Messi calls for unity after Inter Miami slump to another defeat

Lionel Messi urged Inter Miami to stay together after Sunday night's 3-0 home defeat to Orlando City extended the team's dour run to one win, one draw, and five losses in their last seven games.

"(We need to) keep going. It's a complicated time," Messi told Apple TV post-match, according to ESPN's Lizzy Becherano. "But we'll all stay united. We're a team in difficult times, because when everyone wins, it's easy, but now that difficult times are coming, that's when we have to be more united than ever, be a true team, and move forward, because we have what it takes."

The cold stretch is a stark change for an ambitious Inter Miami project that soared in 2024, winning the Supporters' Shield with a Major League Soccer regular-season points record of 74. However, the team has regressed since Messi's former Barcelona and Argentina teammate Javier Mascherano replaced Gerardo "Tata" Martino as head coach in the offseason.

Messi, his long-time colleagues from his Barcelona days - Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets, and Jordi Alba - and other players in Mascherano's ranks appeared tired and hampered by an unbalanced lineup in a 5-1 aggregate defeat to the Vancouver Whitecaps in the CONCACAF Champions Cup semifinals in April. Their league form has fallen off a cliff since the two-legged affair with Vancouver kicked off.

Miami's last seven games

Inter Miami are sixth in the MLS Eastern Conference, seven points adrift of first-placed Philadelphia Union. Miami travels to Philadelphia next Saturday.

The MLS franchise, which counts David Beckham as one of its owners, is desperate to avoid global embarrassment as it takes its woeful form into the Club World Cup. Inter Miami open the U.S.-hosted tournament with a match against Egypt's Al Ahly on June 14 before meetings with Portugal's FC Porto and Brazil's Palmeiras conclude their group stage.

"We're coming off a period of bad results," Messi said. "But we have to keep working and think about what's next. With three or four games left in May, we (have to) finish the best possible way to be able to face the Club World Cup."

The pressure is rising on Mascherano. The former defensive midfielder, whose many major honors as a Barcelona player included two Champions League crowns, tried to deflect scrutiny away from the stars in his squad.

"It's clear that we must overcome this all together because clearly this team has shown, especially at the beginning of the season, what they are capable of," Mascherano said Sunday.

"Right now, I take full responsibility. I will not point out any players publicly, I am not that way. No one enters the pitch trying to have a bad time or to suffer. Every player tries to do their best with virtues and errors, and now we have to try to get the best out of these players to move forward."