Football: After first taste of glory, Messi's Miami target treble

NASHVILLE -- Lionel Messi and Inter Miami have their first silverware, barely a month after the Argentine’s move to the Florida club, and are now turning their aim on a unique treble.

Messi scored one of his trademark wonder goals, to put Miami 1-0 up in the Leagues Cup final at Nashville on Saturday but the Tennessee side fought back for a 1-1 draw, forcing penalties where Miami emerged victors for their first title in their three year history.

"Very happy to get the first title in this club's history. Everyone's hard work and commitment made it possible. Hopefully this is just the beginning," Messi posted on Instagram.

The Argentine World Cup winner has scored 10 goals in his seven games so far, finding the net in each match, and he left club owner Jorge Mas beaming in delight as his audacious move to bring in the game's top player delivered its first title.

"To see Lionel with that smile, all the guys how they are playing. This will be the first of many trophies for this team," he told reporters.

David Beckham, who created the club before bringing in Mas as the key investor, reflected on the years he spent trying to make the team a reality but even he appeared taken back by how quickly the team has gone from strugglers in MLS to a team being watched around the world.

"A lot can happen in five weeks, a lot has changed for us," he said.

"We will enjoy this but now we have to look to the future and continue to build because we have some of the best players in the world out their on the field wearing pink but also, more importantly we had a bunch of academy players out there with them and that is important for us as a club and indeed for the country," he added.

The jubilant players interrupted the press conference of victorious coach Gerardo Martino, spraying him with champagne, but they will have to sober up quickly because their next challenge comes in Ohio on Wednesday when they face FC Cincinnati in the semi-final of the US Open Cup.

Then Miami return to the main business of the Major League Soccer regular season, where the team will be looking to climb from bottom of the Eastern Conference into the playoff places to give themselves a chance of another trophy – with 12 games to go they have little room for error.

As the players chanted in the locker-room at the end of an entertaining, unbeaten seven games in Leagues Cup, Martino’s thoughts were turning to the next test.

"There's not a long time to celebrate. On Wednesday we have another game and we will continue playing and competing like this in the different tournaments," said Martino.

"This one is in the past. And now we are thinking about the match against Cincinnati."

Former Barcelona and Argentine coach Martino said the intense format of the month-long tournament had helped Miami gel together as a team after the arrival of Messi and Spanish pair Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba.

- Growing and dreaming -

“I remember the first days and I felt we needed to do more training sessions to give shape to the team and I was thinking, how convenient it is to have this tournament, because we can take advantage of this month to play more,” he said.

"And after this month, we are champions, so it feels great, and it helps us continue growing, keep dreaming. I think we clearly understand now what we can do looking forward. We better understand the future, and it's more clear," he said.

The Leagues Cup just concluded its first year as a competition bringing all top flight teams from Mexico and Major League Soccer together for a mid-season, World Cup-style tournament.

MLS Commissioner Don Garber said that the tournament had been a huge success with Messi's impact lifting it to unimagined heights.

Garber said the Argentine's arrival "accelerated the popularity and interest in the tournament. Our television ratings have been spectacular. Our Apple TV ratings have been, for us, dramatically more than we expected," he said.

Messi's presence and Miami's run to the title had been "the talk of the football world," said Garber.

DeAndre Yedlin, Miami's captain before handing over to Messi on his arrival, said the team had undergone a total change.

"We walk in to places now, we expect to win. I can't say that was a factor every time we played before," he said.

"It is our seventh game together as a group. It is strange, we are still kind of learning on the go," he said before he too focused on the next step.

"Now we have a semi-final. It's an opportunity for another trophy."

Agence France-Presse

Football: Messi will need time to adapt to MLS, says Beckham

FORT LAUDERDALE, United States -- David Beckham believes Lionel Messi will need time to adapt to Major League Soccer, even though the standard of play is at a "different level" from the European game.

Inter Miami co-owner Beckham, the former Manchester United and Real Madrid midfielder, watched Messi take part in his first training session for the club on Tuesday after signing a two and a half year contract.

Spanish midfielder Sergio Busquets, a former team-mate of Messi's from Barcelona, also trained at the club's complex, after signing on Saturday, with former Barcelona and Argentina coach Gerardo 'Tata' Martino leading the session.

"Leo's still going to need, no matter how good he is, no matter what his stature is, he and Sergio are going to need time to adapt no matter," said the Englishman.

"They might surprise us, we might start winning every single game, but we have to be patient," he said.

Miami's fans may need to show that patience at Friday's Leagues Cup game against Mexicans Cruz Azul, with Beckham saying the Argentine may not necessarily start.

"Leo will play some part of the game but that will be down to the coach (and) it'll be down to Leo to decide if he's ready because we know that he's been away for a few weeks with his family but he looks sharp, he looks great but he's going to need time to adapt as well," said Beckham.

Beckham was the biggest name to have moved to MLS when he signed for the Galaxy in 2007 when the league had just 13 clubs, compared to 29 today and the standard of play was significantly lower.

But Beckham said that there was one area where nothing had changed.

"One of the similarities will be, when I came, all of a sudden, everyone thought: LA are going to win everything. LA are going to win every game, 7-0, 8-0, and that's it, nobody else is gonna win anything," he said.

But despite Beckham's arrival, the Galaxy weren't even able to make the playoffs in his first two seasons.

LA finished next to bottom of the Western Conference in 2007 and 2008 but then in 2009 were beaten finalists before winning MLS Cup in 2011 and 2012.

"Those first two years for me, it was a challenge, getting used to everything, bringing the club and the league to be a little bit more professional, but things changed very quickly," he said.

"I started enjoying the soccer a lot more, not just because we were winning (but) because I could see the change that was being made -- the academy stuff coming into each of the clubs... we're now at a stage where things are definitely different to how they were in 2007," he said.

While the standard of MLS is still well below that of the top leagues in Europe, where Messi has spent his entire club career, several foreign players who joined the league late in their career have found it difficult to thrive.

The frequent travel across time-zones, playing on artificial surfaces at some stadium, and having team-mates who might not be on the same wavelength or have the expected technical ability, are some of the challenges players have faced.

Beckham has no doubt that Messi will be a success but accepts his impact on the field might not be as instant as some may be anticipating.

"It's a different style of football, it's  a slightly different level to what obviously some of the players that are coming in are used to," he said.

"But at the end of the day, this level of football in this country now is a good level, it's a great level, so there are going to be moments where we have to be patient," he said.

Agence France-Presse