Messi traveled to Montreal, expected to play as Inter Miami resumes MLS action Saturday
Inter Miami returns to MLS action on Saturday after its Club World Cup exit, and coach Javier Mascherano said captain Lionel Messi will travel to Montreal with the team and is fit and ready to play.
“Yes, why not?” Mascherano replied, when asked Friday morning if Messi would be traveling and available for the match.
The coach dismissed any suggestion that the 38-year-old Argentine legend might stay home to rest following four intense Club World Cup matches.
“No, no, no, luckily we had a long week, and that served us well,” Mascherano said. “We gave them two days off, especially the ones who had played the most minutes, so, yes, Leo is available and barring anything strange happening he will travel.”
That said, Mascherano does plan to do some roster rotation in the coming weeks as Inter Miami has seven games over the next 25 days, including four of the next five on the road.
“Clearly, we have a lot of games coming up, plus all the ones we have already played, so we will need everyone to participate,” he said. “We’ll see how we can manage some roster changes without feeling it too much because I don’t like to change six or seven players from one match to the other.”
Missing from Miami’s game roster on Saturday will be injured players Yannick Bright, Gonzalo Lujan, and David Ruiz, who practiced separately on Friday and are expected to return soon. Noah Allen and Ian Fray, who were injured during the Club World Cup, were not at training, and are out indefinitely. Goalkeeper Drake Callender continues to recover from surgery for a sports hernia.
Although facing CF Montreal, the last place team in the Eastern Conference, is not as glamorous as facing European champion Paris Saint-Germain, Brazilian power Palmeiras, Porto of Portugal and African champion Al-Ahly, Mascherano and midfielder Telasco Segovia insisted the team enters Saturday’s game highly motivated to climb the MLS standings.
Inter Miami has ground to make up, as it slipped from third place to seventh during its Club World Cup break and now sits 11 points behind first-place Philadelphia Union, 10 behind second-place Cincinnati and nine behind third-place Nashville. The top seven qualify for the playoffs, which begin in late October. The eighth and ninth place teams enter a playoff for the final spot.
Inter Miami exceeded expectations in the Club World Cup, getting through the group stage undefeated before a 4-0 loss to PSG in the Round of 16. That success injected the team with confidence and motivation, according to Mascherano and his players.
“In a competition like the Club World Cup, where we were one of the weaker teams, that’s the truth, we had a great group stage and then, unfortunately, we had to face the most dangerous opponent in the world,” Mascherano said. “If we could compete at that level, there is no excuse to not compete in our domestic league. That should be a confidence boost for all our players going forward.
“Against opponents like Porto and Palmeiras, all of us from South America know that is such a strong club with a highly respected coach, and we were 10 minutes from beating them.”
Segovia echoed his coach’s sentiments.
“We had a great tournament overall in the Club World Cup and now we shift our attention to the league,” Segovia said. “We are motivated against Montreal because we want the earn three points, and we want to be in first place in the league. We have a lot of games this month and we want to win them all.
“The level of competition in the Club World Cup was very high and we benefited from that because it let us know that if we play like we did against Porto and Palmeiras, we can win the league.”
Due to its tournament commitments, Miami has played four fewer matches than most of its Eastern Conference rivals and has not played a league match since its 5-1 win over the Columbus Crew in late May. The next stretch of the schedule is jam-packed as the team tries to catch up.
Following the Montreal game, Inter Miami plays at New England on July 9, at home against Nashville on July 12, on the road at Cincinnati July 16, on the road at New York Red Bulls on July 19, and then at home against Cincinnati on July 26.
As if that weren’t enough to keep Messi and his teammates busy, the month-long Leagues Cup, which pits MLS vs. Mexico’s Liga MX, kicks off in late-July. Miami’s opening group stage match is July 29 against Atlas.
“Our motivation now is to compete in our league, and to achieve something this club has been aiming for year after year,” Mascherano said. “We want to get as far as we can, qualify for the playoffs, be in position to have home field advantage, and from there we’ll see what happens at the end of October.”
Meanwhile, Montreal is coming off its first home victory of the season.
Last weekend, Montreal beat New York City FC 1-0. The team was missing Caden Clark (knee), Giacomo Vrioni (elbow), Jalen Neal (ankle), Fabian Herbers (hamstring), Joel Waterman (Gold Cup national team duty) and Olger Escobar (Gold Cup national team duty).
How to watch Inter Miami vs. CF Montreal: The match kicks off at 7:30 p.m. and will be shown on Apple TV MLS Season Pass.
This story was originally published July 4, 2025 at 12:43 PM.