Suarez is talking about his bench role, Miami needs answers after Orlando, and Toronto is next — so, Thursday, let’s get into it. This is the Inter Miami Daily Podcast. Today we’ve got Suarez finally speaking up, a deep dive on what went wrong in the Florida Derby, and a road trip to BMO Field that Miami really needs to handle. Messi won Goal of the Matchday, and Ian Fray got fined for saying what he thought about the refs — so yeah, the vibes are a little messy heading into Toronto. Alright, let’s dig in. Here's Miami Herald:
It was unknown at the end of last season whether Suarez would retire or return. He chose to sign a one-year contract in December.
“The decision comes from realizing that you still have a little bit of rope left, that the desire to keep competing is still there,” Suarez said.
The Miami Herald caught up with Luis Suarez after Wednesday training, and he actually gave them something. The benching, Berterame’s fifteen-million-dollar price tag, why Miami isn’t looking like 2024 — all of it. Credit to the Herald for getting him to open up. Forty-four goals in 94 appearances, second all-time in club history, and he’s still getting yanked from the starting XI whenever the coaches decide. That’s not a guy who sounds ready to coast. Two goals and an assist in seven games this season. Fine for a 39-year-old rotation piece; not fine if you’re hoping he can cover up the structural stuff that’s keeping Miami from just running away with games like they did in the Cup run. He said he still gets upset by errant passes and losses. That doesn’t sound like a farewell tour to me — that sounds like somebody who still hates losing. I believe him. MLSsoccer.com writes:
Toronto are dealing with a serious case of the injury bug, impacting some of their most impactful players. USMNT midfielder Djordje Mihailovic(pelvis) and CanMNT defender Richie Laryea(thigh) have missed considerable time, and club-record signing Josh Sargent(thigh) could miss a second straight league match.
Matchday 12 kicks off Saturday afternoon at BMO Field: Toronto FC hosting Inter Miami, 1 PM Eastern. Toronto sits eighth in the East, hasn’t won in six straight at home, and they’re dealing with injuries to Mihailovic, Laryea, and maybe Josh Sargent for a second straight league match. Winless in six at home, knocked out of the Canadian Championship by a CPL side midweek — Toronto is a little fragile right now. On paper, this looks like a friendly road trip. On paper. Daniel Sallói still leads Toronto with four goals, and Jonathan Osorio, in year fourteen with the club, is still running that midfield. Don’t just wave them away because the table says eighth. From r/InterMiami (17 upvotes):
there's a sweet spot between cope and anger that loss should piss everyone off - fans, players, coaching, ownership. total embarrassment against our rivals while looking for our first win in the new stadium. and also, we'll be fine assuming we don't keep repeating this mistake. amazing first half, and even without the defensive mistakes we could easily have won it 5-4 (Berte is really hurting us by failing to put the ball on goal). and minus defensive mistakes, easily a 5-2 win. but we failed…
This Reddit take is doing real work here — the back line handed over a result that had no business being that close, and Berte leaving chances on the table just makes it worse. That’s two problems piled on top of each other. The ‘we’ll be fine’ part? I’ll believe it when the defensive film gets cleaned up. Charitable scorelines don’t travel. Here's one from r/InterMiami (36 upvotes):
I mean the last time we lost a game before this was the first game against LAFC, we are doing great by MLS standards lol.
Thirty-six upvotes for ‘we’re doing great by MLS standards.’ Look, it’s not wrong, but that’s exactly how a team starts settling for the floor instead of pushing it higher. One loss in that stretch is genuinely fine. It’s the way it happened — against a rival, in the new stadium — that should still feel a little uncomfortable heading into Saturday. Here's Yahoo Sports:
Lionel Messi and his teammates built a 3-0 lead in the first half. Messi even recorded his first two assists of the 2026 season.
And still, Inter Miami incredibly fell apart, allowing four goals to its cellar-dwelling nemesis from Central Florida.
Inter Miami blew a 3-0 first-half lead at Nu Stadium and lost 4-3 to Orlando City, a team sitting at the bottom of the table. Four straight matches at that ground without a win, and now interim coach Guillermo Hoyos cut his postgame presser short with questions still on the table. Messi gets two assists, they’re cruising, and somehow the back line turns it into a horror show. I’ve said it before — this defense cannot survive when it actually has to defend. And the access problem is real. Ian Fray and Noah Allen are the ones answering questions after the game while the stars disappear. Putting young guys in front of cameras after a meltdown like that isn’t media management — it’s a deflection strategy. Here's one from r/MLS (630 upvotes):
The Magic got embarrassed so OCSC could win
The NBA-to-MLS pipeline for Orlando City motivation — I’ll allow it, but Miami still has to answer for giving up four at home. Over on r/MLS (173 upvotes):
Without Messi, Miami would be competing for the wooden spoon this season.
Without Messi, they’d be struggling, sure — but Messi had two assists in a game they lost. The problem isn’t the attack. Exactly. Blaming Messi’s hypothetical absence is lazy when the real issue is right there on film: four goals conceded. From r/MLS (261 upvotes):
maybe alba and busquest really were the one carrying this team lol
Okay, that one stings a little because it’s not entirely wrong. Alba and Busquets were doing a lot of the structural work this team now has to replace, and it shows. Reddit found the injury report Miami hasn’t exactly been eager to publish. MLSSoccer, with Dylan Butler:
For the third time this season, Inter Miami CF superstar Lionel Messi has earned AT&T Goal of the Matchday honors. The GOAT took a quick touch before depositing a sublime left-footed finish in the Florida Derby against Orlando City, earning him 42.6% of the Matchday 11 fan vote.
MLSSoccer.com, with Dylan Butler, has Messi picking up his third Goal of the Matchday award this season — a left-footed finish in the Florida Derby that got 42.6% of the fan vote. Routine for him, not routine to watch. Third time in eleven matchdays. And this was the Derby, the crowd was up, Orlando was mounting a 4-3 comeback — and his goal still wins the beauty contest. The man is allergic to an ugly moment. Worth noting: Martín Ojeda finished second with 27.9% of the vote — hat-trick, stunning comeback win over Miami — and still lost the goal-of-the-week poll to the team he beat. That’s a very specific kind of disrespect. Here's one from r/MLS (173 upvotes):
Without Messi, Miami would be competing for the wooden spoon this season.
I mean... they just gave up four goals to Orlando at home, so the r/MLS reply guys are not exactly working without evidence here. The back line is a real concern — I’m not brushing that aside — but ‘wooden spoon’ is doing a lot of work when you haven’t looked at the Eastern table recently. Over on r/MLS (261 upvotes):
maybe alba and busquest really were the one carrying this team lol
Two hundred and sixty-one upvotes for the Alba-and-Busquets revisionism — I respect the commitment, but those two are gone, and Messi is still producing. The math doesn’t quite land. The defense misses Busquets in a very real way, I’ll give them that. But ‘they were carrying Messi’ is a take you have to be brave — or extremely offline — to post. From Emilio Abad at Bolavip US:
Through an official statement, MLS announced that the 23-year-old defender was fined. “Major League Soccer announced today that Inter Miami CF defender Ian Fray has been fined an undisclosed amount for his comments made following Inter Miami’s match against Orlando City SC on May 2. The comments violated the league’s public criticism policy.”
The Orlando collapse now has a paper trail. MLS fined Ian Fray for going after the referees publicly after the derby loss, and the league’s public criticism policy has zero patience for that, even when the frustration is real. And honestly, when Messi himself was visibly frustrated on the pitch, you can’t be shocked the locker room boiled over. Fray’s a homegrown kid who cares deeply — but yeah, you can’t hand MLS that kind of ammunition. Fine is undisclosed, which is standard, but the signal is clear. Coach Hoyos already has enough on his plate with the Nu Stadium winless streak. He does not need his defenders picking fights with the league office too. r/MLS (261 upvotes), weighing in:
maybe alba and busquest really were the one carrying this team lol
Alba and Busquets carrying this team — I mean, the roster-construction argument has never really gone away, has it. It’s a little glib, but it’s not nothing. The midfield coverage when things go sideways still looks thin compared to that era. From r/MLS (33 upvotes):
I know much has been said about this, but Messi's post-loss attitude is super bitchy. I think he's probably just not used to losing but come on.
Calling Messi’s post-loss demeanor ‘bitchy’ is a choice, but competitive frustration at his level is basically a feature, not a bug. And it clearly filters down — Fray’s comments didn’t come from nowhere. That’s the fine right there. Here's one from r/MLS (173 upvotes):
Without Messi, Miami would be competing for the wooden spoon this season.
Without Messi, competing for the wooden spoon — I don’t think that’s wrong, and that’s exactly what makes the schedule and the defense so nerve-wracking to watch. That’s an MLS roster-depth conversation, not a Messi legacy conversation. Those are different stories, and I’d rather keep them separate. Got thoughts on today’s episode, a story idea we should chase, or a correction we need to make? Send us a note at intermiamidailyfancast at lantern podcasts dot com.
You’ll find links to every story we covered today in the show notes, so if something caught your ear, you can dig in there and read more.
That’s Inter Miami Daily Podcast for today. Thanks for listening, and we’ll be back next time. This is a Lantern Podcast.