{"id":493767,"date":"2025-12-06T20:42:40","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T00:42:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/uncategorized\/messi-leads-inter-miami-to-their-first-mls-cup-and-crowns-the-farewell-of-busquets-and-alba\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T20:42:40","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T00:42:40","slug":"messi-leads-inter-miami-to-their-first-mls-cup-and-crowns-the-farewell-of-busquets-and-alba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/sports\/football\/messi-leads-inter-miami-to-their-first-mls-cup-and-crowns-the-farewell-of-busquets-and-alba\/","title":{"rendered":"Messi leads Inter Miami to their first MLS Cup and crowns the farewell of Busquets and Alba"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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FORT LAUDERDALE, USA<\/strong>\u2013 Inter Miami achieved glory this Saturday by conquering the MLS Cup<\/strong> for the first time, defeating Vancouver Whitecaps 3-1 in a historic final marked by the brilliance of Lionel Messi<\/strong> and the farewells of Sergio Busquets<\/strong> and Jordi Alba<\/strong>, who are closing their professional careers by lifting a title alongside the Argentine star.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may be interested in<\/strong>: This is how the 12 groups of the FIFA World Cup 2026 were formed<\/a><\/p>\n\n\nThe Chase Stadium was packed with 21,500 spectators on a sunny and hot afternoon, the perfect setting for the project led by David Beckham<\/strong> and the brothers Jos\u00e9 and Jorge Mas<\/strong> to achieve its greatest accomplishment since its debut in the league five years ago.\n\n\n

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A beginning that set the course<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\nInter Miami took the lead early, in the 8th minute, when a dangerous cross from the right ended with an unfortunate own goal by the Colombian \u00c9dier Ocampo<\/strong>, after a play built by Messi, Rodrigo de Paul and Tadeo Allende.\n\nThe Messi-Allende partnership continued to generate chances, while Vancouver grew as the minutes passed and repeatedly challenged goalkeeper Rocco R\u00edos<\/strong>, who was the protagonist with decisive saves against Brian White, Emmanuel Sabbi, and Thomas M\u00fcller.\n\n\n
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Vancouver ties and almost comes back<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\nIn the extra time, Vancouver kept up the pressure and managed to tie the game at the 60th minute through Ali Ahmed<\/strong>, who took advantage of a collective play and a mistake by goalkeeper R\u00edos.\n\nTwo minutes later, Sabbi was close to scoring 1-2 with a powerful shot that hit both posts, in what could have been the key play of the match.\n\n\n
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Messi Appears and Changes History<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\nAt the moment of greatest Canadian dominance, Messi recovered a ball in a dangerous area and assisted Rodrigo de Paul<\/strong>, who defined with class to restore the lead to Inter Miami at minute 71.\n\nFrom then on, the team led by Javier Mascherano<\/strong> controlled the pace of the game, backed by the experience of Busquets and Alba in their last professional match.\n\nIn added time, Messi reappeared to assist Tadeo Allende<\/strong>, who sealed the match 3-1 and unleashed the celebration in Fort Lauderdale.\n\n\n
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Golden Farewells<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\nFor Busquets and Alba, Messi’s former teammates at Barcelona, the triumph signified a perfect closure to their distinguished careers. Both were cheered by a fanbase that adopted them as their own from the moment they arrived at the club.\n\n\n
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Inter Miami reaches the top<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\nThe conquest of the title crowns the ambitious project that sought to replicate Guardiola’s Bar\u00e7a style in the MLS, and which, after struggles and disappointments, finally found its reward.\n\n\n
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Technical Sheet<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\nInter Miami:<\/strong>
Rocco R\u00edos; Fray (Weigandt 90+1), Falc\u00f3n, Allen, Alba; De Paul, Busquets, B. Rodr\u00edguez (Segovia 56′); Silvetti (Bright 78′), Allende, Messi.
DT:<\/strong> Javier Mascherano\n\n\n

Vancouver:<\/strong>
Takaoka; Laborda, Priso (Pupe 68′), Blackmon, Ocampo; Cubas (Cabrera 82′), Berhalter, Ahmed (Gauld 68′); M\u00fceller, Sabbi (Nelson 90+1), White.
Coach:<\/strong> Jesper S\u00f8rensen<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goals:<\/strong>
1-0 Ocampo (og, 8′);
1-1 Ahmed (60′);
2-1 De Paul (71′);
3-1 Allende (90+6′).<\/p>\n\n\nReferee:<\/strong> Drew Fischer (Canada). He cautioned Rodr\u00edguez, Falc\u00f3n, De Paul, White, Ocampo, Blackmon, Cubas and Laborda.\n\n\n

Incidents:<\/strong> MLS Cup final held at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, with 21,500 spectators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\nInter Miami, now MLS champion, writes the most important page of its young history, led by Lionel Messi and with an unforgettable ending for Busquets and Alba.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FORT LAUDERDALE, USA\u2013 Inter Miami achieved glory this Saturday by conquering the MLS Cup for the first time, defeating Vancouver Whitecaps 3-1 in a historic final marked by the brilliance of Lionel Messi and the farewells of Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, who are closing their professional careers by lifting a title alongside the Argentine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":493768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[40943],"tags":[611,40231,17478,40853],"class_list":["post-493767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-deultimominuto","tag-dominican-republic","tag-lionel-messi","tag-thetruthnewspaper"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phj1q1-24rZ","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/Inter-Miami-Messi-MLS-2.jpeg","dum_api":{"author_name":"EFE","author_image":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/1200px-EFE_logo.svg-96x96.png","categories_name":["Football"],"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/Inter-Miami-Messi-MLS-2.jpeg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}