Inter Miami loses 3-1 to Vancouver (5-1 aggregate), ousted from Champions Cup semis
Against steep odds, Lionel Messi and his Inter Miami teammates showed up at Chase Stadium Wednesday night highly motivated to overcome a two-goal deficit against the Vancouver Whitecaps in the second and decisive leg of the Concacaf Champions Cup semifinal.
“Anything is possible, absolutely anything,” Miami coach Javier Mascherano said on the eve of the game.
But there would be no miraculous comeback on this night in Fort Lauderdale. Quite the opposite. Miami got its only goal early from Jordi Alba, lost 3-1 (5-1 aggregate), and was eliminated from the tournament.
It was Miami’s third loss in a row. The men in pink trudged off the field with their heads held down and went straight to the locker room, not stopping for the customary salute to the diehard “La Familia” fans in the north stands, who tried to will their team to victory.
Meanwhile, Vancouver’s players sprinted to the southwest corner of the stands, where a few hundred Whitecaps fans were delirious. Vancouver will face a Mexican opponent in the June 1 final, either Tigres or Cruz Azul, which are tied 1-1 heading into their second leg Thursday.
As FC Barcelona teammates, Mascherano, Messi, Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba were part of one of the greatest comebacks in soccer history, rallying from down 4-0 against Paris Saint-Germain to win 6-1 in the 2017 Champions Cup Round of 16 and advance 6-5 on aggregate.
But they were not as fortunate this time.
“The first half, we started how we wanted to, went ahead early, and were within one goal from tying and still had a chance, but what we didn’t expect is that in a span of three or four minutes at the start of the second half, we would be knocked out of the tournament,” Mascherano said.
“The opponent was much better than us. That is why they are in the final and we aren’t. I still feel we competed, but to be honest, it’s hard to say this after losing 5-1. But we had a few chances, Tadeo [Allende] had an open chance that could have tied it. We were facing a very good opponent, and if you make a mistake they are are going to punish you. We made errors, and they scored two goals in three minutes. That’s unacceptable in a semifinal, especially right after halftime. It happened to us against Dallas a few days ago, and again in this game.
“We need to learn from the last week because obviously, the feeling we have is very, very bad. We have conceded more goals than we had in the past. But we cannot just cry, we need to push another step and improve. I think this team can do much better.”
Vancouver coach Jesper Sorensen said his team had a big advantage entering the game with a 2-0 lead.
“We did ourselves a good favor last week because we didn’t need to rush things, didn’t need to go panicking because we were up 2-0, and in the second half the pitch was open,” Sorensen said. “We came out strong from the start of the second half and exploited that the pitch was very open. They had some players that stayed up front, so they had to defend with a few guys. So, we just said, `Keep on running.’’’
Miami wasted no time mounting its comeback, closing the series gap to 2-1 as Alba scored in the ninth minute with a nice finish from the left side with an assist from Suarez. Messi got the sequence started with a long pass to Suarez.
The home crowd had reason to be hopeful at that moment and remained optimistic with a 1-0 halftime lead. But the Whitecaps were about to crush Miami’s spirit.
Brian White scored the equalizer in the 51st minute with an assist from Sebastian Berhalter (son of the former U.S. national team coach Gregg Berhalter), and two minutes later, Miami’s defense was exposed again when Ecuadorean Pedro Vite’s goal gave Vancouver the lead. Then, at the 71-minute mark, Berhalter made it 3-1. Vancouver took advantage of its speed in the counter-attack, won duels and found scoring opportunities when Miami’s defense was caught flat-footed.
“We knew they had to go up high and could not wait, so we knew they’d play one on one on the last line and we knew we had a lot of speed there,” said Sorensen. “We knew we could run with Miami. When we scored the first goal, it seemed our players relaxed a little bit and grew more confident and you could see some of the Miami players went down.”
Asked how they stopped Messi and Suarez, who were held scoreless in both games, Sorensen said: “You cannot stop them. You try to limit them. You cannot let Messi see just one man, because he’s too good. You have to have an eye on Suarez, who is a very clever player. He bounces off defenders before he receives the ball, has a good first touch and is very underrated in that he has a good eye for his teammates. So, we needed to make a plan for them. Busquets had too much space in the first game, we were better at limiting him [Wednesday].”
Inter Miami is the latest big-name team to fall to Vancouver, the top team in the MLS Western Conference. Before knocking off Messi and his high-priced teammates, the Whitecaps eliminated Mexican teams Monterrey and Pumas.
“Sometimes being an underdog can make it easier, you can play with a little more freedom,” Sorensen said. “This team has built belief and confidence. They are learning to control their emotions. When you play a team like Miami and you are inexperienced, it is difficult because he is the best player in the world. Maybe some of our players had a poster of him when they were kids. My son had, he’s 24, so when players like that come to town, the hype around the game, everybody goes bananas.
“We had 53,000 spectators [for the first leg]. We never have 53,000 spectators. So, you have to control those emotions.”
Miami needed to win by three goals in regulation to advance to the June 1 championship game, where a $5 million prize is on the line. A 2-0 Miami win would have sent the match to extra time and penalties, if needed. If Vancouver scored even one goal in regulation, a Miami winning margin of two or less would not have been enough.
Inter Miami was the fourth MLS team to lose a semifinal first leg by a 2-0 score on the road and none of the four were able to overcome the deficit.
Mascherano and his team drew on memories of their previous comeback victories, and came into the game with reason to be hopeful. They scored three second-half goals against LAFC (two from Messi) to overcome a two-goal deficit in the Champions Cup quarterfinals earlier this month.
But on this night, it was a very different ending. There was no magic from Messi, and his supporting cast was unable to deliver, either.
Inter Miami returns to Chase Stadium Saturday for a 7:30 p.m. league game against New York Red Bulls.
“We have to move on, and right now our focus is on MLS,” Mascherano said. “I’m not even thinking about Club World Cup yet. That is a month and a half away. All that matters now is the league.”
This story was originally published April 30, 2025 at 8:34 PM.