The quest for LaFC Concacaf becomes more difficult with Lionel Messi and Inter Miami – Orange County Register

Concentrated now instead of what could be, the push of the Los Angeles Football Club to play in a third final of the CONCACAF Champions Cup undoubtedly reached its most difficult test.

Having killed the rapids of Colorado and the formidable Columbus Crew during the previous towers of the continental competition, Wednesday Lafc welcomes Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba among a deep and dangerous Squad Inter Miami which is 8-0-1 in all competitions under the intermittent and dangerous coach Javier Mascherano.

“He did an excellent job,” said Lafc head coach Steve Cherundolo about Mascherano, an Argentinian 40 years old who played with Messi at FC Barcelona and the national team until 2018. “If you just judge his performance as a coach by results, winning eight of your nine, the best start for the club, is fantastic Miami.

“It is our job to make sure that this little race stops.”

Although all systems have been systems for Inter Miami, who beat Sporting Kansas City FC rider and Jamaican Cavalier to reach the quarter -final of the CONCACAF Champions Cup, LaFC produced performances from top to bottom six weeks after the start of the season.

“I think you saw two sides of the medal with Lafc,” said Cherundolo. “An aggressive and compact team that stays together and does things together and I think it’s a very dangerous and very good team. You also see a complacent and more passive team, and I think it’s more an average team.

“It is not acceptable and it is not possible to achieve your objectives and your ambitions at the LAFC if you have two very contrasting faces and performances. It will not work. It is up to us to change this.”

After a defeat of the regular MLS season in San Diego, Lafc has a 5-5-0 sheet in all competitions, although two of their losses made it possible to win victories at the Concacaf.

Advocating in front of Miami to play Vancouver or Pumas in the semi-finals would help relieve concerns.

Playing the BMO Stadium before the leg return to the Chase Stadium on April 9 in Ft. Lauderdale, Cherundolo thinks that Lafc identified vulnerabilities to counter Inter Miami, citing moments when visitors dressed in pink showed teeth in transition but sacrificed the chances on the other.

Lafc striker Denis Bouanga will seek to exploit the spaces behind Miami’s defense after being big against Columbus in the round of 16, when he scored three of the four goals of the club in this series. Overall, Bouanga shone in the CCC, totaling 10 goals and four assists in 12 appearances.

Messi, of course, brings a threat that adversaries cannot explain on an individual basis. The Black & Gold are familiar, losing 3-1 against Inter Miami at the BMO Stadium in 2023 thanks in part to two Messi Assists.

Mascherano said on Tuesday that Messi was in good health to play but did not donate her hand if he would start.

Lafc’s goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, whose French team lost penalties against Messi and Argentina during the FIFA World Cup final in Qatar, said it was always a big challenge to try to beat “one of the best players in football history”.

“We are preparing the game to find a collective solution,” said Lloris. “We have to perform in our best. I think there are a lot of expectations around our performance and we have to increase our level of intensity when you face this type of players – Messi, Suarez, Busquets, Alba. ”

Seven Inter Miami players struck the back of the net this year. Appearing in six of the nine Inter, Messi, the 37 -year -old engineer, has five goals (one every 82 minutes) plus a pair of assists.

“Wherever special players appear, you have to be there and they should feel,” said Cherundolo. “They need to feel pressure and they should be stressed. And with the ball, they must be occupied on the defensive. It is never a simple effort. It is always a collective effort. “

Inter Miami Cf à Lafc

When: 8:30 p.m. Wednesday

Or: Bmo

TV / Radio: VIX, FS1, Tudn, Unimás / 710 AM, 980 AM

Originally published: April 1, 2025 at 4:59 p.m.