fox Sorts 2 (English), Vix+ and Concacaf’s YouTube channel
But for Inter Miami to build momentum for the dominant season it envisions, the Herons need a decisive win against a rebuilding Sporting Kansas City team that only qualified for the Champions Cup by fighting its way to last year’s Open Cup final, where it lost to Houston. Sporting didn’t even qualify for the Major League Soccer playoffs, and almost two thirds of the league’s teams are invited to that party.
But Inter Miami — Supporters’ Shield winners with a record 74 points in 2024, a team featuring Barcelona legends Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets, Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, a team the vision of which is to be one of the world’s most successful clubs — THAT Inter Miami didn’t play for a single trophy last year; the Herons’ season ended in humiliating defeat to ninth-seeded Atlanta United in the first round of the MLS Eastern Conference playoffs.
A team that earned 74 points shouldn’t feel the need to redeem itself, but Inter Miami must feel an urgency to produce better — much better — results in 2025. This may be the last season all four Barcelona greats wear the Pink & Black, and it’s almost certainly the last full season the Herons will play at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale before moving to Miami Freedom Park. A mediocre 2025 season could stem the momentum of the entire project.
Still, there’s no reason to believe Inter Miami can’t reset its course. Sub-zero windchill temperatures Wednesday against Kansas City and an early red card and first-half injuries to two starters in Saturday’s dramatic 2-2 draw against New York City have hampered the Herons’ efforts.
The weather tonight should be about 80 degrees warmer than the first Champions Cup leg, ensuring (I hope) a more attractive style of play.
It will be interesting to see how Mascherano uses Messi and his former Barcelona teammates, who all played more minutes than expected in five preseason games and the first two competitive matches of the year. Given what we’ve seen so far from “El Jeficito” — who played center back with his Big Four at Barcelona — I expect all four to start. If all goes well, I hope he can rest some ir all of his veterans in the second half.
Goalkeeper Drake Callender (adductor muscle), midfielder Yannick Bright (leg laceration), forward Fafa Picault and wingback Chelo Weigandt (leg muscles) are not expected to be available.
Expect to see Tadeo Allende and Telasco Segovia in attack with Suarez and Messi, Busquets and Federico Redondo as the midfielders and a backline of Alba, Gonzalo Lujan, Tomas Aviles and Ian Fray in front of Oscar Ustari in goal.
How can Inter Miami advance? Here’s an explanation from the Inter Miami website:
“If the aggregate score (the addition of the result of both legs) after the two matches remains tied, away goals will work as the first tiebreaker.
“In simpler terms, with a draw with any scoreline, the team would secure its place in the Round of 16. Additionally, with a win by any margin, Inter Miami would also advance to the next round. Conversely, a 0-1 win for Sporting KC in regulation would send the match to extra time and penalties if necessary. Any win by the Kansas side in which they score at least two goals (i.e. 1-2, 2-3, etc.) would see Inter Miami knocked out of the competition.”
- intermiamicf.com
If Inter Miami advances to the Round of 16, it will play Cavalier FC from the Jamaican Premier League.