Inter Miami lost its third straight preseason game, 6-0 to Al-Nassr, on Thursday. It bled goals to the Saudi Arabian club, even with Cristiano Ronaldo absent. With Lionel Messi also resting, reportedly protecting against an injury, Miami didn’t score any. And naturally, panic began to percolate.
This was Miami’s third goose egg in four preseason friendlies.
It was the most alarming of four feeble displays — a 0-0 draw in El Salvador, followed by a 1-0 loss to FC Dallas, then a 4-3 loss to Al-Hilal, and now a 6-0 spanking.
It triggered frightening memories of the team’s two 2023 pitfalls: a leaky defense and Messi’s fragility.
But no, none of this is cause for overwhelming concern — nor is it evidence that the Saudi Pro League dwarfs MLS.
“It’s still a friendly, it’s still a preseason match,” Miami midfielder Julian Gressel said Wednesday, prior to the overhyped Al-Nassr showdown. “So, we don’t really want to pay too much attention to the result itself.”
It was a meaningless game contrived to attract eyeballs and dollars. It was less than three weeks into a preseason planned less to prepare Inter for its season, more to capitalize on Messi’s commercial pull.
It was always going to kindle debates about the relative strength of MLS and the Saudi league. But those debates are silly. Of course two Saudi superpowers with near-limitless wealth, both midway through dominant seasons, were going to beat a Miami team constrained by a salary cap and still building match fitness — especially if Messi didn’t play.
He began Thursday’s match on the bench. The Miami Herald reported that he felt a “twinge” Monday against Al-Hilal. Discomfort lingered into Wednesday, so he underwent a scan. “As a precaution, based on the test results and how he felt, the coaches and medical staff opted to give [Messi] a few days to recover,” the Herald reported.
Without him, Inter Miami crumbled, almost instantly. They were down 1-0 after three minutes, 2-0 after 10, and 3-0 after 13. The third Al-Nassr goal came from former Manchester City center back Aymeric Laporte, from inside his own half.
Anderson Talisca, a Brazilian forward formerly of Benfica and Besiktas, completed a hat trick after halftime. The barrage and the final…