Grading Inter Miami’s players before the FIFA Club World Cup
The expectation-laden 2025 season is half done. How do I rate the Herons so far? The team? “I” for incomplete. The players? Read on.
Still a work in progress
Expectations are dangerous: set too high, they’ll leave a fanbase frustrated and surly; set too low, a team risks complacency and mediocrity.
Inter Miami supporters have opted for frustrated and surly.
When Lionel Messi (and Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba) joined Club Internacional de Futbol Miami in 2023, Herons fans swooned, star-struck, struggling to believe their great good fortune. And suddenly, expectations for a mediocre expansion franchise in a middling professional soccer league exploded — forget trophy cases, the Herons would need trophy rooms, trophy buildings!
Looking back, the excitement was warranted, the hype overdone and the expectations unrealistic. Messi and company all are great players, but well past their prime, and Major League Soccer’s spending rules still shape the Herons’ roster. To make matters worse, management hasn’t shown an ability to provide help for its aging stars.
So, here we are. In two years since Messi arrived, Miami has won the Leagues Cup (2023) and earned the Supporters Shield (2024) by setting an MLS record for points in a season. Last year — in which we failed to reach even a semifinal and suffered an embarrassing first-round MLS Cup playoffs upset against ninth-seed Atlanta United — was considered a disappointment.
So this year — this year, 2025 — is the year Inter Miami is expected to start stuffing that trophy case. And, it still could. Despite losing to the Vancouver Whitecaps in the Concacaf Champions Cup semifinals, Inter Miami still could claim the FIFA Club World Cup, Leagues Cup, Supporters Shield and MLS Cup!
Aw, who am I kidding? At best, the Herons might get out of their group stage in the Club World Cup (which begins this weekend). With 29 points through 16 matches, the Herons are on track for 62 points, well off last year’s 74-point pace; the Supporters Shield seems unlikely.
Still, the club has been competitive, if not dominant. Supporters should expect good runs in both the Leagues Cup and MLS Cup playoffs.
The Herons have a lot of soccer left to be played, but if I had to predict a final grade, it would go like this:
A+ — Club World Cup Round of 16, MLS Cup title, Leagues Cup title
A — Club World Cup Round of 16 and either MLS Cup or Leagues Cup
A- — Either MLS or Leagues Cup title
B+ — MLS and Leagues Cup finals
B- — Either MLS or Leagues Cup final
C — MLS and Leagues Cup semifinals
D — Either MLS or Leagues Cup semifinal
F — Fail to qualify for MLS Cup playoffs
We need a trophy to get an “A” but “C” is acceptable and “D” is passing — barely.
Player ratings
I’ll try to be more concise. I’m only ranking players who’ve played more than 200 league minutes this season, in order from most to least.
Sergio Busquets: B-
CREDIT: Inter Miami CF
The maestro still quarterbacks the team from the defensive midfield and sprays line-breaking passes forward to start the attack, and his intelligence and pitch-sense has only increased, but Busquets can’t cover ground like he once did defensively.
Noah Allen: B+
My team MVP thus far. The South Florida kid and Inter Miami Academy product is an undersized center back but compensates with intelligence, sound fundamentals and courage. Originally a left wing back, I’d like to see Herons coach Javier Mascherano move Alba forward into an attacking role and let Allen take on the box-to-box role.
Jordi Alba: B-
The one-time world class left wing had 16 goal contributions (five goals and 11 assists) in MLS play last year, but his production has dropped off in 2025 (no goals, four assists).
Lionel Messi: A-
CREDIT: Major League Soccer
The Herons captain and reigning MLS Most Valuable Player has 10 goals and five assists in league play, 15 and six in all competitions for the Pink. The Argentine legend was frustrated during a May slump, but he scored five goals and added three assists in the Herons’ most recent three matches.
Oscar Ustari: C
The journeyman keeper has been more than adequate as the replacement for Drake Callender, who was injured while training with the U.S. Men’s National Team and recently underwent sports hernia surgery. Ustari, who played on the Argentine national team and at Barcelona with Messi, has stopped two-thirds of the shots against him (40 of 60) and recorded four clean sheets. He is good with his feet and an excellent passer, completing 82 percent of his passes and half of his long balls.
Gonzalo Lujan: D
Mascherano seems to favor Lujan, but that says more about the coach’s defensive options than Lujan’s reliability.
Luis Suarez: C+
Suarez hasn’t been as productive as he was a year ago when he had 20 goals and nine assists in MLS matches (25 and 22 in all competitions) but, at 38 with his bad knees, it isn’t fair to expect such numbers again from the Uruguayan superstar. He has 17 goal contributions in 21 total matches and still works as hard as anyone on the pitch.
Tadeo Allende: B-
Wingers Tadeo Allende (left) and Telasco Segovia celebrate after an Allende score for Inter Miami. CREDIT: MLS
Allende is one of the Herons’ more athletic players and has shown the ability to finish, collecting six goals in 10 appearances. His speed on the wing is important to help spread defenses, keeping them from clogging up the middle where Messi and Suarez like to play.
Benjamin Cremaschi: C+
Cremaschi, 20, is another South Florida kid (Key Biscayne) who came up through the Herons’ academy. He still has a heavy first touch and is not a polished passer or finisher, but his energy and non-stop effort — not to mention his matinee good looks — make him a crowd favorite. His only goal this season was a spectacular diving header of a Chelo Weigandt cross that gave Miami a 1-0 win against Columbus before more than 60,000 fans at the NFL Browns’ stadium in Cleveland. He also has two assists.
Telasco Segovia: B
Segovia, a 22-year-old Venezuelan, has been inconsistent but shown tantalizing glimpses of his dribbling, passing and playmaking skills with four goals and three assists. His ability to play a short game, linking warmth Messi, Suarez and Alba in the box, is critical to making Mascherano’s offense work. I expect more and better from Segovia in the second half.
Yannick Bright: B
Yannick Bright is a second-year central midfielder for the Herons. CREDIT: Inter Miami CF
Bright, a first-round Miami pick from the University of New Hampshire in the 2024 Super Draft, has become indispensable in the midfield, playing defense from touchline to touchline while Busquets quarterbacks the offense. He seems to have beaten out Fede Redondo for the starting spot he had secured last year under former coach Tata Martino.
Ian Fray: B-
Fray, 22 — yet another young academy alum from South Florida (Coconut Creek) — is among the most versatile, most courageous and most popular Herons. He’s suffered three ACL tears (in the 2021, 2022 and 2023 seasons) and a meniscus injury last year, but has returned stronger and more determined after each rehabilitation. Fray has three goals and an assist in 45 total MLS appearances playing primarily as a center back, but has the pace and technical ability to play right back or defensive midfield if necessary, and I could imagine him playing winger if his size (he’s 6 feet tall) weren’t so desperately needed in the back.
Maxi Falcon: D
Maximiliano Falcon arrived in South Florida from Chilean side Colo-Colo with much hair, much hype, and mucho charisma. What we haven’t seen is much consistency; the center back has been caught out of position or ball-watching too many times in the first half. We need better.
Federico Redondo: C
Redondo is a player looking for a position; he and Cremaschi are virtually the same player — high energy, hard-working, lacking offensive polish. Redondo was touted to be another Busquets in the making, and he does show flashes of passing brilliance; like several of our young players, he’s a work in progress.
Tomas Aviles: C
Tomas ‘Toto’ Aviles should see more playing time in the Inter Miami back line in the second half of the season. CREDIT: MLS
Toto was a regular for Tara Martino a year ago, but his impulsive, sometimes reckless play resulted in a league-high 13 yellow cards. Still, he was probably the Herons’ top center back a year ago. He’s shown more maturity and better positioning when he’s played this season; I’m not sure why he’s not getting time ahead of Falcon and Lujan.
Marcelo Weigandt: B+
Chelo has received a lot of grief from fans and content creators on social media, but I think he’s been one of our most consistently reliable defenders (except a terrible header hit too hard back to Ustari, who fumbled the ball into the Herons’ goal for a Minnesota United score ) and a contributor in the attack with a goal and two assists. For me, he is the choice at right back over Fray.
Fafa Picault: C+
The U.S.-born Haitian journeyman, 34, is still fast and eye-blink quick, but injuries have cut into his minutes in 2025. When he’s been on the pitch, he has been dangerous, with 4 goals and an assist so far for Inter Miami. Like Allende, his speed and finishing ability will be important to help keep defenses from collapsing into the box to stop Messi and Suarez.
David Martinez: B
There’s not much to say about Martinez; he’s on a one-year loan deal from Argentinian side River Plate that expires June 30. When healthy, he’s probably the best center back on the roster, but he has spent most of his time with Miami nursing a variety of injuries. The club hasn’t indicated its plans for Hernandez, but it’s thought his cost is excessive for a defender that can’t be counted on to play.
And, finally….
Javier Mascherano: C
Javier Mascherano, 41, is in his first season as Inter Miami CF’s head coach. CREDIT: MLS
Yes, Champions Cup elimination (face it, winning Concacaf was THE goal this year), a month-long run of poor results, and a stubborn reluctance to rest Messi & Co. or change tactics in the first half predictably have kindled a “Mascherano Out!” mood among some supporters. But, I think he’s doing OK.
Mascherano is 41, just a few years removed from the pitch; his only coaching experience before Messi — er, Inter Miami — hired him was with Argentina youth teams, with which he had mediocre results. Yes, he was a world-class defender, but his only real qualification was being friends with Messi.
No experience coaching at the club level, no experience coaching grown men, let alone men with the pedigrees of Messi, Alba, Busquets and Suarez, no experience with Major League Soccer and its oddball rules, through-the-looking-glass calendar, soul-numbing travel, and congested schedule….
That’s a lot! He’s learning on the fly, adapting to a new soccer world, and the Herons are third in the Eastern Conference and still considered legitimate contenders for at least two trophies? C’mon, that’s not nothing!
I’d like to see a full season of Mascherano, and — unless the Herons completely collapse in the second halve — I’d like to see a second season to see what he’s learned and how he adjusts to this new reality.
Grading Masch’s performance so far, I’m giving him a “C” — under the same circumstances, name a coach who could do more than he’s done. But, like the team, I think an “I” for incomplete is more fair.
It’s going to be an interesting second half!