“Our biggest dream is coming,”
Inter Miami
warned
in the material it used to promote its first participation in the
Champions Cup of the Confederation of North, Central America and the Caribbean Football
(Concacaf).
This Thursday he will begin his journey in that tournament that can give him a place in the next edition of the Club World Cup: Lionel Messi
's team
will visit Nashville SC from 11 p.m. at the Geodis Park stadium in the capital of the state of Tennessee in the match of first leg of one of the keys to the round of 16.
After a promising start in
Major League Soccer
, with two victories (against Real Salt Lake and Orlando City) and a draw (with Los Angeles Galaxy) in the first three days, the team led by
Gerardo Martino
will debut in the main club competition of Concacaf, which he accessed for having won the Leagues Cup in August 2023, in the final of which he beat Nashville SC on penalties.
Of the four competitions in which it will participate this year, the Concacaf Champions Cup is the most seductive for the Florida team because of the doors it could open for them.
The champion will enter the first edition of the expanded Club World Cup
, which will be held in mid-2025 in the United States with the participation of 32 clubs from the six confederations that make up FIFA, and will also qualify for the premiere edition of the new Intercontinental Cup , which will be played in December of this year.
Messi with the Leagues Cup champion medal. (Reuter)
To achieve these awards, the
Herons
will have to travel a path that is not so long, but demanding in the 59th edition of a tournament that, with changes in name and format, has been held since 1962, whose current monarch is the Mexican Lion and that historically It was dominated by the teams from that country: they won 38 titles, including 17 of the last 18.
Only three American teams took the crown
: DC United in 1998, Los Angeles Galaxy in 2000 and Seattle Sounders in 2022.
The access routes to the Champions Cup are several and include privileges for teams from the three most powerful countries in the region: there are places reserved directly for teams from the MLS, the Mexican Liga MX and the Canadian Premier League, and It can also be reached through the other three subcontinental club competitions organized by Concacaf: the Caribbean Cup, the Central American Cup and the Leagues Cup.
Inter Miami won the Leagues Cup in August 2023 and this gave it access to this edition of the Concacaf Champions Cup.
Photo: Chris Arjoon / AFP.
Although the doors are open to the clubs of the 41 affiliated federations, it is difficult to find a representative from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados or Antigua and Barbuda in the decisive instances.
Ruthless logic has limited the fight in recent years to the two Concacaf giants.
Nothing indicates that this year will be the exception: of the 16 teams still in competition (11 were already eliminated in the first round, which was played in February),
eight are Americans and five are Mexican
.
Only Herediano and Alajuelense from Costa Rica, and Robinhood from Suriname, break that hegemony.
The Concacaf Champions Cup represents
the most important challenge in the very short history of Inter Miami
, a franchise that began competing in the MLS in 2020. Therefore, the structure that belongs to David Beckham and the brothers Jorge and José Mas Santos He made a strong commitment to form a squad that allows him to rise to the challenge.
To do this, he followed the line that he had started in mid-2023, when he had made a huge splash and had hired Messi and two of his old squires in Barcelona: Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba.
In that transfer window he had also added Tomás Avilés from Santa Cruz, Facundo Farías from Santa Fe and Paraguayan Diego Gómez (captain of his country's under-23 team that won the Venezuelan Olympic Qualifiers less than a month ago).
Luis Suárez scored his first two goals with the Inter Miami shirt on Saturday against Orlando City.
Photo: Megan Briggs / Getty Images via AFP.
In the last transfer period, the big impact was the incorporation of the
Uruguayan Luis Suárez
.
But German Julian Gressel (arrived from Vancouver Whitecaps) and two men trained in the lower divisions of Argentinos Juniors were also hired by the pink team:
Nicolás Freire from San Juan
(he made his official debut over the weekend against Orlando City) and
Federico Redondo
(he was presented on Tuesday).
The Paraguayan Matías Rojas
could join them in the next few hours
.
The 28-year-old midfielder declared himself free from Corinthians last week as a result of the debt that the Brazilian club owes him.
Although in those hours both Boca and Mexican clubs were mentioned as possible destinations, the next station in his career would be the Florida team.
His incorporation would help fill the gap left by
the injury of Facundo Farías
, who suffered a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee on January 19 in a friendly against the El Salvador national team and will have to remain inactive for at least five months. further.
Federico Redondo joined Inter Miami last week.
Photo: Inter Miami.
With this reinforced team,
Inter Miami will debut against Nashville SC
, a rival that began its participation in the MLS season with two draws (0 to 0 with New York Red Bulls and 1 to 1 with Colorado Rapids) and that comfortably surpassed the first round of the Concacaf Champions Cup, leaving Moca FC of the Dominican Republic on the way with an overall result of 7 to 0. The Tennessee team has as its figures
the English striker Sam Surridge
and his ideal strike partner,
the German Hany Mukhtar
.
But both were injured in recent days, did not play the weekend against Colorado and will be in doubt until the last minute.
The rematch of this series
will be played next Wednesday at 10:15 p.m. at the DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale
.
The winner will face the winner of the match between Monterrey and FC Cincinnati in the quarterfinals, which also this Thursday on American soil will play the first leg of their round of 16 bracket.