Lionel Messi, Inter Miami suffer damaging loss to Vancouver in first leg of Concacaf Champions Cup

With a dagger in the 85th minute of Sebastian Berhalter, the Vancouver Whitecaps are a step closer to their first performance in the Concacaf Champions Cup final in club history after beating Inter Miami with 2-0 for a plash of more than 53,000 fans. From the first kick, the Whitecaps were faster to fly to tackles and win second balls, even to take the ball from Lionel Messi’s foot in the box at critical moments. The Jesper Sorensen team was well prepared at the moment, and it showed even without any of their best players such as Ryan Gauld.

Star Striker Brian White continued his campaign to merge the National Team Striker Depth Chart of the United States with a head goal, and stuck to the cross of Pedro Vite in the box to put Vancouver only 24 minutes in the game. From there, Vancouver could have been back to try to defend what they had, but instead the Whitecaps kept pushing forward, so Miami kept the pressure with their attack.

The herons had their chances, but only made two shots on goal during the entire game, Vancouver was able to dictate the conditions, something that Miami manager Javier Mascherano was on your guard. Despite the beating of the Columbus crew at the weekend, the warning signals were there for Inter Miami when they lost the XG struggle and almost lost the game. Despite making changes in midfield such as bringing in Federico Redondo, it was Pedro Vite and Berhalter who controlled the competition.

There was no part of the field that Berhalter did not cover, because he made his own name in American football after his father, Gregg Berhalter, represented the USMNT at the highest levels, both as a player and a coach before he now helped turn the fire of Chicago. Berhalter has grown since the Columbus Crew system comes to Vancouver and he now enjoys a Breakout season under Sorensen while the Whitecaps Leiden the Western Conference.

Opposite Miami this was a struggle for the two best teams in MLS so far this season and the Whitecaps showed that you do not always need a globally recognized star to achieve a critical victory in a knockout match. They will still have to be wary of the second stage after Inter Miami had overcome a 1-0 loss in the first stage to defeat Los Angeles FC in the quarterfinals, but that is where getting the extra goal is useful.

Road goals are still a tiebreaker in the Concacaf Champions Cup, so if things are, only a 2-0 win in Miami at home would force extra time. If Vancouver scores in Fort Lauderdale, the Herons would then need four goals to prevent the defeat, a tough achievement, even for a team of their talent level.

While Miami has been successful with Messi on the Roster, after being transferred to Tata Martino, after the MLS Cup -Play -Offs came out in the first round, but the same questions are still so far below Mascherano. A strong MLS regular season is not enough for this team and Mascherano acknowledged the importance of the game that was on the way to things. Now that Miami is lagging behind, they must show the same fire that they have confronted with Lafc, but unlike black and gold, the Whitecaps are less likely to collapse under pressure.

With large depth players such as Robert Taylor now disappeared and more, such as Julian Gressel, is also on the road, how Mascherano will be in balance. Games count and Miami will organize FC Dallas this weekend before playing the second stage of this semi -final on 30 April.

Between now and then Mascherano Luis Suarez will need to find his finishing boots. The Uruguayan has now gone six games without a target contribution and eight without scoring. When players such as Tadeo Allende HOT became hot, it was something that Miami could overcome, but on do-or-those moments they need the player who scored 25 goals in all competitions last season. If he is not there yet, Miami can get into trouble in the long term.