Champions Cup: Miami hosts Jamaican side Thursday
Expect the Herons to run up the score on Cavalier FC at Chase Stadium
Inter Miami star Lionel Messi will be well-rested. That’s bad news for visitors Cavalier FC, the Herons’ next opponent in the Concacaf Champions Cup.
Lionel Messi should be rested and fit for Thursday’s Champions Cup match. Photo credit: The Sporting News
The first leg of the teams’ round of 16 tie kicks off at 8 p.m. EST Thursday at Chase Stadium, with the second leg a week later at National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica. The team with the better aggregate score — more goals over the two matches — will advance to the tournament’s quarterfinals.
Messi will have had nine days to rest and recover for Thursday’s game. He last played in Miami’s 3-1 Champions Cup win against Sporting Kansas City on Feb. 25. First-year coach Javier Mascherano left Messi home while the Herons traveled to Houston on Sunday for an MLS regular-season contest (which the Men in Pink easily won, 4-1).
Mascherano has said the Herons intend to win every competition, but it’s clear Inter Miami is prioritizing the Champions Cup in 2025. The annual tournament crowns the best club team in North America, Central America and the Caribbean (the region supervised by Concacaf), but it’s been dominated by Mexican teams since it started in 1962. U.S.-based sides have won the competition just three times; C.F. Monterrey eliminated Miami in the quarterfinals last year, the South Florida side’s only previous participation in the Cup.
Cavalier is a young team
Cavalier is almost certainly the youngest team Inter Miami will face this year; the average age of its players is 20.2 players, according to Transfermarkt. The same source lists the average age of Inter Miami’s squad at 26.5.
The reigning and three-time champion of the Jamaican Premiere League, Cavalier is making its first-ever appearance in the Champions Cup Round of 16; it qualified for a first-round bye because it won the 2024 Caribbean Cup (Inter Miami qualified by earning the MLS Supporters’ Shield as the best regular-season team of 2024).
Currently, Cavalier is fourth in its domestic league with 44 points; Mount Pleasant Academy is first with 62 points. Cavalier lost 6-0 (aggregate) to FC Cincinnati in the first round of last year’s cup, the only previous time it’s faced MLS competition.
Rudolph Speid, 63, has managed Cavalier since 2016.
Jalmaro Calvin, 21, leads Cavalier with 13 goals and Shaquille Stein, 24, has 8. Christopher Ainsworth, 19, and Dwayne Atkinson, 22, each has four scores.
Inter Miami should thrive
Expect Mascherano to start his strongest side at home, hoping to build an insurmountable lead in the first tie and avoid any surprises, however unlikely, in Jamaica.
The Herons’ best 11, in my opinion, include Oscar Ustari in goal, Jordi Alba and Ian Fray at wingbacks, Maxi Falcon and Tomas Aviles at center backs, Sergio Busquets and Yannick Bright in the defensive midfield, Telasco Segovia and Lionel Messi on the wings, Tadeo Allende as an attacking central midfielder, and Luis Suarez at striker.
Noah Allen, Gonzalo Lujan and Federico Redondo add defensive depth, while Benjamin Cremaschi, David Ruiz, Robert Taylor, Santi Martinez and Leo Afonso could help in the attack.
Marcelo “Chelo” Weigandt and David Hernandez are recovering from muscle injuries and probably won’t be available any time soon.
Drake Callender, the Herons’ starting goalkeeper since 2022, and Julian Gressel, a regular during Miami’s record-setting 2024 campaign, haven’t played for Mascherano. Callendar had been out injured until recently and seems to have lost his starting job to Ustari. It’s unclear why Mascherano hasn’t played Gressel, although his strongest position is on the left wing, where Messi and Allende are likely to dominate the available minutes.
There is speculation Inter Miami may be hoping to move one or both players.