In a weird way, Nashville SC and Inter Miami have a lot of shared history.
The clubs entered MLS in the same year, 2020. Expansion draft and other roster building mechanisms were simultaneous. The way the clubs have operated is much different. There was the glamor of Miami — long before Lionel Messi joined — and then the defensive-minded Nashville, who went about their business a bit more quietly.
Both have had plenty of success in their first six seasons, sometimes at the expense of the other.
Nashville and Miami played their first playoff match against each other in 2020 (Nashville won). There was a U.S. Open Cup round of 16 game in 2023 (Miami won) and then, the big one, an electric Leagues Cup final that went to penalties in 2023. Miami won, with Messi delivering his first trophy to Miami merely a month after debuting.
Miami beat Nashville in the Concacaf Champions Cup the following year and now, these two teams are together again, facing a win-or-go-home playoff match on Saturday with Nashville looking to extend its season and send the league’s most expensive roster home with another playoff disaster.
“It does feel like there’s this yin and yang type of thing, we keep matching up against Miami in these big moments,” Nashville midfielder Alex Muyl told The Athletic. “It’s interesting. … The real rivalry grows in these moments in big games. There’s just history and high stakes between the teams, fate has put us in these positions to play really meaningful games against them.”
Lionel Messi and Inter Miami split the first two playoff games vs. Nashville SC (Steve Roberts / Imagn Images)
Miami took the playoff opener handily, but then Nashville mostly dominated Game 2 to set up a decisive finale back in South Florida.
There isn’t a whole lot of new preparation for Nashville to do, even with Luis Suárez suspended. This is the fourth match in a row these two teams will play against each other, as they happened to play on the final day of the regular season too.
“I mean, Miami is not a new team to us,” defender Jack Maher said. “I don’t know in the history of MLS there’s ever been a team where you play a team four times in a row. We know just about every single person on their team, we have all the profiles.”
Added Muyl: “It’s strange, but honestly, playing Miami this many times is amazing. Playing Miami has always felt like such an anomaly and a different kind of game because of everything around the game. When it comes up on the calendar, you kind of have to adjust. But when you play them four times, it feels normal. You tune out the other parts.”
Nashville may not be taking the bait, but the stakes for Miami as a whole are significant. And as it relates to Messi, he is staring down the potential of what would be just the second trophyless season in his career.
In 20 of his 21 previous professional seasons — and in all 20 uninterrupted by COVID-19 — Messi won at least one team trophy. In 14 of those 20 seasons, he won two or more.
“I don’t think anyone in Nashville knew that statistic,” Maher said with a laugh. “That has not been talked about.”
Striker Sam Surridge (9) has given Nashville SC plenty to celebrate in 2025 (Matthew Maxey / Icon Sportswire / Getty Images)
Inside Nashville’s locker room, it’s only about them, not the opponent. They will gladly deflect questions about Miami and Messi. It’s a club that has long embraced an underdog mentality and a hardworking, gritty ethos even as it exploded with its best attacking season in its brief history this year, paced by Sam Surridge (24 goals, five assists) and Hany Mukhtar (16 goals, 12 assists).
“What we’re building here is not a one-year thing,” Maher said. “We’re looking forward and we expect to win, that’s what (head coach) B.J. (Callaghan) has brought to the team. Every time we step on the field, we expect to win.”
Nashville already won its first trophy in club history this year, lifting the U.S. Open Cup on October 1. It was a special night, but the team immediately got on a plane and started preparing for a weekend match a few days later in Montréal. There hasn’t been much time to bask in that celebration. Nashville hopes there’s one more in 2025.
“I don’t know if any of us have really allowed the Open Cup to settle in yet as a team,” Maher said. “I don’t know if words can describe how special a moment was for us, but we want to celebrate two trophies at the end of the year, not one.”
