Inter Miami’s Jordi Alba calls MLS postseason format ‘unfair’

Jordi Alba criticized Major League Soccer’s postseason format, calling the system “unfair” after Inter Miami was eliminated by Atlanta United, falling 3-2 at Chase Stadium on Saturday night in the decisive third leg of the Round 1 best-of-three playoff series .

Alba participated in the post-season for the first time this season after Inter Miami failed to qualify for 2023, finishing the season in 14th place in the Eastern Conference.

“It was a good season, but what we wanted was to win this one more. In my opinion, I’m not the one who’s going to change now. This format seems a bit unfair to me,” he said after the match.

“Obviously it’s been done this way for many years, but if you ask me, if it was up to me, I’d have to be the champion of one conference against the champion of the other, to do that fair. as possible, so I repeat, congratulations to the rival team.

The 2024 MLS playoff format sees teams compete in a best-of-three series before advancing knockout-style to the conference semifinals, finals and MLS Cup.

Inter Miami initially defeated Atlanta on October 25 at Chase Stadium before going on to lose the second game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium to level the series and force a decisive third game. Despite boasting dominant stats and goals from Lionel Messi and Matías Rojasthe Herons struggled to overcome the team led by the goalkeeper Brad Guzan.

“Today I think we have been superior, we have dominated, but they attacked four times and they scored three goals. And well, there are things to correct, clearly,” Alba said.

Inter Miami qualified for the playoffs after finishing the 2024 MLS campaign as leaders of the Eastern Conference, gaining home-court advantage by winning the Supporters’ Shield. The team also managed to break the league record for most points recorded in a single season.

However, head coach Gerardo Martino revealed that he would not call this season a success. “No, success, no. When one is eliminated here in the quarterfinals, no. It had good things; it had bad things,” he said in the post-match press conference.

“If you think about where we were last November, obviously there’s progress as far as the club, not just the team. If you think about the expectations we had going into this play-off, obviously we’ve fallen short.”

The team now enters the offseason and will shift its focus to building a roster for the 2025 campaign.