Messi, Inter Miami through to Leagues Cup final after crushing Philadelphia Union

Can anyone stop Messi and Miami?

It may have been sunny in Philadelphia, but only for Lionel Messi and Inter Miami.

For the fourth time in six games since Messi’s arrival, Miami scored four goals in a match, this time thrashing the Philadelphia Union 4-1 and securing a spot in the Leagues Cup final.

The semifinal continued a trend Miami enjoyed in the quarterfinals. Namely, Messi drew so much attention that his teammates had acres of space to essentially do whatever they wanted. In soccer, it is generally seen as bad when your opponent has this luxury.

With Union head coach Jim Curtin telling Apple TV pre-game that he would use potent scorer Dániel Gazdag to mark Sergio Busquets and require another player to pick Messi up at all times, Miami’s other nine players had the run of Subaru Park.

It took all of three minutes for that to result in a goal, after Sergii Kryvtsov sized up a long ball that caught the Union’s Damion Lowe out. From there, Josef Martínez raced away before placing a finish beyond Andre Blake.

The game had barely started, and Miami had yet another early lead.

Drake Callender denied Gazdag on a golden chance for Philadelphia to get level. It was a big moment, because Messi did what Messi does shortly thereafter.

Miami tried to break forward after catching the Union pushing up, with Lowe crashing into Martínez. However, the Jamaica defender didn’t arrive before Martínez’s pass found Messi, and from long range the Barcelona legend produced a surgical shot into the bottom corner.

The Union finally stabilized through some physical play and staying connected in an unusual 5-4-1 diamond set-up, but the damage seemed to be done. The job appeared to be to survive until halftime and then dramatically change the gameplan in pursuit of a huge comeback.

So, about that.

Robert Taylor held possession for a long spell with no one from the Union quite sure who should step to him, allowing Jordi Alba to make a run from deep.

With Lowe holding the Spain legend onside, Taylor’s pass just needed a finish, and Alba got himself a first goal since joining Miami this summer. It was that easy.

A much-improved Union made subs to push for the early goal needed to have any shot at a miraculous recovery, but quarterfinal hero Chris Donovan fired over an empty net in the 56th minute. Jakob Glesnes did the same a few minutes later after Mikael Uhre’s flick-on found him. It simply was not Philadelphia’s night.

Miami’s star-studded team has never particularly looked comfortable having to defend — Messi is rather famously not a defender — and all that pressure finally paid off. Alejandro Bedoya, just moments after stepping into the fray, punched home a loose ball following a set piece, finally injecting some drama into the match.

It was fun while it lasted. With Philadelphia leaving numbers forward, Miami pounced: Messi fed DeAndre Yedlin on the break, and the U.S. men’s national team veteran fed youngster David Ruíz to shut the game down as a contest.

Miami’s emphatic win, beyond giving the club a shot at a first-ever trophy later this week, has locked in a place in the 2024 CONCACAF Champions Cup, as both finalists and the third-place winner in the Leagues Cup will be in the region’s premier club championship next year.

With the way things are going, this run seems set to carry on for some time.

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