Inter Miami, Messi’s business balance, soccer during preseason

MIAMI — As Inter Miami and Lionel Messi prepare for a world tour ahead of a grueling Major League Soccer season, coach Tata Martino and midfielder Sergio Busquets spoke to the club at Thursday’s MLS Media Day. emphasized the need to balance business and sporting interests.

Next week, the club heads to Central America to face El Salvador (January 19), kicking off a seven-game preseason schedule that includes games in five countries.

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The tour, including Cristiano Ronaldo’s match against Al Nasr (February 1), will feature four matches across Asia (two in Saudi Arabia, one each in Hong Kong and Japan) over 10 days, and concludes with Messi It ends with a match against. My boyhood club, Newell’s Old Boys, February 15th.

Meanwhile, Miami will also face MLS rival FC Dallas in the Cotton Bowl on January 22nd.

“For us, we are considering not only the sporting balance, but also the growth and revenue of this club and the business interests,” Busquets said through an interpreter. “So, we understand that very well. But at the same time, we are playing against a great team that will prepare us to be at a very high level heading into the season.

“And when the timing changes and the long journeys come, you have to prepare well for that. The most important thing is to be physically ready for the season.”

Inter Miami will host Real Salt Lake in their first league game of the season on February 21st, marking the earliest start to the season in league history. Based in the league’s geographical outskirts, Miami will have a grueling road schedule, including a cross-country trip to Los Angeles on the first weekend (February 25th).

“We understand the business side and the sports side. The good thing is that we try to have both sides happen without being biased towards one or the other,” Martino said through an interpreter. “If we play more games, what we have to do is balance how much each player participates in each game.

“As for the trips to Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong and Japan, they are well planned as we have been working on them since the end of last year. I am not worried about the number of games.”

Martino did not provide specifics, but said, “Some [Miami’s] It’s unclear how much revenue Miami is expected to generate as part of its ambitious preseason, which is highly unusual by MLS standards.

The pre-season will also see the debut of new striker Luis Suarez, who will be reunited with former Barcelona teammates Jordi Alba, Messi and Busquets in MLS.

“We’re very excited, he’s very excited,” Basquest said. “We know what to expect from him. He has scored goals throughout his career.

“He just won the best player of the Brazilian league, which is a very challenging and tough league. He scores a lot of goals, he scores a lot of assists and we hope he will be here to continue that winning streak. I hope.”

Suarez, 36, scored 17 goals in 33 matches for Gremio in Brazilian Serie A last season. He will be introduced as an Inter Miami player on Saturday.

Busquets, who joined mid-season last year, said the team would benefit from a pre-season to establish a clear playing style. He praised the level of MLS, saying it was “much better than people think.”

“We want to control the game and be a team that is tactically very prepared, putting pressure up top, playing inside the opposition half, but in general in the league probably, especially at the end of the match. “There may be a lot of back and forth towards that,” he said.

“Here’s my comparative analysis. In Spain there may be a little more tactical control, but I think the level is similar. I’m not going to say it’s the same, but I think it’s similar.”

In the wake of Messi’s arrival, and in hopes of garnering worldwide attention, the league announced Thursday that Messi will be the subject of a new documentary series on Apple TV+. The series was created by the same filmmakers who created the Netflix hit Formula 1: Drive to Survive. It will mark the 2024 season.