Inter Miami eliminated from Concacaf Champions Cup
Inter Miami CF's dreams of a second continental trophy were dashed Wednesday night following a 3-1 loss at CF Monterrey in the Concacaf Champions Cup quarterfinals second leg. Combined with last week's 2-1 victory, Monterrey advanced 5-2 on aggregate and will meet the Columbus Crew in the semifinals in late April.
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There’s always a ripple effect from Concacaf Champions play. The teams who are lucky/unlucky enough to take on the region’s best are almost always slowed and occasionally derailed in MLS by their participation. Remember that time Seattle won the whole thing and then missed the playoffs? Balancing an extra competition within the confines of MLS roster rules can be quite difficult.
So, now that (almost) everyone has wrapped up their CCC campaign, it seems like a good time to assess how participating teams have handled two competitions so far and where they might be going.
But before we start sorting through what another round of Concacaf Champions Cup left in its aftermath, we need to acknowledge that there’s one team left standing. The Columbus Crew pulled off a remarkable win on Wednesday against Tigres that firmly cemented them as the best side in MLS. Some teams can match their talent, but no one has their collective confidence and understanding of how to execute within their system.
We don’t know yet how a deeper run into CCC will affect the Crew, but our best guess is that they’ll be similar to last year’s Philadelphia side that recovered from a semifinal loss to put together a 55-point season. It’s difficult to even envision a world where this Crew team falls off significantly as long as the roster stays intact and healthy. Remember that time Seattle won the whole thing and then missed the playoffs primarily because João Paulo tore his ACL in the final?
Columbus should be fine. Maybe a trip to the semifinals signals a probable end to a possible Supporters’ Shield run, but that seems like a fair trade.
Anyway, we know the Crew are good. Let’s check in on everyone else.
Did the universe quietly gift Vancouver the best CCC draw?
The ‘Caps were never going to win this competition. Let’s be real. But they’re a good team who can do damage in MLS. They not only got an immediate excuse to lose when they pulled Tigres in the first round, but circumstances dictated that they got to play those games two-and-a-half weeks before the MLS season even started.
They were out of the tournament on Feb. 14 and didn’t open their MLS season until March 2. That’s plenty of time to recover, reset and even take some lessons from a challenging start to the year. Guess who’s on top of the West after six games?
St. Louis CITY dropped out in the first round after blowing a 2-1 first-leg lead against Houston. Unfortunately, they didn’t get the same runway that Vancouver did. They had two MLS games on either side of their short-lived CCC existence. They handled those well, picking up four points… but they haven’t won a game since then. They do have five draws, though.
To be honest, that doesn’t feel so much like a CCC thing as it does a “totally median MLS team” kind of thing.
Nashville took care of business against Dominican side Moca in the first round before getting run over by Inter Miami in the second. It’s tough to say whether their relatively miserable start directly correlates to dealing with CCC games early on, but it couldn’t have helped. Losing Walker Zimmerman to injury during that Miami series has been especially damaging. They have seven points through seven games and have given up a very un-Nashville 13 goals. That’s tied for the second-worst mark in the East.
That being said, it feels like extra games and injuries have only exacerbated problems that were already there. This team has been trending negatively since the Leagues Cup final last year.
The Garys had a genuine shot at making a deep run, but they ran into Rayados in the second round. Cincy held their own in that matchup, but no one can blame them for coming up short against the five-time champs. Fortunately, they got to refocus on MLS quickly. Since dropping out, they’ve taken seven points from four games and are near the top of the East, right where everyone expects them to be.
It’s a bit weird that they’ve only been able to score seven times in seven games, but there’s no real reason to worry about the reigning Shield-winners right now.
The same goes for the Union. However, there were genuine reasons for concern after they got run off the field against Pachuca. That 6-0 loss felt like it could be a turning point for the worse in Philadelphia. We’d never seen them fold like that. What if it meant they were about to spiral?
Instead, the Union picked themselves up off the mat and won three of their next four. They’re MLS’s last undefeated team and second in the East after six games. They scared us for a moment, but the floor is still high in Philly.
Losing in the second round doesn’t actually seem to be so bad as long as you stay healthy. In Houston’s case, they lost DP forward Sebas Ferreira in the first round against St. Louis, but got him back shortly after bowing out against the Crew in the second round. Even before they got him back though, they were already starting a three-game winning streak.
That streak came to a close against Chicago last weekend, but the Dynamo should actually be feeling optimistic with Ferreira back and Héctor Herrera slowly but surely working his way back onto the field after an injury. They have 10 points in six games despite injuries and CCC, and they’ll be a better team soon.
Then again, losing in the second round can be kind of tough if you’re still trying to find yourself early in the season. The Lions fell to Tigres in the second round and haven’t recovered yet in MLS.
They have one win on the season so far and it came at home against Austin. That record has them 14th in the East with just five points through six games and a -6 goal differential. That’s a terrifying start for a team who came into the year hoping to flip the narrative of extreme xG overperformance in 2023 and a bad offseason afterward.
Right now, they don’t seem to know what to do with both Duncan McGuire and Luis Muriel, and they still haven’t filled the creative void in central midfield that everyone said they needed to fill.
Then again, they had nearly this exact same start last year and that worked out pretty ok.
This… couldn’t have gone worse. The Revs cruised past two winnable rounds of CCC only to get steamrolled by Club América in the quarterfinals by an aggregate score of 9-2.
In the meantime, they’ve been floundering trying to keep up with two competitions. They’re dead last in the East after six games. They have a -6 goal differential and just picked up their first MLS win last weekend.
At least now they can put their full focus into MLS, but, man, there’s a long road ahead of this team if they want to be a playoff side.
And that brings us to Inter Miami.
They haven’t beaten any of the allegations so far. They’ve struggled defensively, they can’t stay healthy and they’re lacking athleticism up top. Those issues were exposed in a major way last night. Then again, how many MLS teams are actually going to go into Monterrey and come out alive?
Either way, it’s fair to say that we expected different from Inter Miami. The standard they set with their spending indicated they were aiming to go toe-to-toe with the giants of Liga MX and come out on top. Instead, they fell short.
So, now what?
Well, they probably go out and earn a ton of points as a flawed but still solid MLS team. The bright side here is that they can go ahead and focus on salvaging the rest of the season. Yeah, that sounds dramatic after a somewhat standard CCC loss, but again, Miami’s expectations were different this year. If they don’t go out and push for the Shield, then 2024 will be a disappointment. And CCC play has already contributed to a not-quite-Shield-level 1.5 points-per-game start.
The safe bet is that they’re in the Shield conversation from here on out anyway. But it’s not a given. Not like a lot of folks assumed it would be.
- The Crew made history against Tigres.
- Andrew Wiebe is here to answer your questions in his latest mailbag.
- Travis Clark picked out the standouts from Generation adidas Cup.
- Seattle Sounders FC's Raúl Ruidíaz won the AT&T Goal of the Matchday.
Good luck out there. If you’re gonna do it, make it look good.
