Inter Miami chase Concacaf Champions Cup comeback: "Nothing is impossible"

Javier Mascherano will remind Inter Miami CF of the great comeback stories of modern soccer as the Herons aim to overturn Vancouver Whitecaps FC’s 2-0 aggregate lead in Wednesday night’s Concacaf Champions Cup semifinal second leg at Chase Stadium (8 pm ET | FS1, OneSoccer; TUDN, ViX) – starting with the iconic one that he and the Herons’ ‘Fab Four’ were personally involved in eight years ago at FC Barcelona.

On March 8, 2017, the Spanish giants trailed Paris Saint-Germain 4-0 in the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 after a one-sided first leg in France, only to reel off an incredible six goals – three of them after Edinson Cavani snatched a seemingly devastating away goal just past the hour mark – at a delirious Camp Nou to win the home-and-home series 6–5 on aggregate, the final strike delivered by Sergi Roberto five minutes into added time.

It’s remembered and revered by Blaugrana faithful simply as ‘La Remontada,’ and Mascherano, Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez and Sergio Busquets were all in Luis Enrique’s starting XI that night, while Jordi Alba looked on from the Barça bench.

“That night I learned that nothing is impossible,” Mascherano recalled in Spanish in Tuesday’s matchday-1 press conference. “In football, anything can happen, absolutely everything.

“I can transmit [those memories] as a coach, but I had at that time four teammates who shared that with me and lived it firsthand. I think that they, better than anyone, can transmit it to the rest. Clearly the situation is different; no two games are the same. The contexts are totally different, but that's why I tell you I think that the series, and tomorrow's game in particular, will give us possibilities.”

Embracing the pressure

Sitting next to Mascherano, IMCF center back Maxi Falcón spoke of the ample belief he and his teammates have in their power to claw back, fueled, naturally, by Messi’s transcendent excellence.

“From what we have seen of what happened last game and we have full confidence in the team that the situation can be reversed. It is difficult, the margin [for error] obviously has to be zero. But we have full confidence that if we do a good job tomorrow, we will go ahead,” said the Uruguayan defender.

“To play this profession, to play football, you need passions, you need challenges, and tomorrow we have one of them.”

Messi & Friends can also point to their comeback on LAFC in the previous round of ConcaChampions, where they fell behind 2-0 on aggregate by conceding an Aaron Long away goal early in the second leg, before storming back to win the tie 3-2 via a brace from the GOAT and a third from Federico Redondo.

The players, Mascherano said, have “the will, the desire to be able to take this club to a Champions [Cup] final for the first time, and that they as players can remain in a privileged place in the history of this club.”

Attention to detail

Conversely, Mascherano acknowledged that FC Dallas’ remarkable late fightback from 3-1 down to 4-3 winners over a heavily rotated Miami side in Fort Lauderdale on Sunday is a different, more painful sort of reminder of how quickly a match can be turned on its head.

“You don't have to go crazy,” he noted, “wanting to make the second before the first, and from there knowing that the game is long, that we're going to have situations [to score]. From the defensive aspect, it’s a concentration game … avoid transitions, avoid unnecessary turnovers – that was what maybe did a little damage in Vancouver, because the transitions that Vancouver had came from unnecessary turnovers.

“Beyond the fact that we lost 2-0,” Mascherano added, “and we didn't have the best night, it's not that Vancouver ran over us. The game was very even, where small details end up deciding the game.”

So Miami’s first-year head coach counsels composure, focus and faith as his squad look to find the opening tally that would draw them within striking distance and inspire their home crowd, without conceding an away goal that could prove fatal, considering the tenacity of the Whitecaps’ defending in that riveting leg one encounter.

These sorts of occasions, he declared, are what soccer – and even life itself – are all about.

“Living with this type of pressure, it is what gives it meaning, what gives you life, being involved in football, the fact of being able to compete, being able to have the illusion of being able to reverse an adverse result, and we take it as that,” he said.

“The challenge is enormous. I am delighted to be able to experience it, delighted to be able to be here. I think the players are too. In the end, that's why I said there is nothing to lose … It will be even more epic, having to come back. What’s better? Well, now we will have to do it.”