It was a nightmare for Inter Miami.
Bartosz Slisz had just fired Atlanta United ahead in the decisive match of their first-round playoff series last season. Try as Lionel Messi and Inter Miami might, they couldn’t equalize and were forced to watch as the clock ticked towards 90 minutes. Their record-breaking regular season had quickly turned into a different sort of record-breaking postseason: the 34-point gap between Miami and Atlanta at the end of the 34-game schedule made it the largest upset in MLS playoff history.
Inter Miami’s first full year with Messi had ended in undisputed failure.