{"id":18095,"date":"2025-10-23T23:41:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T23:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/18095\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T23:41:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T23:41:08","slug":"mls-cup-or-bust-inter-miami-set-high-expectations-for-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/18095\/","title":{"rendered":"MLS Cup or bust? Inter Miami set “high expectations” for playoffs\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

If Inter Miami CF<\/a> are among the Audi 2025 MLS Cup Playoffs favorites, they\u2019re not acting like it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have confidence in the team. We have the best player of them all, and we\u2019re very excited,\u201d star midfielder Rodrigo De Paul<\/a> told reporters before the Herons host Nashville SC<\/a> in Friday\u2019s Round One Best-of-3 Series opener (8 pm ET | MLS Season Pass, Apple TV<\/a>; FS1, FOX Deportes).<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in football, the best or more deserving team doesn\u2019t always win.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n Ghosts of 2024?<\/p>\n

The latter statement hits particularly close to home for the Herons, whose historic 2024 Supporters\u2019 Shield-winning season ended with a shocking Round One elimination against No. 9-seeded Atlanta United<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Homegrown defender Noah Allen<\/a> was a part of that squad and wants nothing more than to exorcise the ghosts of last year’s playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we remember what happened last year, and we’re going to try to avoid that in every way possible,\u201d Allen said.<\/p>\n

\u201c… I think everyone who was here last year kind of remembers it, so it kind of stays with us. So, I think that’s one of the big reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

For head coach Javier Mascherano, who replaced the outgoing Gerardo \u201cTata\u201d Martino ahead of the 2025 campaign, any type of motivation is valid for a club that\u2019s expected to contend for every trophy on offer \u2013 including a first-ever MLS Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s clear is we\u2019re entering the most important stage of the season,\u201d Mascherano said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to do everything possible to start the best way possible and, more than anything, advance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s clear that we have the responsibility to win the series.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n More Messi<\/p>\n

Fortunately for Miami, they\u2019re entering Friday\u2019s showdown at Chase Stadium with a fully healthy squad, highlighted by the newly re-upped Lionel Messi<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The legendary Argentine No. 10 has officially extended his contract<\/a> with the Herons through the 2028 MLS season, giving him more time to build on a legacy that includes Supporters\u2019 Shield (2024) and Leagues Cup<\/a> (2023) titles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have high expectations for ourselves,\u201d Allen said. \u201cI feel like we have the highest standards in the league in ourselves. We want to win every trophy possible.<\/p>\n

“We want to win MLS Cup.”<\/p>\n

\n Nashville reunion<\/p>\n

Miami\u2019s path to the Dec. 6 final begins against Nashville, a side they beat by a 5-2 scoreline<\/a> on Decision Day behind a Messi hat-trick.<\/p>\n

In addition to locking up the 2025 MLS Golden Boot presented by Audi<\/a> with his stellar performance, Messi improved to 10 goals in seven matches against the Coyotes. Miami also haven\u2019t lost to Nashville since Messi\u2019s mid-2023 arrival in South Florida, posting a 6W-0L-2D record across all competitions.<\/p>\n

And yet, Mascherano believes last Saturday\u2019s lopsided result doesn\u2019t tell the whole story of what transpired at GEODIS Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were maybe lucky to not have conceded more goals in the first half. We gave up chances that we can\u2019t give up tomorrow,\u201d Mascherano noted. \u201cFrom that perspective, we have to make some adjustments and repeat what we did in the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even with recent history on Miami\u2019s side against Nashville, they’re solely focused on the present moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s one thing that\u2019s beautiful about this sport, it\u2019s that once the game starts, there are no more candidates,\u201d Mascherano said. \u201cThe candidates exist before the match.<\/p>\n

“Then, you have to show it on the pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If Inter Miami CF are among the Audi 2025 MLS Cup Playoffs favorites, they\u2019re not acting like it.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5429,12629,123,125,124,11970,5426,4959],"class_list":["post-18095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-inter-miami-cf","tag-match-previews","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-miavsnsh-10-24-2025","tag-mls-cup-playoffs","tag-sendtonews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18095","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=18095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}