"Nothing has changed for me after the events of the match that took place. Messi has always been a great player. I don't want to hear any negative things about his recent performance.
"No matter what people say about Messi's productivity, it has clearly decreased. But Messi is Messi, he is still a great player. We will focus on starting the match in the best way and be very careful," coach Rob Valentino emphasized before Atlanta United rematched with Inter Miami in the decisive match for the ticket to the semi-finals of the MLS Cup playoffs, at 8am on November 10.
American press assessed that Messi's productivity has decreased significantly in the MLS Cup play-off round.
Atlanta United made a spectacular comeback to defeat Inter Miami 2-1 on November 3 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in front of 68,455 spectators, in the second match of the "3 matches" series in the first round of the MLS Cup (American professional soccer) playoffs.
Messi played quite quietly in this match, missed many scoring opportunities and could not help his team maintain the advantage after David Martinez's opening goal of 1-0 at the end of the first half. In the second half, Atlanta United played more impressively, scoring 2 goals by Derrick Williams and Xande Silva to win 2-1 and tie the score after 2 matches. In the first match on October 26, Inter Miami won by the same score at home at Chase Stadium.
In the last 2 matches in the MLS Cup playoffs, Messi played the entire match, but he did not leave a real mark as expected when he only had 1 assist and still did not score. Therefore, the American press has many assessments that Messi's productivity seems to have decreased. Thereby, it will help Atlanta United have more hope to do the most surprising thing of the season, which is to overthrow the number 1 championship candidate Inter Miami right from the first round of MLS Cup.
This also happened when the underdog New York Red Bulls shockingly eliminated Columbus Crew in the first round after 2 wins. Columbus Crew was the reigning MLS Cup champion and also a strong candidate to defend the championship, but had to leave the race early.
Messi has been training hard all week to prepare for the decisive match.
If Messi and his teammates are not careful, they could follow Columbus Crew in leaving the game early, ending the season in disappointment and shattering their dream of winning the MLS Cup in 2024.
However, good news came to Messi and Inter Miami just 1 day before the match, that is, key midfielder Sergio Busquets returned to training in time and will be healthy enough to play in the decisive match against Atlanta United on November 10. Players Diego Gomez and David Martinez also returned in time, only defender Yannick Bright was absent.
Inter Miami will have all the best players in their must-win match. Previously, the famous trio of Messi, Luis Suarez and Jordi Alba have been training very hard since the beginning of this week. They showed that they are always ready to play a decisive match with Atlanta United, to win and help Inter Miami get a ticket to the next round.
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/hlv-clb-atlanta-united-noi-dieu-bat-ngo-ve-messi-truoc-cuoc-tai-dau-inter-miami-18524110910372811.htm
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