The Major League Soccer (MLS) is gearing up for a closely-contested last few gameweeks with teams eyeing a playoff place. Inter Miami is in contention too after their recent unbeaten run, but still face a tough task ahead. Lets find out how many points will Inter Miami need to gun for the ultimate glory.
Before Lionel Messi arrived in the Inter Miami set up this summer, the team looked down and out. An 11-game winless run saw them languishing at the bottom of the MLS table.
However, Messi’s inclusion injected a new lease of life into the team. The Herons are currently on a 12 match unbeaten run. They are sitting at 14th place in the MLS table.
How can Inter Miami qualify for playoffs?
In MLS, the top seven teams in each conference automatically qualify for the playoffs.
Those finishing in eighth and ninth place face each other for the remaining spot in each conference.
Also Read: Messi-less Inter Miami’s win over Sporting KC ‘comforts’ manager Tata Martino
Currently, Inter Miami has 28 points, six points behind 9th place DC United with eight games left.
Over the last three seasons, the average points for ninth place was 43.3 points.
Inter Miami will need two points per game on an average to qualify for the playoffs if the same trend is followed this year.
However, with teams being added to the league and Nashville flipping conferences every year, 16 more points does not guarantee a playoff place for Inter Miami.
Inter Miami’s disadvantage
It is also worth noting that Inter Miami will have to find a way to win without Messi specially in October when they face Charlotte FC twice. The Argentinian will be away on national duty again to play against Venezuela and Bolivia.
Inter Miami’s advantage
One of the rules of MLS that will help Inter Miami in their pursuit for the playoff is that the tiebreaker for MLS is the number of wins and not goal difference. The Herons will have an edge over its competitors by the virtue of drawing less number of games than the teams in front of them at the table.
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