{"id":67124,"date":"2025-12-01T22:58:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T22:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/67124\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T22:58:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T22:58:12","slug":"how-inter-miami-reached-mls-cup-5-biggest-moments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/67124\/","title":{"rendered":"How Inter Miami reached MLS Cup: 5 biggest moments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Inter Miami CF<\/a> are on the brink of MLS glory, needing just one win to lift the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy for the first time in club history.<\/p>\n

Inter Miami’s MLS Cup run has been a long time coming. Two-and-a-half years, to be exact.<\/p>\n

The July 2023 arrival of Messi<\/a>, followed by fellow FC Barcelona legends Sergio Busquets<\/a> and Jordi Alba<\/a>, set in motion a transformative process that reaped immediate rewards with the conquest of that year’s Leagues Cup title<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Another Bar\u00e7a icon, Luis Su\u00e1rez<\/a>, joined in 2024<\/a> to complete Miami’s “Core Four” that guided the club to a record-setting Supporters’ Shield<\/a> haul.<\/p>\n

Now, in 2025, Messi & Friends hope to add a third piece of silverware to the club’s trophy cabinet. And it’s arguably the most coveted prize of all: the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy.<\/p>\n

Miami’s Messi-led project took a slight detour after last season when head coach Gerardo Martino departed the club<\/a>, citing personal reasons.<\/p>\n

Tata’s replacement was announced within days, with fellow Argentine Javier Mascherano taking the reins<\/a> ahead of the 2025 campaign.<\/p>\n

The former Argentina youth national team manager, himself a Barcelona great and one-time teammate of Messi for club and country, has navigated a jam-packed schedule, leading the Herons to the Concacaf Champions Cup<\/a> semifinals, Leagues Cup<\/a> final and FIFA Club World Cup<\/a> knockout stage.<\/p>\n

Along the way, Mascherano made tactical and personnel adjustments to help Miami hit their stride in the Audi 2025 MLS Cup Playoffs. The Herons have outscored their opponents 17-3 in the postseason, while winning each of their last three matches by four-goal margins.<\/p>\n

Miami again swung for the fences<\/a> during the 2025 summer transfer window, signing superstar midfielder Rodrigo De Paul<\/a> in July.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old joined on loan from LaLiga giants Atl\u00e9tico Madrid, with an option to make the deal permanent through 2029.<\/p>\n

De Paul has fit in seamlessly to Miami’s system, contributing five assists (regular season and playoffs) while playing the “Messi’s bodyguard”<\/a> role he mastered during Argentina’s 2022 FIFA World Cup<\/a> conquest, with hopes of a possible title repeat in 2026.<\/p>\n

First things first, De Paul and Messi are eying MLS Cup to clinch their first-ever title together at the club level.<\/p>\n

Messi has brought the magic for Miami since day one, beginning with his storybook Leagues Cup<\/a> 2023 title and followed by a record-setting 2024 Supporters’ Shield crown paced by a Landon Donovan MLS MVP<\/a>-winning campaign.<\/p>\n

So how does the greatest player of all time top that? By producing yet another MLS MVP-worthy season with 29g\/19a, which earned him the 2025 MLS Golden Boot presented by Audi<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Incredibly, Messi has turned it up yet another notch in the playoffs, reaching historic form by notching 13 goal contributions (6g\/7a) to shatter the record for a single postseason. He’s also getting help from fellow attacker Tadeo Allende<\/a>, who’s made playoff history of his own by scoring eight goals to tie the single-postseason record (LA Galaxy<\/a>‘s Carlos Ruiz in 2002).<\/p>\n

With Messi showing no signs of slowing down, the legendary No. 10 looks determined to add MLS Cup to his already unrivalled resum\u00e9.<\/p>\n

From late-game substitute to written-in-pen starter, Mateo Silvetti<\/a>‘s playoff breakout is one for the ages.<\/p>\n

The U22 Initiative forward, signed in August<\/a> from Newell’s Old Boys in his native Argentina, had only made one start for Miami before filling in for the suspended Su\u00e1rez in Game 3 of their Round One Best-of-3 Series against Nashville SC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Silvetti seized his moment and hasn’t looked back, essentially taking over Su\u00e1rez’s job. With 2g\/3a over the past three games, the 19-year-old has developed instant chemistry with compatriots Messi and Allende, helping Miami outscore their opponents 13-1 during that span and hit peak form ahead of MLS Cup.<\/p>\n

In October, Silvetti scored three knockout round goals for Argentina en route to a runner-up finish at the 2025 FIFA U-20 World Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Inter Miami CF are on the brink of MLS glory, needing just one win to lift the Philip…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[38585,5429,123,125,124,39287,5426,4959],"class_list":["post-67124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-essentials","tag-inter-miami-cf","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-miavsvan-12-06-2025","tag-mls-cup-playoffs","tag-sendtonews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67124","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=67124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}