Inter Miami soar to Leagues Cup final and confidence has followed with them

FORT LAUDERDALE — One month ago to this day, Lionel Messi and Sergio Busquets participated in their first Inter Miami practice.

It was a mystical event, with hundreds of media members in attendance and a helicopter circling overhead for the 15-minute open practice window.

At that point, there were ideas, but no certainty what would be in store for Inter Miami. How well would the two of them play in America? How quickly would last-place Inter Miami adapt to the plethora of midseason changes? Did Messi and Busquets even need to play at all?

Inter Miami haven’t lost since Messi and Busquets stepped onto the field at DRV PNK Stadium three days later against Cruz Azul. Now, they’re on the doorstep of the club’s first-ever trophy in a 180 degree turn from when coach Phil Neville was fired on June 1.

“It’s a big thing,” midfielder Robert Taylor said before Friday morning’s training session. “We’ve been wanting to go into the final in the cup competitions before and now we finally can play, so it’s a big thing for us.”

Inter Miami’s six wins in six games don’t paint the entire the picture.

Four of Inter Miami’s six Leagues Cup wins have come by at least three goals, and they’ve scored four goals in all but two of those games. If you take away Inter Miami’s four conceded goals against FC Dallas in the round of 16, they’ve yet to allow more than one goal in a game throughout the tournament. For comparison, Miami is third to last with 22 regular-season goals scored (games that Messi, Busquets and left-back Jordi Alba haven’t played) and is tied for the fourth-most goals conceded (36).

Individual players have exploded too, Taylor being one of them. He’s quickly formed a new chemistry with Messi and Busquets and it’s showing on the boxscore. Taylor has tallied a goal or an assist in each of the last six games, totaling four goals and five assists in the span.

“(Messi) attracts so many players towards him, so it leaves space for everyone else around him, so that makes our game easier,” Taylor said. “Same goes with Busquets in the middle and Alba also. They make the right decisions and they make other players’ lives much easier.”

It’s also made players like Taylor, midfielder Benjamin Cremaschi and forward Josef Martinez international household names.

“Honestly, I’m just focusing on fútbol right now,” Taylor said. “Fútbol changes so fast, so I can’t get too happy with what’s going on now. I haven’t won anything; we haven’t won anything. This is only a step forward to winning something.”

It leaves the question of who can be the first to defeat the suddenly mighty Inter Miami. Cruz Azul almost did, and Dallas came even closer before blowing a two-goal lead in the second half.

The other four games, meanwhile, have been easier sailing.

“I don’t think our team is invincible,” defender DeAndre Yedlin said. “I don’t think we’re a perfect team and that’s how it is. But, we’re obviously in good form right now. We’re very confident right now, but we’ve also only been together for three weeks or whatever it is.”

“The word invincible is not applicable in this case,” Inter Miami coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino said through an interpreter. “It doesn’t apply ever. Obviously, after all, you have to play the games.”

For a Miami team that is still winless in 11 straight regular-season matches, there wasn’t much confidence oozing out before the superstars arrived. There was hope, but little confidence.

Winning is an easy way to restore that. Inter Miami have achieved that.

But at the start, that confidence needed to be dug up from somewhere. Midfielder Dixon Arroyo said Friday that Martino in particular did a good job of restoring that self-belief when he took over.

“Not only with Leo, Jordi and Busi’s arrival, but also Tata,” Arroyo said through an interpreter. “Tata gave us a lot of confidence and that’s what our team and a player needs. And hopefully we can continue this way, continue enjoying.”

Martino differed later in the day, saying that it also has to do with an acceptance from the players — that it’s not all up to the coaching staff.

“Well, I think the job of the coach has two or three basic requirements and initial goals,” Martino said. “One is to create a plan of how we’re going to try to play and try to convince the players. And the next one is that each one of them should find a new possibility of being important to the team to create competitiveness in the team.

“…It doesn’t have to do with the coaching staff, but it has to do with the importance of the players who have arrived. It has increased the competent competition within the team. The improvement is a substantial improvement in the game.”

The more Inter Miami continue to win, the hungrier their opponents will be to take them down.

They’ve slayed all six opponents so far and have Nashville (11-8-5) in the crosshairs to be the seventh — this time with a Leagues Cup trophy to go with it.

“It would be great,” Messi said of bringing Inter Miami their first trophy, “incredible for me, for the fans, for the club itself.”