Miami were never likely to win, and their Club World Cup exit emphasized where MLS sits relative to world football

Even the linesman was tired by the end. The man on the far side of the pitch had been running up and down the touchline all match, just trying to keep up with a Miami defense constantly in retreat. He hadn't put a foot wrong. In the 76th minute, an intrusive camera panned his way. The man looked exhausted.

So was everyone else not wearing the effortless navy blue of PSG. Inter Miami were battered here, out run, outplayed and embarrassed on home(ish) turf. The 4-0 loss Sunday in the Club World Cup round of 16 will hurt the competitors on the pitch, give fuel to the online Lionel Messi trolls, and reflect poorly on Javier Mascherano in his first season in club management.

Inter Miami owners Jorge Mas and David Beckham won't take it well. It will also, undoubtedly, be a stick to beat MLS with in the coming days, weeks, and months.

But to criticize Miami, loss or not, is to miss the broader point. The 4-0 scoreline was comprehensive. But when put into context, makes perfect sense. Miami had stretched what MLS could do in this tournament, reached just beyond where the league really sits in the global sphere. And when they took the field against the true elite – who had big money and better players – there was only one way this game was going to go.

AFPA predictable battering

Miami were in the game for about five minutes. The opening exchanges looked admittedly promising. The Herons dug in. Mascherano pointed around with vigor and encouragement. Luis Suarez got those old legs churning. This was a contest between the European champions and the team currently with the 11th best points total in the ninth best league in the world.

And the plucky underdog – yes, a team can still have Messi and be an underdog – looked alright.

Then PSG started to play a bit. Their first goal was simple enough, a wide open Joao Neves nipping in at the far post to head back across Oscar Ustari. What crushed Miami, though, was the next 15 minutes.

Noah Allen went off with an injury. PSG dominated possession. Khvicha Kvarastskhelia pulled the Herons' defense left and right, leaving a confused Marcelo Weigandt reduced to a pool of flailing limbs. Tomas Aviles came on, tried to set the tone with a shin high crunching tackle on Nuno Mendes – and went straight into the book. Messi barely touched the ball.

They did well, in fact, to hold out for as long as they did. It was a surprise that the Parisians needed until the 39th minute to make it two. But even that one was simple. Sergio Busquets was stripped at the top of his own box. Five touches, four passes and eight seconds later, the ball was in the back of the Miami net.

Busquets, one of the great defensive midfielders of his time, barely had time to compute what had happened. The third and fourth came in short order. Aviles headed into his own net after a slick move down the right. Hakimi basically walked the ball home for the fourth after a kind ricochet.

PSG boss Luis Enrique took off his captain and a vital midfield piece at half time, and spent the majority of the second half rotating. Miami enjoyed a bit more of the ball. Messi danced around for moments. A clunky touch from Suarez prevented what would have been a tap in. Messi whacked a free kick into the wall.

A goal, in truth, wouldn't have been fair – 4-0 felt about right, a first half battering followed by a second half siesta for the French giants and their Spanish manager.

AdvertisementAFPFighting against the numbers

PSG issued a thumping in pretty much every statistical category. Pick your preferred number to measure it all. They had 67 percent possession. They completed 685 passes. Miami completed 306. They took 19 shots. Miami took eight. They won the xG battle, 2.49-0.43.

They dominated elsewhere, too. Miami averaged 45 seconds between ball recoveries. PSG needed just 18. The Parisians scored more goals in the first half (four), than Miami had completed passes in the final third (three).

But all of that should come as a surprise to no one. Zoom out, look at the numbers beyond the white lines of the football pitch, and it all makes so much sense. One thing that we can take away from this expanded version of the Club World Cup – it is a measure of the relative strength of the global sport.

This game reflected exactly where the numbers lie off the pitch, as well. Since 2023, PSG have spent $445 million on new players. Miami have spent $26M. PSG, in 2024, dished $744M on wages – $121M more than anyone else in Europe. According to the most recent MLS salary guide, Miami is spending $46.8M – around 1/17th of PSG's total annual allotment (and just under half of that goes into the pocket of one player.)

The Parisians collected $94M for winning the Champions League this year and pocketed another $58M for lifting the Ligue 1 title. And there's $125M on the line for whichever team wins this Club World Cup.

Miami did not win a major trophy last season, and Bloomberg estimated that they took about $8M from MLS' broadcast deal with Apple – which is split between teams in the league. PSG are funded by Qatari Sports Investment – a massive sovereign wealth fund that has invested not only in football but also in basketball, baseball and hockey. Miami are owned by David Beckham and the chairman of an engineering company.

For comparison, MLB's famous "Moneyball" Oakland A's had a salary of $41M to the New York Yankees' $125M. This is perhaps among the biggest examples of financial disparity in professional sports, being played out on a pitch.

AFPPSG are so, so good

Of course, it is one thing to have money, and another to use it well. For years, PSG offered an absolute clinic on how to throw away cash without any real direction. They signed the wrong players, hired the wrong managers, and spent basically a decade constructing poorly pieced together squads that always lost on the biggest stages.

Star power failed them. So, last summer, they were clever. Luis Enrique admitted that he was glad that Kylian Mbappe left because he could finally have a .

His ownership bought him a pretty good one. What PSG created was a well-oiled pressing machine, full of some of the brightest young talents in Europe. And when the season was off to a poor start – when it looked like they might be in danger of dropping out of the Champions League at the group phase – they simply spent $72M plus add ons to buy the best player in Serie A, if only to complete the side.

No one else in the world has that luxury – least of all an MLS team.

Fittingly, there is no real star player here. Ousmane Dembele might be a Ballon d'Or frontrunner, but his 30 minutes of involvement against Miami were the first he has played all tournament. Kvarastskhelia may be electric, but he's unassuming. Desire Doue scored two in the Champions League final, plays with the kind of flair that sells shirts en masse, but is still 20 (and will presumably don the white of Real Madrid before reaching his absolute peak as a footballer).

They embarrassed Inter Milan, 5-0, in the Champions League final. That beatdown was so comprehensive that the merciful referee didn't even add any stoppage time in the second half – such was the wobbliness of the Milanese legs. They followed that by battering Atletico Madrid to open their CWC campaign.

GettyBotafogo, who play without ego

What happened after that, then, might be confusing. PSG smashed back-to-back European giants before facing Brazilian side Botafogo – and were beaten 1-0. It would seem to run counter to all of the rhetoric about money, power and, well, quality. It served as a reference point, a blueprint – perhaps even a glimmer of hope. If Botafogo could do it, why couldn't Miami?

It's a fair assumption, but dig a little deeper, ponder the circumstances, the angles, and the actual physical teams playing football, and it's a flawed comparison.

Any such assumption is a massive disservice to Botafogo as a team, and the Brazilian Serie A as a league. Botafogo, remember, are the reigning Copa Libertadores champions. They are led by Igor Jesus, who has started up front for the Brazilian national team. More broadly, Brazil's top flight is, well, better than MLS. Botafogo are a better team, playing in a better league, with a more impressive resume to back it up.

But perhaps the real reason Botafogo were able to beat PSG when Miami couldn't is because of the vibe, the setup, what kids call "aura." Manager Renato Paiva claimed that the "cemetery of football is full of favorites" before the game, and seemed to instruct his side to kick the Parisians to their football grave.

They committed 15 fouls across those 90 minutes, and got away with so many more. Their goal came from a kind deflection from Jesus's rather scuffed shot, and they were shameless in their defensive setup thereafter. Botafogo dug in for an hour, "played" something resembling a 6-3-1, and were good value for a vintage smash and grab.

Miami, meanwhile, set up with a hint of ego. This is the curse of having Messi in your team: you have to play like it. Miami tried to match PSG man-for-man. Their 4-4-2 formation, with a bit more attacking intent, predictably, was ripped to shreds.

Critics have long pointed out that the Herons don't have the athleticism to survive against younger, quicker and more expansive sides. Those are all traits that PSG have. Throw in the fact that they can also field a team of 11 elite footballers, and this was a thrashing waiting to happen.