By Paul Tenorio, Felipe Cardenas and Pablo Maurer
Lionel Messi is a game-time decision for the U.S. Open Cup final as he recovers from what Inter Miami coach Tata Martino has previously described as “fatigue.”
Speaking ahead of Wednesday’s final against the Houston Dynamo, Martino said he will meet with Messi over the next two days to determine whether the Argentine superstar can play a role in the game.
“I’ll sit down with him and see how he feels,” Martino said. “We always talk. I really don’t know if later on the resolution that we make is the one that we agree on. Perhaps tomorrow we’ll get together and see what he says.”
Martino said that Messi would not play if Wednesday’s game was an MLS regular-season game. That it’s a final with a trophy on the line, however, has changed the equation. Messi played and scored for Argentina on Sept. 7 in a World Cup qualifier against Ecuador, but exited the match after 88 minutes. He traveled with the team to Bolivia for the second qualifier in the international window but did not play and was not available for selection.
Messi returned to Inter Miami and missed the game at Atlanta on Sept. 16, but returned to the field and started against Toronto FC on Sept. 20. In the 36th minute, however, Messi had his hands on his knees near midfield, then handed the captain’s armband to DeAndre Yedlin and was subbed off in the 37th minute. Messi then missed Inter Miami’s subsequent game, a 1-1 draw at Orlando City on Sunday.
Martino acknowledged the delicate balance of providing information around Messi’s status, while also trying to be coy about the game plan ahead of a key final.
“First of all, I say this having known the league from having been with Atlanta for two years: in reality, at every club, there are very few reports of who is injured, who will travel, who won’t travel,” Martino said. “And here it’s a special situation. If Leo wasn’t in Inter Miami, we wouldn’t be talking about an injured player. You ask me very few times about Gregore or Mota. And that happens. And after that, and this is just part of football — you’re talking about the best player in the world.
“I have to acknowledge something that would modify the approach of our opponent. And why give that information out if I can keep it to myself? I know that his presence is of interest to people in terms of whether to buy a ticket or not. What we want is to try and win the game. You win the game by being better than your opponent, but it’s small details that can make things work better for us. We understand the expectations and the desire to know (about Leo).”
Left back Jordi Alba also exited the Toronto FC match early due to fatigue, and Martino indicated he did not think Alba would be available for Wednesday’s final.
Martino was asked whether he pushed Messi too hard by playing him in the game against Toronto before he was ready to return.
“I won’t say no,” Martino said. “Sometimes it’s difficult because between the medical team, the technical staff and the player we talk, we look at how the player feels. The last 48 hours before the game he did everything he needed to to have a good solution and in the end what happened, happened. It’s a lot easier with the result in the rear view. Sometimes we get it right and sometimes we get it wrong. It’s possible we got it wrong.”
Messi’s longtime teammate, Sergio Busquets, was rested for Sunday’s game against Orlando City but spoke at the press conference about the difficulty of managing minutes, as well as the expectations of fans who come to see Miami’s three big stars: Messi, Alba and Busquets.
“We understand that people come to see us and it’s who we play for, but we’re not machines or robots,” Busquets said. “We’d like to play every game, every minute, not ever get injured or fatigued. But that’s not something we control … At the end of the day, you also have to think about the success of the team in the long term.”
It would obviously be a massive blow for Inter Miami to be without Messi as they try to capture their second trophy since he signed with the team on July 15. Messi scored 10 goals in his first seven games to lead Miami to the Leagues Cup trophy. He also provided two assists in the Open Cup semifinal as Inter Miami downed FC Cincinnati in penalties. Messi then scored against the New York Red Bulls on Aug. 26.
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“It’s a handicap when you don’t have the best player in the world, of course,” Busquets said. “But we’ll wait and see till tomorrow, maybe there’s a chance that he can be there and help us. But if not there will be another teammate who, with their quality, will contribute.”
Busquets added: “I think Leo has the desire to help the team and to win another championship. But like we said earlier, he’s going to know how much he can contribute. Every day that passes is a point in favor of how much he can contribute. but like we saw the other day, even after resting during Argentina’s game and our game at Atlanta, and seeming perfectly fine, (he ended up not being ready to go).”
Messi played 600 minutes in August, exceeding any calendar month in minutes played since he left Barcelona in 2019. Martino emphasized that the club had to measure Messi’s health the rest of the season against the risk of playing him in the Cup final.
Martino said the team remains focused on trying to sneak into the playoffs. Miami was in last place in the league when Messi arrived. The team sits in 14th place out of 15 teams in the Eastern Conference, five points out of a playoff spot, albeit with games in hand on most of the teams ahead of them in the standings.
Miami plays NYCFC on the weekend at home, then travels to Chicago on Oct. 4 and hosts FC Cincinnati on Oct. 7 before the October FIFA international window.
“Obviously the league objective was the most difficult one,” Martino said. “But where we are right now, we’re going to keep trying (to make the playoffs).”
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Martino stopped short of saying that Messi might be shut down for the rest of the season.
“In reality, it doesn’t occur to us that he wouldn’t play the rest of the year,” Martino said. “If we’re here evaluating whether he can play tomorrow or not, in no way are we thinking that he might miss the rest of the league’s games. Of course, the possibility exists that the medical department tells us that we’d be running a risk, we’d eventually decide not to run those risks. But as of today, we don’t consider that possibility of him missing those games.”
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(Photo: Carmen Mandato / Getty Images)