Messi puts first in the Champions Cup: which tournament can take Inter Miami to the Club World Cup?

“Our biggest dream is coming”warning InterMiami in the material he used to promote his first participation in the Champions Cup of the North American, Central American and Caribbean Football Confederation (Concacaf). On Thursday he will begin his journey in that tournament which could give him a place in the next edition of the Club World Cup: the team Lionel Messi will visit Nashville SC from 11pm at the Geodis Park stadium in the Tennessee state capital in the first leg of one of the round of 16 matches.

After a promising start in Major League Soccerwith two wins (against Real Salt Lake and Orlando City) and a draw (against Los Angeles Galaxy) in the first three matchdays, the team led by Gerardo Martino He will make his debut in the main Concacaf club competition, in which he participated for winning the League Cup in August 2023, in the final of which he beat Nashville SC on penalties.

Of the four competitions it will participate in this year, the Concacaf Champions Cup is the most seductive for the Florida team due to the doors it could open for them. The champion will participate in the first edition of the expanded Club World Cupwhich will be played 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 first edition of the new Intercontinental Cup, which will be played in December of this year.

To get these rewards, the Herons They will have to travel a path that is not so long, but challenging in the 59th edition of a tournament which, with changes in name and format, has been held since 1962, whose current monarch is the Mexican León and which has historically been dominated by the teams of that country: they have won 38 titles, including 17 of the last 18. Only three American teams have won the crown: DC United in 1998, Los Angeles Galaxy in 2000 and Seattle Sounders in 2022.

The access routes to the Champions Cup are multiple and include privileges for the teams of the three most powerful countries in the region: there are places reserved directly for the teams of the MLS, the Mexican Liga MX and the Canadian Premier League, and you 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.

Although the doors are open to clubs from the 41 member associations, in decisive cases it is difficult to find a representative from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados or Antigua and Barbuda. A ruthless logic has limited the fight in recent years to the two Concacaf giants. Nothing suggests that this year will be an exception: of the 16 teams still competing (11 had already been eliminated in the first round, played in February), eight are Americans and five are Mexican. Only Herediano and Alajuelense of Costa Rica, and Robinhood of Suriname, break this hegemony.

The Concacaf Champions Cup represents the most important challenge in the very short history of Inter Miamia 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 bets heavily on the formation of a team that allows it to be up to the challenge.

To do this, he followed the line he had started in mid-2023, when he had made a great success and signed Messi and two of his old squires from 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 the Paraguayan Diego Gómez (captain of his country’s under-23 team that won the Venezuelan Olympic qualifiers less than a month ago).

In the last transfer period, the big impact was the incorporation of The Uruguayan Luis Suarez. But the German Julian Gressel (arrived from the Vancouver Whitecaps) and two men trained in the lower divisions of Argentinos Juniors were also signed in the squad: Nicolas Freire of San Juan (officially debuted this weekend against Orlando City) and Federico Redondo (it was presented on Tuesday).

They could be added in the next few hours the Paraguayan Matías Rojas. The 28-year-old midfielder declared himself free from Corinthians last week due to the debt the Brazilian club owes to him. Even if in those hours there was talk of both Boca and Mexican clubs as possible destinations, the next stop in his career would have been the Florida team. Incorporating him would help fill the remaining void Facundo Farías’ injurywho suffered a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee on January 19 in a friendly match against the El Salvador national team and will have to remain inactive for at least another five months.

With this strengthened provision, Inter Miami will debut against Nashville SCa rival that began its participation in the MLS season with two draws (0 to 0 with the New York Red Bulls and 1 to 1 with the Colorado Rapids) and which comfortably passed the first round of the Concacaf Champions Cup, leaving the road to Moca FC of the Dominican Republic with an overall result of 7 to 0. The Tennessee team has the numbers to English striker Sam Surridge now his ideal attacking 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 revenge of this series It will be played next Wednesday at 10.15pm at DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale. The winner will face the winner of the match between Monterrey and FC Cincinnati in the quarterfinals, who will also play the first leg of the round of 16 on American soil this Thursday.