At Thursday’s MLS media day, midfielder Sergio Busquets and coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino emphasized the necessity to strike a balance between the club’s business and sporting interests as Inter Miami and Lionel Messi get ready for a demanding world tour ahead of the demanding Major League Soccer season.
Playing the El Salvador national team (Jan. 19) in Central America next week, the club will begin its seven-game preseason program that spans five nations.
Over ten days, the tour will play four games in Asia (two in Saudi Arabia and one each in Hong Kong and Japan), culminating on February 15 against Messi’s boyhood club, Newell’s Old Boys. The tour includes a match against Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr on February 1.
In the meantime, on January 22, Miami will play FC Dallas, an MLS foe, in the Cotton Bowl.
Through a translator, Busquets stated, “For us, it’s looking at the balance of the sporting side as well as the growth of this club and the revenues and benefits on the business side.” “So, we are fully aware of that. In addition, we’ll play against elite teams, which will get us ready for the season at an extremely high level.
And we need to be well-prepared for time shifts and lengthy travels. The most crucial thing is to physically get ready for the season.”
On February 21, the earliest start in league history, Inter Miami will play host to Real Salt Lake in the league’s opening match of the season. Based on one of the league’s geographic outliers, Miami will have a difficult travel schedule that includes a cross-country journey to Los Angeles in the first weekend (Feb. 25).
“We understand the business and sporting sides and the good thing is that we try for both sides to occur and happen without exceeding on one end or the other,” Martino said via translator. “If additional games are added, we will need to balance the amount of participation from each player in each game.
“Since it has been worked on since the end of last year, the travels to Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, and Japan have been nicely organized. We don’t care how many games there are.”
“Some of [Miami’s] best players” are contractually obligated to play in some of the preseason games, according to Martino, without going into details. By MLS norms, Miami’s ambitious preseason is quite uncommon, and it’s unclear how much money the team expects to make.
Luis Suárez, a new striker who will play in Major League Soccer alongside his former Barcelona teammates Jordi Alba, Messi, and Busquets, will also make his debut during the preseason.
“We are ecstatic. He’s ecstatic,” Busquest remarked. “We are aware of his expectations. He has scored goals his entire career.
“He recently received the Brazilian League’s best player award, which is given to very difficult and competitive teams. He has a long history of assists and goals, and maybe he will carry that form into this game.”
The 36-year-old Suárez scored 17 goals for Gremio in 33 Brazilian Serie A games the previous season. On Saturday, he will make his Inter Miami player debut.
Busquets, who joined the squad amid the previous season, stated that having a preseason will help the group build a distinct playing philosophy. Regarding the MLS level, he expressed praise by saying, “It’s much better than what people may think.”
“We want to be a team that controls the game and is very tactically prepared that pressures up top and plays on the opponent half, but generally in the league maybe there’s a lot of back and forth, especially toward the end of the match,” he stated.
“So that’s my comparative analysis. I believe the level is comparable, although there may be a little bit more tactical control in Spain. Though I wouldn’t say they are the same, I believe they are comparable.”
The league said on Thursday that it will be the focus of a new documentary series on Apple TV+, produced by the same filmmaker behind the Netflix sensation “Formula 1: Drive to Survive,” which will record the 2024 season. This comes in the aftermath of Messi’s arrival and in anticipation of a global spotlight.