Messi's Miami opens playoffs as MLS Cup favorites, though history isn't on their side

The 2024 MLS Cup playoffs kick off on Tuesday following a marathon regular season, with Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami the clear favorites to win the title.

Messi and Miami will meet the winner of Tuesday’s single elimination Eastern Conference wildcard between CF Montreal and Atlanta United. The Vancouver Whitecaps and Portland Timbers will contest the West’s play-in on Wednesday, with the best of three game Round 1 series beginning with the Oct. 25 opener between the Herons and Atlanta/Montreal. All matches are available on Apple TV.

Messi just led Miami to the greatest regular season in MLS’s 29-year history; the GOAT scored an 11-minute hat trick in Saturday’s campaign-ending comeback win over the New England Revolution, a victory that gave the Herons a league record 74 points.

The Supporters Shield triumph means that Miami will enjoy home field advantage throughout the postseason. It also qualified Tata Martino’s squad for the 2025 Club World Cup, FIFA president Gianni Infantino announced on the Chase Stadium field following Saturday’s victory. Infantino also revealed that the Herons will host the opening match of the tournament at 65,000-capacity Hard Rock Stadium.

FIFA’s decision wasn’t without controversy, though, for good reason: MLS Cup is the league's most prestigious award, one that has for almost three decades now determined the champion of the U.S. and Canada’s top league. The Supporters Shield doesn't.

Yet while the commercial appeal of having Miami participate in its expanded Club World Cup is obvious, it’s not as if Marino’s team — one rounded out by Messi’s former Barcelona teammates Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets and Luis Suárez — isn’t a more than worthy representative for MLS.

Miami can make FIFA’s decision