A dejected-looking Lionel Messi walked off the pitch in defeat on Wednesday after his Inter Miami team were exposed in emphatic fashion by a young Vancouver Whitecaps.
The 3-1 loss in the second leg of their Concacaf Champions Cup semi-final meant a 5-1 aggregate defeat to the Canadian side and no one who watched the games would question whether the scoreline was a fair reflection of the games.
A Miami team built around Messi and ageing former teammates from his Barcelona heyday – Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba – backed up mainly by journeymen players from South America, showed their age against a Whitecaps team that was faster and sharper in all areas.
Last year Miami won the Supporters Shield – for the best regular season record in Major League Soccer, with a record-breaking campaign but were surprisingly beaten by Atlanta United in the first round of the MLS Cup play-offs.
The 38-year-old Suarez, who like Messi scored 20 goals in MLS last year, now appears totally spent, his legs no longer able to get him in the positions his experience tells him he needs to be.
Busquets is a sorry shadow of the outstanding midfielder he once was and Alba, while still an attacking threat, appears to have been given permission to ignore his defensive duties.
