Inter Miami’s Thrashing Lays Bare The Gap Between MLS And Europe

After Inter Miami crashed out of the Club World Cup following a 4-0 dismantling at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain on Sunday, Jordi Alba succinctly summed his team’s predicament.

“They make you doubt yourself because they control the match and have a lot of players around you — it’s really tough,” the Spaniard said.

A six-time LaLiga winner, Alba knows a great team when he sees one and the reigning European champions certainly fit in the category.

The cream of the crop in the Champions League, PSG were far too good for Inter Miami in Atlanta.

It took the Ligue 1 champions six minutes to open the scoring via Joao Neves, who then doubled his team’s lead with 39 minutes played.

By half-time, PSG were 4-0 up after an own goal from Tomas Aviles and a strike from Achraf Hakimi, the gulf in class between the two teams laid bare for all to see.

PSG lay bare the gap between Europe and the MLS

The result, of course, should come as no surprise. PSG are the best team in Europe, Inter Miami are not even the best team in the MLS and their mere presence in the tournament was met by criticism.

The Herons received a pass for the Club World Cup after FIFA deemed to be the MLS domestic champions after finishing with the best regular season record.

Los Angeles Galaxy, who won the MLS Cup in December, missed out.

And if their inclusion in FIFA’s newest jamboree was built on shaky foundations, Inter Miami flew the American flag longer than most.

The Herons were the only MLS side to reach the knockout stages, with Los Angeles FC and Seattle Sounders crashing out in the group phase.

MLS commissioner Don Garber described Inter Miami’s date with PSG as a historic day for the league and one that should be “celebrated”.

But there was little cause for celebration at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium after Luis Enrique’s men swatted away Lionel Messi and his teammates with minimum fuss.

PSG’s budget is approximately 15 times bigger than Inter Miami and it showed.

At 38 years of age, it is no longer plausible to expect Messi to perform miracles every time he steps on the pitch.

Against PSG, the Argentine had just 14 touches in the first half, while Luis Suarez had three more. In midfield, their fellow former Barcelona teammate Sergio Busquets, completed only 10 passes in his first 45 minutes.

Time, as the old adage goes, waits for nobody and facing Europe’s elite clubs is beyond the means of Messi and his fellow ageing stars.

Similarly, his younger supporting cast may be good enough to cope with the MLS’ demands, but was brutally exposed at this level.

“The game played out as expected,” Messi told Argentine broadcaster DSports on Sunday.

“[PSG] are a great team, they’re the current Champions League winners. We tried to do our best and I think we left a positive impression at this Club World Cup. We competed and that’s that.”

A look at the respective teams on Sunday told the story.

PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma won Euro 2020 with Italy, while his Inter Miami counterpart, 38-year-old Oscar Ustari, was a broadcaster with Telemundo last year before joining the Herons.

PSG’s midfield trio of Neves, Vitinha and Fabian Ruiz have a combined 84 international caps for Portugal and Spain respectively, while Federico Redondo has just 30 MLS appearances to his name.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, meanwhile, cost the European champions £59m ($80m) and has scored eight goals and registered eight assists in 29 appearances in all competitions since joining from Italian side Napoli in January.

MLS urged to relax roster rules

A decade after Garber predicted the MLS could be on par with LaLiga and Italy’s Serie A, the chasm in quality poses a difficult conundrum for a league.

At the root of the issue are the MLS’ roster restrictions, which limit a team’s power to strengthen beyond a number of eye-catching marquee signings.

Before the start of the tournament, Inter Miami co-owner Jorge Mas told ESPN more roster flexibility would allow MLS teams to improve.

“Roster flexibility is something that we’ve worked on and will continue to work on in order to allow us to have deeper rosters,” he said.

“The difference between our teams and some of the teams that we face in international competitions is not necessarily our starting XI […] but is the difference between our starters and our subs who are coming in to make an impact that is different.”

“Obviously in the end those limitations prevent you from having more top-quality players,” Alba said on Sunday.

“But knowing that almost all the great players are in Europe, I don’t think MLS is going to change that either.

“Still, I think we should be proud of how we played — proud of the guys, of everyone. They gave it their all, and you can’t ask for more than that.”

Mascherano, meanwhile, was non-committal on the issue, suggesting “the MLS know better than me what they have to do to make the league progress.”

And yet, Inter Miami’s tournament should not be defined by their thrashing against PSG.

In only their sixth season, the Herons drew against Al Ahly and Palmeiras, before shocking Porto in their final group match to secure a berth in the Round of 16.

Off the pitch, the signing of Messi remains a stunning coup for the club and the MLS as a whole, but the challenge now will be to build on the excitement generated by his arrival.

Inter Miami are back in action on Saturday, when they return to MLS duty as they visit Montreal only hours after PSG face off Bayern Munich in a glamorous quarter-final at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

The tie means Europe will have at least one representative in the semi-finals, with Palmeiras and Fluminense still flying the flag for Brazil and Al-Hilal the only Asian team left in the tournament after shocking Manchester City on Monday.

The MLS, meanwhile, is back to being an interested spectator at least for now. Whether that is a role it will have to settle for in the future depends on the league itself.