FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) – Inter Miami's Lionel Messi has experienced just one loss in Major League Soccer in 2024. It was in May, at home against Atlanta United.

Messi does his MLS playoff debut on Friday evening – at home against Atlanta United.

Inter Miami, which set the MLS records for most points and best win percentage in the regular season, faces a tough challenge early in the playoffs, losing in a best-of-three Eastern Conference first-round series against a team from Atlanta competes. Messi scores a hat trick a 6-2 win over New England in the regular season finale.

And although he missed almost half of the MLS season due to injuries and commitments to the Argentina national team, Messi is still a serious contender for league MVP after 20 goals and 16 assists in 19 appearances.

“If I could vote for him, I would have voted for him,” said Inter Miami defender Julian Gressel. “Yes, because for me the MVP represents the best player in the league. And Leo is by far that. You know, there are other people out there that have the definition of an MVP that maybe makes the team better or that a team can't live without. In a way, Leo is that for me too.”

MVP or not, Messi is obviously the key to Inter Miami's MLS Cup hopes.

The first playoff home game in the club's history will take place on Friday evening. If Inter Miami wins this series, it would stay at home for the rest of the season – with home field edge for the single-game conference semifinals, conference finals and MLS Cup if it continues to win.

“This has always been about making history for Miami,” said soccer icon David Beckham, part of the Inter Miami ownership group — and the person who originally announced plans to bring an MLS team back to Miami more than a decade ago. “This has always been about our family, La Familia, the people in this stadium, the people in this city.”

Messi's arrival in mid-2023 was the big step for Inter Miami to enter the global stage. The team won the League Cup last year shortly after Messi's arrival, won the Supporters Shield this year as the top regular-season MLS team and is now aiming for the MLS playoff title.

There are some ties that bind these franchises together. Among them: Inter Miami coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino was with Atlanta in 2018 when that team won the MLS Cup, and Gressel also played for that Atlanta team.

Atlanta reached that series by beating Montreal in a wild-card match on Tuesday. His reward: Messi again.

“He’s arguably the best player to ever play,” Atlanta United interim coach Rob Valentino said. “We have played against him a few times and of course we know his qualities, but at the same time they also have other players who are good. The focus has to be on him – and on his teammates around him.”

The stadium will almost certainly be sold out on Friday night, and Miami has known for weeks that it would open the playoff march on its home stadium. It may not be the greatest moment in the team's history – that would have to be Messi's debut – but it is the most significant game of this season, at least in the sense that a best-of-three series doesn't leave much room for error.

“We're heading into the playoffs, so I think we'll feel it,” Inter Miami goalkeeper Drake Callender said. “I think everyone will feel it. And I think there's a reason we've come this far. We didn't come this far just to get this far. So we’re really just going to compete, and yeah, Friday, 8:30 a.m., that’s our time.”

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