Inter Miami CF learned on Friday night the beauty, and peril, of the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs is that you just never know for certain.
Regardless of seeding, home-field advantage or reputation, it’s an arena where individual players can seize the moment and underdogs so often roar, complicating life for even the heaviest of favorites.
Alba's brilliance
Miami are most definitely the latter in their Round One series vs. Atlanta United, and eventually proved as much over the 90-plus minutes of Game 1 at Chase Stadium – though it was left back Jordi Alba, not Leo Messi, who played the role of matchwinner, assisting on Luis Suárez’s second-minute opener before lashing home a long-range blast to head off the Five Stripes’ upset bid with a tense 2-1 W.
“It’s not easy to find fullbacks who are so decisive, who contribute so much to the offensive game of the team – Dani Alves, Cafu, Marcelo, Roberto Carlos, they’re all at that level,” said IMCF head coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino in Spanish postgame, ranking Alba among the great attacking fullbacks in world soccer history.
“Technically, he has a quality that is very rare in a wide defender, and is better when he understands where Luis and Leo are and can find them, and how they can find him, if they can find Jordi. For sure, it is difficult to find a player who plays in his position and is as decisive.”
Atlanta's ace
The Spaniard’s excellence provided another reminder of the daunting wealth of weapons at the Herons’ disposal. Yet it was a compliment to the visitors that the full-time whistle on Miami’s victory, the first postseason win in their five-year history, brought relief rather than exultation.
That was thanks to the dogged resistance of the Five Stripes and their ageless goalkeeper Brad Guzan, whose eight saves turned a should-have-been rout into a nailbiter despite ATL’s obvious fatigue just 72 hours after their upset of CF Montréal in the Eastern Conference Wild Card match.
“It’s no small matter for us, defeating Atlanta for the first time this season,” said Martino, whose side suffered one of just two home losses in 2024 league play at the hands of ATLUTD, a 3-1 setback on May 29.
“If it hadn't been for Brad's performance, the match would have had a bigger difference in goals.”
Added midfielder Yannick Bright: "When the level goes up in playoffs, our level has got to go up too. Obviously they were a good team, they played well. We just showed them that we're the better team, and we've got to keep doing that."
Finding a way
Guzan’s tenacity, combined with a moment of creative brilliance from Saba Lobjanidze and Pedro Amador that brought Atlanta level in the 39th minute, forced Miami to sweat more than expected. Yet a stark expected-goals difference of 3.5-0.7 highlighted the regularity with which the hosts unlocked their adversaries, limiting the dissatisfaction of Martino & Co.
“We probably played 70% of the match within 50 meters of the goal we were attacking; we had a lot of good situations around goal,” said the coach.
“We were frustrated at halftime because inexplicably, we were tied at one, but I think that the team still has the capacity of being patient and not becoming disorganized in any other circumstances. Knowing how important this one is as a home game, we could have become disorganized and given them opportunities, and none of that happened.”
Added midfielder Diego Gómez: "This was a complicated game. We know Atlanta is a challenging rival, and we are very happy."
Fray scare
Yet that too felt like cold comfort to IMCF, Martino explained, because of the long shadow cast across his squad by an injury to second-half substitute Ian Fray.
The Herons' homegrown defender hit the turf clutching his right knee after a non-contact play, the despair on his face suggesting that he’d suffered another incident of serious damage to his knee – sinking Rosanegra hearts who watched in awe as Fray, 22, bravely and methodically recuperated from not one but three ACL tears over the early stages of his first-team career.
Last year Messi memorably dedicated his heroics in his Herons debut, a dramatic Leagues Cup win over Cruz Azul, to Fray after the youngster tore his ACL in that match, and Fray’s subsequent recovery had earned him real buzz for the ‘24 MLS Comeback Player of the Year award. Martino could provide no diagnosis in his postgame press conference, cautioning that medical evaluations were still in process, but made clear IMCF are bracing for the worst.
“In the end, I think we feel not as much satisfaction as we could have in the development of the match, more because of Ian,” said the Argentine. “We are all a little bit sad, expectant, waiting to see what injury he has.”
Closing it out
In the meantime, focus now shifts to next weekend’s Game 2 at ATLUTD’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, a homecoming of sorts for Martino, who led the Five Stripes to the 2018 MLS Cup title and remains a beloved figure in the club’s history.
Miami can sweep the series and advance to the Conference Semifinals with a win, though they expect to be put through their paces on the spacious pitch and fast synthetic turf at MBS.
“They work very well. Rob [interim coach Rob Valentino] is doing a very good job training them,” said Martino. “In Atlanta, with how wide it is, it's going to be difficult for us, as this opponent has been throughout the season.”
