{"id":166287,"date":"2026-02-23T23:40:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T23:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/166287\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T23:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T23:40:14","slug":"should-messi-inter-miami-be-concerned-after-season-opening-blowout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/166287\/","title":{"rendered":"Should Messi & Inter Miami be concerned after season-opening blowout?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christian Polanco and Alexis Guerreros of The Cooligans react to The Herons\u2019 3-0 defeat to LAFC on Saturday and what it means for this season. Check out the full conversation on the \u201cThe Cooligans\u201d podcast – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a>, YouTube<\/a>, or wherever you listen.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Video Transcript<\/p>\n

Look, my theory, as you know it, Christian, is that the first 10 matches of an MLS season really don’t matter.<\/p>\n

That’s basically still pre-season, ’cause everyone makes it in the playoffs, but you don’t wanna get blown out on your season opener, especially if you’re the champion.<\/p>\n

Should Messi, should Miami fans be worried about this?<\/p>\n

I mean, if you have Messi on your team, why bother worrying?<\/p>\n

But it was a, a interesting, reality of like, oh, they did make a lot of changes.<\/p>\n

Busquets is gone- Mm-hmm Alba’s gone, and this team genuinely looks a little bit different, and it looks like they’re gonna have some a- there’s gonna be a clear adjustment period, even though Messi is there.<\/p>\n

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It’s not just that generally looks different.<\/p>\n

I mean, this team looks like I think now we’re gonna see exactly what Javier Mascherano\/Messi\/ you know, Suarez, can really do to bring this team together, and it’s Look, you’ve- we’ve got a lot of time, but I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, LAFC, they’re coming in with a brand-new coach.<\/p>\n

They’ve got some new additions to the team.<\/p>\n

They also have some stuff to prove, right?<\/p>\n

The Shirondo era is over.<\/p>\n

now it’s the Dos Santos era, and they looked unified.<\/p>\n

They looked like they were You know, they’ve been playing together for years.<\/p>\n

They look like they’ve been playing under the system, which, granted, it’s not that much different.<\/p>\n

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It’s a little bit more possession-based than I think it was under Shirondo, but it’s really not that different, at least from what we’ve seen so far.<\/p>\n

Well, when you go to Miami, it looks like they just, they just met.<\/p>\n

It was really rough- Yeah and Messi, in particular, didn’t have a great game, and I think that calls into question how much of a loss Busquets might actually be, because if you’re Messi, you can’t do it all on your own.<\/p>\n

He can’t, he can’t m- make all the calls.<\/p>\n

He can’t make all the movements.<\/p>\n

He can’t, you know, pass to all the players and put them in, in great position and then also get in position to himself.<\/p>\n

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We’re talking about a, what, a 38-year-old man?<\/p>\n

Like, you need to be able to service him.<\/p>\n

You have to be able to get him the ball, and right now, without Busquets, who is that?<\/p>\n

Who’s supposed to be that guy?<\/p>\n

Messi and the referees.<\/p>\n

Let’s get into it.<\/p>\n

This is an official statement from PRO.<\/p>\n

I just wanna mention- Exclusive on The Cooligans.<\/p>\n

‘Cause I, I, I contacted PRO directly.<\/p>\n

Quote, “It’s a glass door.<\/p>\n

People have to be clever enough to know you don’t have transparent doors on rooms people get dressed in, surely,” close quote.<\/p>\n

Maybe he wouldn’t have gone in, but he was just simply trying to get the ref’s attention, asking about a certain foul or whatever.<\/p>\n

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I tried to think back, ’cause I watched the game.<\/p>\n

I tried to think back, like, what’s the moment he’s probably most upset about?<\/p>\n

there was, there was a moment where he ran into the back of, Was it I can’t remember what player he ran into, and he sort of hurt his- he hurt his head.<\/p>\n

He laid on the ground for a little bit.<\/p>\n

Yes.<\/p>\n

And I believe- Port- Porteus.<\/p>\n

Porteus, yeah.<\/p>\n

Ryan Porteus, yeah.<\/p>\n

And I believe that wasn’t called as a foul, and I There was, like, a He- I mean, they were kinda They were hunting him a little bit, and maybe that’s what he was upset about.<\/p>\n

I wish I knew exactly what he was upset about, but you know- There was another, there was another foul, like, at the top of the box that I think he wanted he, he wanted it to be a foul, but I think the player did get the ball.<\/p>\n

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and he seemed pretty upset about that one.<\/p>\n

I think the most- I don’t- I think the most important thing of it all is when Luis Suarez is telling you, “Yo, you’re going too far,” you’re definitely going too far.<\/p>\n

You know what I mean?<\/p>\n

That’s a, that’s a moment to worry.<\/p>\n

The video is kind of crazy to see, Luis Suarez being like, “Yo, you gotta chill, dog.”<\/p>\n

Close<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christian Polanco and Alexis Guerreros of The Cooligans react to The Herons\u2019 3-0 defeat to LAFC on Saturday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[15001,12071,15000,63686,123,125,124,3063],"class_list":{"0":"post-166287","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-alexis-guerreros","9":"tag-apple-podcasts","10":"tag-christian-polanco","11":"tag-lafc","12":"tag-miami","13":"tag-miami-headlines","14":"tag-miami-news","15":"tag-youtube"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}