Messi is on a plane to Kansas City, De Paul is right behind him, and Dayne St. Clair just got called up by Canada. So, yeah — Inter Miami is about to be missing a lot of people, and the 3-2 win over NYCFC at Yankee Stadium is the last thing we’ve actually got on tape. This is Inter Miami Daily — I’m Cassidy, Ivan’s here — and today we’ve got the full World Cup call-up picture, what that narrow road win really says about this group, and why St. Clair’s absence keeps getting buried under all the Argentina chatter. The hamstring watch is over, the call-up is confirmed, and somehow I’m more nervous now than I was three days ago. De Paul’s gone too, and Miami just lost both ends of what makes the midfield tick. We’ll get into all of it — but we’re starting with the 45,845 at Yankee Stadium and that 3-2 final against last year’s Eastern Conference Final opponent. This one's from Brooklyn Digest:
New York City Football Club was up to the challenge against defending MLS Cup Champion Inter Miami CF, but they fell just short, 3-2, on Sunday afternoon in front of a crowd of 45,845 at Yankee Stadium. This rematch of last year's Eastern Conference Final lived up to the hype from the start.
Brooklyn Digest has the match report from Yankee Stadium — 3-2 final, 45,845 in the building, and Messi taking corners in the third minute. So no, that’s not a hamstring-limited cameo. That’s him on the field early in a hostile road game against a team that was in last year’s Eastern Conference Final. And the scoreline is the thing I keep coming back to. Miami didn’t skate through that by hanging six on somebody. They held NYCFC to two and ground it out, and that’s a different kind of win than we’ve been getting. On the road, too — not at Chase. And if anybody still had the Dave Hyde framing from earlier in the week — the one about Messi leaving the win — the 32nd-minute corner tells you he was on the field well into the second quarter of that match. The availability picture looks a lot cleaner now than it did after that rain-slicked hamstring gesture. NYCFC’s Fernández Mercau is a real problem, too — fifth goal in five MLS matches, first in club history to do that, and he tied it with a direct free kick. So Miami wasn’t beating up on a soft opponent here. That matters if you’re reading a 3-2 as a defensive accomplishment. Here's OurSports Central:
Inter Miami CF captain Leo Messi and midfielder Rodrigo De Paul have been called up by the Argentinian national team for the FIFA World Cup 2026, with the pair making history by becoming the second and third players to represent the Club at the global competition.
The OurSports Central release from May 29th puts a number on it: Messi and De Paul are now the second and third Inter Miami players ever called up to a World Cup. That’s the club’s framing, and it changes the conversation. This week wasn’t really about if Messi was going — it was about who’s managing that hamstring once he gets to Kansas City and into Argentina’s medical room. And I want to tug on the De Paul part for a second, because it’s getting basically no oxygen. El Motorcito is Miami’s midfield engine — he’s the reason the ball keeps moving — and now he’s out for the same window as Messi. That’s not a footnote. That’s two structural absences at once. Fair. The roster math there is real. But the medical chain of command matters too — Inter Miami already put out the “clinical and functional progress” language, and now it’s on Argentina to honor it or contradict it. Scaloni’s staff doesn’t answer to South Beach. Which is exactly why July feels less like a return date and more like a question mark with a boarding pass. Yahoo Sports writes:
Argentina's first training session for this year's World Cup as a complete squad will take place on Monday. After most of the team arrived, Argentinian reporter, Gaston Edul, gave an update on when Messi will join his Argentinian teammates in Kansas City, saying that he will get there on Sunday night.
So the week started with a hamstring gesture in the rain and Inter Miami’s PR team doing its best “clinical and functional progress” impression, and it ends with Gastón Edúl posting from Kansas City that Messi lands Sunday night and Argentina’s full squad trains Monday afternoon. That’s the sourcing chain closing in real time. And I want to be clear about what that confirms: this wasn’t just a call-up on paper. He’s on a separate flight, he’s arriving to join a squad that’s already there, and Argentina’s medical staff signed off enough to put him on that plane. That’s a different answer than “we’ll monitor it.” The sourcing gap worth naming today is that Inter Miami’s hamstring language is now Argentina’s problem to honor or contradict. Their medical staff sets the training load from Monday on, and Miami PR has zero say in what Scaloni puts him through in that first session. Meanwhile, De Paul is on that plane too, which means Miami’s midfield engine is gone as well. Everybody’s focused on the ten, but the eight is just as absent, and that’s the roster-math detail getting completely swallowed by the arrival fanfare. OurSports Central writes:
Inter Miami CF goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair has been called up by the Canadian national team for the FIFA World Cup 2026, becoming the Club's fourth representative at a World Cup. The 2025 MLS Goalkeeper of the Year bolstered our roster ahead of the 2026 campaign, and has since made the starting position between the sticks his own.
St. Clair to Canada — and that makes four Inter Miami players at a World Cup, per the club’s own release. The 2025 MLS Goalkeeper of the Year, 29 appearances, three clean sheets since arriving, and now he’s gone for the group stage. That’s not a footnote to the Messi call-up story. That’s Miami losing its starting keeper. I’ve been uneasy about the back line all week, and now the guy behind that back line is flying to Toronto for June 12th against Bosnia. Messi out, De Paul out, St. Clair out — Miami’s engine and their last line of defense are all at the same tournament. To be precise, this is St. Clair’s second straight World Cup — he was in the 2022 squad too, and he’s got 19 caps total. Canada drew Group B: Bosnia, Qatar, Switzerland. That’s a real group, so he’s not just going there to wave a flag. The 3-2 at Yankee Stadium was the tightest defensive line we’ve seen from this team lately, and St. Clair was in goal for it. Whoever steps in behind a back line that already makes me nervous — that’s the July question nobody’s answered yet. This one's from OurSports Central:
Kick off for Inter Miami CF's away match against Red Bull New York at Sports Illustrated Stadium on Saturday, October 24 is now set to get underway at 5:30 p.m. ET, originally scheduled for 4:30 p.m. ET
Quick scheduling note from OurSports Central: the October 24th away match at Red Bull New York, at Sports Illustrated Stadium, has moved an hour. Kickoff is now 5:30 Eastern instead of 4:30. Apple TV broadcast, same as always. October 24th is deep in the playoff push. That’s not a throwaway date on the schedule. It isn’t. Red Bulls away late in the regular season, one hour later, maybe with everything on the line — worth flagging now so nobody shows up with the wrong tickets or the wrong alarm time in the fall. If Inter Miami Daily is part of your routine, take a second to subscribe and leave a review wherever you’re listening. It really helps other fans find the show, and it helps us keep building this community.
We’ve put links to every story from today’s show in the notes, so if something caught your ear, you can jump in and read more there.
That’s Inter Miami Daily Podcast for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.