Miami has chance to clinch MLS Supporters’ Shield in Columbus

Nancy has a point. Europe’s top leagues don’t leverage a playoff system; the best team over the course of the season wins the trophy as consistency is valued over the flash-in-the-pan brilliance that American postseasons reward. MLS splits the difference by awarding two trophies: the Supporters’ Shield for regular-season excellence and the MLS Cup for postseason domination. But for many foreign coaches, it’s the Shield that truly matters.

Two teams remain in contention for the 2024 Shield: Nancy’s Columbus Crew and Tata Martino’s Inter Miami. The two face each other on Wednesday in arguably the biggest game of the MLS season. Columbus has the home-field advantage, but Miami has the edge in the table. If it wins, it will clinch the Shield, condemning Columbus to another year of being second-best.

The Crew currently trail Miami by eight points with four games left on their slate. Miami has three matches remaining.

But a win won’t come easy for Miami. Nothing has come easy for Miami in its past three games. It’s drawn all of them, blowing early leads after losing focus in the second half. 

“We are in a moment that’s hard to process for us,” midfielder Matias Rojas told mlssoccer.com. “We have to get back to winning.”

Columbus, meanwhile, is hungry to upset its Eastern Conference competitors. 

“They are first, and we want to run after them,” defender Rudy Camacho told mlssoccer.com. “Even if we have a small chance, we’re going to take it. We never know. They can lose points and we can take three points against them.”

The narrative around Miami is that the team lives or dies on Lionel Messi’s fitness, but that simply isn’t the case. It’s made it to the top of the Eastern Conference on the back of its talented roster and it beat Columbus earlier in the season without Messi in the lineup. Conversely, Columbus is often lauded for its collectivism and team spirit, but its success hinges on the performance of star striker Cucho Hernandez. He leads the team in goals, assists, shots and xG. Without him, Columbus struggles.

In that sense, Miami and Columbus are far more similar than they appear. This is not a grand battle of old versus new or individualism versus collectivism; it’s just a grand battle of MLS’s two strongest teams. They’ve made five finals and won three trophies between them in the past 18 months. 

The team that takes the Shield — arguably American soccer’s most elusive prize — will establish itself as the country’s leading outfit.