Major League Soccer clubs have competed in Concacaf competitions since the league launched in 1996. The overwhelming majority of those games have not carried the aura of a special occasion in the way UEFA Champions League or Copa Libertadores fixtures can in Europe and South America.
Thanks largely to Lionel Messi, 2025 has been the exception. Everywhere Inter Miami has played during their run to the Concacaf Champions Cup semifinals has had a big-time feel, from their frigid start in the first round against Kansas City, to a trip to Jamaica’s national stadium in Kingston, and to a meeting at LAFC earlier this month that brought out a lengthy list of celebrities.
And that continued Thursday night in Miami’s 2-0 loss in Leg 1 against the Vancouver Whitecaps at B.C. Place. Despite having only 15 days to sell the match following their quarterfinal victory over Pumas UNAM, the Whitecaps drew a sell-out crowd of 53,837 for the fixture.
There are very few athletes on earth, let alone soccer players, who create as much organic interest in every appearance as does Messi. So it’s not like MLS, Concacaf, or its teams can just copy some formula to replicate what he brings to a stadium.
Even so, the focus he has brought to continental competition in Concacaf should provide a few lessons for both the league and its clubs as it continues the work of growing the game both domestically and across the continent.
MLS Needs More Stars Playing Its Biggest Games
Messi is the exception to the rule in so many ways across his career. And in MLS terms, that includes being the rare big-name star who actually delivers competitive results in proportion with expectations.
While Messi is the biggest name to play in MLS, there have been others in the same general stratosphere. But too often, those teams are sacrificing a lot elsewhere on their roster to attract those big names while still conforming to MLS roster rules. And the result is that many of players with the biggest starpower in MLS never play in continental competition.
Take the trio of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Wayne Rooney and David Villa, who played portions of eight MLS seasons combined between 2014 and 2019. Those stars played in exactly zero Concacaf fixtures combined.
The reason Messi has succeeded where those others failed is as much about his popularity with other players as his individual ability. Miami has had an explicit advantage in signing other supporting cast members to play alongside Messi because they were willing to take team-friendly contracts.
Good Teams Can Capitalize On Visiting Team Star Hype
Another notable feature of Messi’s Concacaf away matches is that, despite the increased crowd sizes in Los Angeles and Vancouver, both clubs enjoyed a very real home-field environment.
This was also the case in league play this past weekend, when the Columbus Crew moved their home game against Miami to Cleveland to play before more than 60,000 fans, a club-record crowd nearly triple the size of what they can fit at Lower.com Field.
The lesson here is that smaller markets that can’t attract Messi or other stars of similar caliber to their rosters can still benefit from their presence by fielding a product that is competitive against them. It’s the games when Messi has played before large crowds against clearly inferior sides – like at Kansas City or New England last year – where the “away” games truly felt like more neutral environment.
Aggregate Goals Are Superior To Three-Game Series
Throughout Miami’s two matches against LAFC and its first game against Vancouver, part of what made the contest so gripping was that quite literally every goal or potential goal had the potential to significantly alter the course of a two-game series.
That’s because the Concacaf Champions Cup – just like knockout play in the Champions League and Copa Libertadores – is contested via a two-match, aggregate goals format.
For example, Miami won its series over LAFC 3-2, losing the away match 1-0 but then earning a 3-1 victory at home.
Portions of the MLS Cup Playoffs were also contested in this manner at one time. But since MLS has been partners with Apple TV, it has settled on the awkward format of a best-of-three series for the first round, with single elimination matches from the conference semifinals onward.
There is merit to single elimination, especially when league standings are used to determine home field. But if Apple TV execs have been watching Concacaf this month, hopefully they’ll see the aggregate-goal format offers far more consistent drama than the best-of-three series does.
