Whitecaps beat Inter Miami 3-1 to eliminate Lionel Messi’s squad from Champions Cup

Brian White and Pedro Vite scored two minutes apart and the Vancouver Whitecaps stunned Inter Miami 3-1 in the second leg of their CONCACAF Champions Cup semifinal on Wednesday night, spoiling Lionel Messi’s squad’s hopes of making the tournament’s final.

Sebastian Berhalter also scored for Vancouver, which advanced with a 5-1 aggregate to face either Cruz Azul or Tigres UNAL in the Champions Cup final on June 1.

Miami entered Wednesday’s match trailing 0-2 in aggregate after being shut out in the first leg last Thursday. That meant they needed to win by at least three goals in regulation on Wednesday to advance.

Messi helped set up Jordi Alba’s goal nine minutes into the game, but the reigning MLS MVP was held without a goal for the fourth straight match.

“They have a great team,” Whitecaps coach Jesper Sorensen said of Inter Miami, “and it’s not always easy for them because they have these players who come in with all the pressure on them.”

In the tournament’s history, four MLS clubs, including Inter Miami last week, have lost the first leg of a semifinal by a 2-0 on the road. No team has come back to advance to the final.

Miami’s hopes were dashed quickly in the second half Wednesday, when Vancouver — which leads MLS with 23 points — erased a one-goal deficit minutes into the frame.

Berhalter found White for the equalizer in the 51st minute and Vite sent a deflection past Oscar Ustari in the 53rd. Berhalter, who had an assist on the first two goals, put the game away with a shot from the center of the box into the bottom left corner in the 71st.

“We did ourselves a very good favor last week,” Sorensen said, “because we didn’t need to rush things (tonight), and we didn’t need to go panicking because we were up 2-0 (in aggregate).”

Berhalter has accounted for all five of the Whitecaps’ goals in the semis after scoring one in the opener, but he will miss the championship because of yellow card accumulation. He was shown one in the first half after a foul on Miami’s Tadeo Allende.

Alba got Miami on the board with his first goal of the season on a feed from Luis Suarez, who received a pass from Messi. Suarez had a number of chances, but misfired on them all. The 38-year-old hasn’t scored in his last 10 matches.

Miami also dropped its third straight match, its longest losing streak since Messi joined the club in July 2023.

“We need to improve,” Miami coach Javier Mascherano said. “Going forward, we need to learn from the last week because obviously the feeling is really, really bad. They were much better than us. If we want to compete, we need to improve and we need to learn from this situation. … I think this team can do much better.”

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