MLS

Inter Miami solve “complicated” Atlanta United in playoff opener

Inter Miami solve "complicated" Atlanta United in playoff opener

Inter Miami CF learned on Friday night that the beauty, and peril, of the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs is that you just never know for certain.

Regardless of seeding, home-field advantage or reputation, it’s an arena where individual players can seize the moment and underdogs so often roar, complicating life for even the heaviest of favorites.

Miami are most definitely the latter in their Round One series vs. Atlanta United, and eventually proved as much over the 90-plus minutes of Game 1 at Chase Stadium – though it was left back Jordi Alba, not Leo Messi, who played the role of matchwinner, assisting on Luis Suárez’s second-minute opener before lashing home a long-range blast to head off the Five Stripes’ upset bid with a tense 2-1 W.

“It’s not easy to find fullbacks who are so decisive, who contribute so much to the offensive game of the team – Dani Alves, Cafu, Marcelo, Roberto Carlos, they’re all at that level,” said IMCF head coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino in Spanish postgame, ranking Alba among the great attacking fullbacks in world soccer history.

“Technically, he has a quality that is very rare in a wide defender, and is better when he understands where Luis and Leo are and can find them, and how they can find him, if they can find Jordi. For sure, it is difficult to find a player who plays in his position and is as decisive.”

The Spaniard’s excellence provided another reminder of the daunting wealth of weapons at the Herons’ disposal. Yet it was a compliment to the visitors that the full-time whistle on Miami’s victory, the first postseason win in their five-year history, brought relief rather than exultation.

That was thanks to the dogged resistance of the Five Stripes and their ageless goalkeeper Brad Guzan, whose eight saves turned a should-have-been rout into a nailbiter despite ATL’s obvious fatigue just 72 hours after their upset of CF Montréal in the Eastern Conference Wild Card match.

“It’s no small matter for us, defeating Atlanta for the first time this season,” said Martino, whose side suffered one of just two home losses in 2024 league play at the hands of ATLUTD, a 3-1 setback on May 29.

“If it hadn’t been for…

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