FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Pascal Jansen may have summed up one of the biggest challenges that New York City FC will face Saturday against Inter Miami as succinctly as possible.
“[Lionel] Messi is a league of its own, that’s clear,” he said.
That has never felt more true than this postseason run for Messi and Inter Miami, which has rolled through the Chicago Fire and toppled No. 2 seed Cincinnati FC 4-0 to reach the Eastern Conference Finals.
And Messi, widely considered one of soccer’s greatest players, has had six goals and six assists in four postseason matches, while contributing to 71 of Inter Miami’s goals in 2025 between the regular season and playoffs.
Inter Miami’s use of Messi as a false nine during the postseason has allowed Messi to seemingly be even more dangerous on the pitch, positioned in the middle of Tadeo Allende and Mateo Silvetti.
It has allowed Messi more freedom and has contributed to the offensive output of both Silvetti and Allende.
“I think it’s just a full team effort,” Kevin O’Toole said about shutting down Messi. “Intensity in the midfield and covering ground, and making sure that he doesn’t have so much time to face forward and look to play balls in behind us or run at us. It’s just a collective effort every time, just closing out the areas that he pops up in, and doing the best we can limiting him, because he’s going to have his moments throughout games. That’s inevitable.
“He has throughout his entire career, as we’ve all seen, so, yeah, it’ll take a collective to try to slow him down.”
Inter Miami’s success goes beyond just the star power of Messi.
Silvetti has a goal and an assist since head coach Javier Mascherano opted to keep the 19-year-old in the starting lineup over star Luis Suárez.
Allende has found the back of the net twice in the past two matches and the Miami roster features plenty of talent.
“A lot of people can assume it’s Messi against all these other teams, but that’s not the case. They have great players, whoever they want to play in the starting 11,” Jansen said.
“It looks like the team is in a good place at the moment, scoring a lot of goals, slightly different game plan,” the NYCFC coach later explained. “We have to take all those things into account.”
The firepower behind Inter Miami has painted New York City FC — which fell to Miami 4-0 at Citi field in their last meeting in September — as the underdog, which is a narrative that has followed them in the playoffs.
NYCFC have been the lower seed throughout the postseason run and being without leading goal scorer Alonso Martinez and midfielder Andrés Perea has only helped feed into that. Nevertheless, it’s not something that the team has bought into.
“I didn’t look at us as underdogs. I don’t know who did that, but that wasn’t me or us around here,” Tayvon Grey told The Post. “I’d like to think both teams have a chance. That’s really it, it’s up for grabs right now.”
Though the perception may be there, NYCFC has turned plenty of heads during the playoffs.
They’ve been a true definition of road warriors, having lost just one of their last nine matches away from the five boroughs and NYCFC is the only club in the postseason to win three times on the road.
“That’s not a word that I’ve been using,” Jansen said when asked about the underdog label. “That’s something that has been used by the outside world. It is what it is. I think we have earned our right to be in this final, and we’re going to give it everything we have in order to get a good result against Miami.”
Mascherano stressed NYCFC’s success to his club Friday during training, he told reporters.
“We have to understand that even though we earned home-field advantage, Saturday’s game will be very difficult,” he said. “Our mentality and our vision in this next game is we must go for it from the opening minute, the way we did against Nashville and Cincinnati.”
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