While teams are working hard to improve their playoff standings on Decision Day, Inter Miami aims to make Major League Soccer history.
Led by Lionel Messi, the team has a chance to break the league’s all-time points record on Saturday against the New England Revolution. The Revolution set the record in 2021 with 73 points, and Miami currently has 71.
Miami has already secured the top position in the Eastern Conference and won the Supporters Shield.
Messi, who is a top candidate for the MLS MVP this season, has scored 17 goals and provided 15 assists, even though he has only played 18 games due to an ankle injury and his commitments with the Argentine national team.
Messi may not start against New England since the match does not affect playoff standings, and he just returned this week from playing with his national team.
“On the 20th of January, it would have seemed illogical to talk about aiming for the points record; but now it’s within reach, we would like to get it,” Miami coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino said. “However, we are not to do anything crazy because six days later, we start the most important games. That’s where I must be careful (managing players’ minutes).”
D.C. United’s Christian Benteke is close to winning the 2024 MLS Golden Boot with a league-high 23 goals. He leads 2023 winner Denis Bouanga of LAFC and Cucho Hernández of the Crew, who both have 19 goals.
As Decision Day approaches, there are still two playoff spots available in the Eastern Conference. D.C. United and Montreal are in eighth and ninth place but have not secured their spots yet, while Philadelphia and Atlanta are still in the race.
Benteke mentioned that D.C. United will not be keeping an eye on other scores during their final game against Charlotte. All the Eastern Conference matches on Saturday will be played at the same time.
“We had some ups and downs through the season. And now this is it. We are there. We can see the final line,” Benteke said. “Man, it’s exciting because this is our chance. We’ve worked so hard and we’ve been through many, many things.”
The No. 8 and No. 9 seeds in each conference will compete for the last playoff spot, giving the winner a chance to face the top-seeded team — Miami in the East and either the LA Galaxy or LAFC in the West.
In the Western Conference, all nine playoff spots have been secured, but the Galaxy and LAFC are still competing for the top seed. The Galaxy needs at least a draw or a win against Houston on Saturday to clinch it.
If the Galaxy wins, they will end with 67 points, matching their total from 2011 when they went on to win the MLS title.
“I think it’s great that the game is meaningful. At this time of year, I would rather have a meaningful game that we’re playing for something, rather than a game where you feel like you’re not playing for something right before you really start playing for something,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said. “So I think that keeps the right intensity and the right attention in the group.”
The top four seeds in each conference after Decision Day will earn home-field advantage for the first round of the playoffs.
Looking at the standings in the West, Cascadia Cup rivals Portland and Vancouver are in the wild card positions. This could change, as the bottom five playoff teams are all within six points of each other.
The Whitecaps are hoping to climb the standings this weekend against Real Salt Lake, but Vancouver has not won in their last six matches.
“Obviously, we’ve had a bad run of results recently,” striker Brian White said. “So it’d be great to go into playoffs with a little bit of more positive energy, a win, and see what we can do from there.”
