Messi, Suarez may skip Inter Miami vs. Dallas Sunday with high stakes week ahead (2025)

Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Oscar Ustari were not with their Inter Miami teammates for the portion of Saturday morning’s training session open to the media, a hint that they may be rested and not play in Sunday’s home league game against FC Dallas.

The team is coming off a 2-0 road loss against the Vancouver Whitecaps late Thursday night in the first leg of the Concacaf Champions Cup semifinals, a loss that leaves Miami in a precarious position heading into Wednesday’s decisive second leg of the series at home.

Champions Cup uses aggregate scoring, and the tiebreaker is away goals, so Inter Miami must score at least two goals and concede none on Wednesday to force extra time for a shot at the championship game. The team was in a similar situation in the quarterfinals against Los Angeles FC and rallied from down 2-0 with a pair of Messi goals to win the series 3-2.

This time, a spot in the final is on the line. The winner of the Champions Cup will earn $5 million and qualify for the 2025 FIFA Intercontinental Cup and 2029 FIFA Club World Cup. With such a high stakes game on the horizon, and such little time to recover from the Vancouver trip, coach Javier Mascherano said there will be changes in the starting lineup for the Dallas game.

He did not rest players between the two legs of the LAFC series, using his regular starters for the league game against Toronto, but this time, it will be different.

“One thing is to play every three days, which the majority of our player are accustomed to, but it’s another thing to play less than 72 hours after the previous game,” Mascherano said Saturday morning before training. “We finished Thursday’s game past midnight Miami time, and we are playing Sunday at 5 p.m. It was a flight back of more than six hours.”

The LAFC series was played Wednesday-Sunday-Wednesday, so Miami had an extra day of rest after the opening leg on the West coast.

“Surely, there will be changes in the lineup [for Sunday’s game against Dallas] because even though the most important thing after a loss is to play again and get back to winning right away, we know what awaits us on Wednesday,” Mascherano said.

Look for Drake Callender to start in place of Ustari, and 18-year-old Ecuadorean forward Allen Obando, who joined the team a few weeks ago, will likely get minutes in place of Suarez.

Mascherano said when Obando arrived that the idea was for him to learn from Suarez and spell him some rest, as the 38-year-old “Pistolero” (Gunslinger) has played all 15 games so far this season. Suarez has played 1,192 minutes over eight MLS games and seven Champions Cup games.

“Yes, for sure, in this next stretch of games, [Obando] will get minutes,” Mascherano said.

After scoring 20 goals in 27 MLS games last season, Suarez has just one goal in eight league matches this year, and three goals in seven Champions Cup games. He has not scored in eight consecutive matches. His last goal was March 13 against Jamaican team Cavalier in the Champions Cup Round of 16.

Mascherano defended the Uruguayan legend.

“His pedigree speaks for itself,” Mascherano replied, when asked about Suarez’s scoring drought. “We know strikers often go through spells without scoring, and maybe he is going through that now. But we never point to just one player. It also has to do with what we are generating for him as a team, so he can find chances to score.”

Right back Marcelo Weigandt also supported Suarez.

“Suarez is a great player, a wonderful history and if the goals are not coming, they will,” Weigandt said. “We just have to support him. Maybe Wednesday, or even Sunday, he’ll have a breakthrough and score. Even though he isn’t scoring right now, I consider him the best and support him fully, as does the rest of the team.”

As for the Miami attack as a whole, the team has struggled to score of late. Last season, Inter Miami scored 79 goals, third-most in MLS history and averaged 2.3 goals per game.

Other than the 3-1 win against LAFC, Miami has scored only two goals over the other five games in April. Miami tied Toronto 1-1, tied Chicago 0-0, beat Columbus 1-0 and lost 2-0 to Vancouver.

“With Columbus we generated many scoring chances, the other day [against Vancouver], we had some goal situations, not as clear, but with Chicago, we had 10 opportunities, and just didn’t convert them,” Mascherano said. “We are not scoring many goals, and that is hurting us, but each situation is different.”

Inter Miami players are eager to get back on the field after the loss at Vancouver.

“We are hurt, but we have to move forward, we have another game Sunday and hopefully we can give our fans something to be happy about,” Weigandt said. “We will be focused on Dallas, and then we can think about Wednesday.”

Inter Miami is the only unbeaten MLS team left with five wins and three ties. Dallas is 3-3-3, sits in ninth place in the Western Conference, and is unbeaten on the road.

Dallas coach Eric Quill said his team is heading to South Florida to win, not just grab a point.

“We’ve got to have heightened awareness, can’t get ball fixated, we have to have our heads on a swivel and know where their guys are at,” Quill said. “We have to close their passing lanes.”

Among the Dallas players to watch are Lucho Acosta, the Argentine midfielder, who like Messi, wears No. 10.

“Miami is a great opponent with great players, including the best in the world, Messi, and it is always an honor for me to play against him because of what he represents for Argentina and the sport of futbol,” Acosta said.

How to Watch: Inter Miami vs. Dallas FC kicks off at 5 p.m. Sunday at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale. Fans can watch on Apple TV MLS Season Pass.

This story was originally published April 26, 2025 at 1:20 PM.