Soccer <\/p>\n
It\u2019s been dubbed \u2018the Messi<\/a> factor,\u2019 an overarching shorthand<\/a> for the powerful allure of having the GOAT as a teammate. So just what does playing for Inter Miami<\/a> offer to the Herons\u2019 cadre of young players?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Newcomer Telasco Segovia<\/a> got the message loud and clear from his national team coach when Venezuela visited Chase Stadium for a January friendly vs. the United States.<\/p>\n \u201cI told Segovia, \u2018You are earning a postgraduate degree in football,\u2019 playing alongside Messi, Su\u00e1rez<\/a>, Busquets<\/a>, and Alba<\/a> \u2013 players who have competed at the highest levels and are champions,\u201d Vinotinto<\/em> boss Fernando \u2018Bocha\u2019 Batista, an Argentine who preceded Miami head coach Javier Mascherano as the leader of the Albiceleste<\/em> Under-20s, revealed to the Spanish-language show \u2018Sale y se acaba\u2019<\/a> this week.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you can’t learn here, you won’t learn anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n The 21-year-old attacker looks to have taken heed. With three goals and an assist in his first four appearances, three of those goal contributions racked up in Sunday\u2019s 4-1 away drubbing<\/a> of the Houston Dynamo<\/a>, Segovia is off to a roaring start in Miami following his reported $2.5 million transfer (plus sell-on clause and add-ons) from Portugal\u2019s Casa Pia.<\/p>\n \u201cI am very happy for everything I am experiencing. I hope that there will be many more moments like this for this team,\u201d Segovia told MLS Season Pass reporter Michele Giannone in Houston, attributing his rapid acclimation to having arrived \u201cin rhythm\u201d at the halfway point of the Portuguese season.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be playing with the best player in the history of the world, it\u2019s a dream.\u201d<\/p>\n He isn’t the only youth to contribute. IMCF have also gained goal contributions from Benja Cremaschi<\/a>, Toto Aviles<\/a> and Noah Allen<\/a> thus far, and key minutes from kids across the pitch. Indeed, they\u2019re turning out to be nearly as fundamental to the Miami project as its 30-something superstars.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, we have a mix, right?\u201d Mascherano noted in a video interview last month. \u201cA sort of hybrid between young players and more experienced ones, and our goal is to integrate them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n 3\ufe0f\u20e3 goles en 2\ufe0f\u20e3 partidos para Telasco ???????????? pic.twitter.com\/C1RQKKJH6b<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Inter Miami CF (@InterMiamiCF) March 4, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n Half of the Herons\u2019 2025 first-team roster, 14 players, are age 23 or younger. Some are academy products and SuperDraft picks, others much-hyped youth internationals who cost millions in transfer fees. For a club participating in multiple tournaments like Concacaf Champions Cup<\/a> and this year\u2019s FIFA Club World Cup<\/a> on home soil, their combined energy is central to squad depth and tactical variety.<\/p>\n Their upcoming schedule underlines why: The Herons host Jamaican outfit Cavalier FC in a CCC Round of 16 first-leg clash on Thursday, then welcome Charlotte FC<\/a> on Sunday (4 pm ET | MLS Season Pass<\/a>) before the return leg in Kingston next week. All of that is followed by a visit to Atlanta United<\/a> for a massive Sunday Night Soccer fixture on MLS Matchday 4.<\/p>\n If the Fab Four are the brains of the operation \u2013 and Messi its \u201csoul,\u201d as Mascherano put it after the legend fed Segovia for a last-gasp equalizer vs. New York City FC<\/a> on Matchday 1 \u2013 then the Herons\u2019 corps of youngsters are its lungs and legs, the labor that multiplies the genius of those ex-FC Barcelona luminaries.<\/p>\n \u201cHell yeah! I know I’m not the one making passes behind the defense. I’m the one running,\u201d 23-year-old central midfielder Yannick Bright<\/a> told MLSsoccer.com during preseason. \u201cAnd I’m OK with it. That’s my job. So I don’t think anybody can do it better than me.\u201d<\/p>\n An unheralded 2024 MLS SuperDraft pick who took a winding journey to MLS from Italy\u2019s lower divisions through a college soccer career at the University of New Hampshire, Bright epitomizes this dualism. He\u2019s blossomed into a rugged, rangy engine-room presence next to the 36-year-old Busquets, logging more than 1,800 minutes across all competitions last season and ranking in the 90th percentile or better in tackles, interceptions, blocks and clearances compared to his global peers according to FBref.com data.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Yannick Bright, man. pic.twitter.com\/XCJlsnmg6z<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Matthew Doyle (@MattDoyle76) July 21, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n Along the way, he\u2019s absorbed invaluable lessons from his elder colleague, one of the greatest holding midfielders of his generation.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s impossible not to learn, honestly,\u201d said Bright, who credits the absences caused by last summer\u2019s Copa Am\u00e9rica for providing him the opportunity to show the coaching staff he could be trusted. \u201cWhen you’re in this environment, you have to perform at that level, otherwise you won’t play. So it’s just a matter of adapting and adapting your game, surviving and thriving.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of tactical stuff that you definitely don’t learn in college \u2013 a lot of smart decisions that he makes,\u201d he added when asked what he\u2019s picked up from Busquets. \u201cIt’s nice to know what he thinks in different situations throughout the game, maybe when we’re defending, when we’re attacking, when he’s got the ball, when he doesn’t have the ball. I don’t think there’s anyone better than him that could explain it to me.<\/p>\n \u201cIt makes you think \u2013 like, there’s levels, you know? And it’s nice to learn from these people that are levels above other players.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Mascherano has spoken of continuity, of building on the \u201cfoundation\u201d built by his predecessor, Gerardo \u2018Tata\u2019 Martino, rather than making fundamental changes. And IMCF\u2019s youth core gained vital experience under Martino, though Cremaschi notes that even the coach himself acknowledged how circumstances forced his hand over his season and a half in charge.<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t know if Tata gave young guys that many opportunities. I think more than that it’s because he had to \u2013 he had a lot of injuries, and that’s why young guys got the opportunity. He even said it to us,\u201d the homegrown midfielder and rising US international told MLSsoccer.com. \u201cBut I think us young guys are important to this team, because we’re the ones with energy, we’re the ones with the legs, and we need that in this team. We need people to get after the ball, to compete; we need to be the engine of this team.<\/p>\n \u201cJavi knows that, he knows that we are important because of that. With the ball we could contribute as well, because we’re talented kids that understand the game.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Javier Mascherano loved every one of @InterMiamiCF<\/a>‘s goals on Sunday night. ????\ufe0f pic.twitter.com\/6KSivU5il6<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Major League Soccer (@MLS) March 3, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n Their tenacity and work rate on both sides of the ball has become part of Miami\u2019s identity, particularly when Messi or other stars are absent due to injury, rotation or international duty. The Herons\u2019 ability to reliably pick up points in those situations powered their march to the 2024 Supporters\u2019 Shield and it was on display again in Houston, where Mascherano dialed up his squad\u2019s press and repeatedly exploited La Naranja<\/em>\u2019s resulting turnovers as Messi rested back home.<\/p>\n Afterwards, the coach made sure to praise Segovia\u2019s two-way play just as much as his finishing.<\/p>\n \u201cWe saw that obviously he has the quality, the jerarqu\u00eda<\/em> [level] to play in our team; he brings us many things, not only in the offensive part where he is very important, where he has combination play, where he has the last pass, where he also has goals, but also in everything that he is in defensive terms,\u201d said Mascherano in Spanish, citing his observations of Segovia\u2019s talent when Venezuela\u2019s youth teams played his Albiceleste<\/em> sides.<\/p>\n \u201cHe’s a kid who gives his all, who helps us a lot in the defensive phase as well. And we know that we can also count on him in different positions; it gives us a diversity that makes him an important player.\u201d<\/p>\n Some saw Mascherano\u2019s relative dearth of head coaching experience as a reason for doubt when he was hired by Miami. Majority owner Jorge Mas pointed to his developmental track record with Argentina\u2019s U-20, U-23 and Olympic sides as an important facet of his selection, however.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know that the weight of the team is carried by the experienced players because of the names they have. But that shouldn’t fool us,\u201d Mascherano said last month.<\/p>\n \u201cThe young people have to take a step forward and they are the ones who have to pull \u2013 and take advantage of the fact that the older players bear that pressure so that they can give us that leap in quality. So what we are looking for with the youngsters is that this year, they already begin to feel the fact of the importance they have within the team.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2014 Inter Miami CF (@InterMiamiCF) March 3, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n In Mascherano\u2019s resume, and his emphasis on aggressive pressing and defensive diligence, IMCF\u2019s kids see pathways for progress. That entails both collective success and the chance for individual advancement, like the club-record transfer Diego G\u00f3mez made<\/a> from Miami to English Premier League side Brighton & Hove Albion over the winter.<\/p>\n \u201cJavi was a youth coach, U-20s coach and U-23s coach, with Argentina. So I think he values the growth of young academy [products] or young guys that come from other places,\u201d said Cremaschi. \u201cThe opportunities are big.\u201d<\/p>\n The veterans recognize it, too. After first Messi, then Busquets was substituted off in Miami’s CCC second-leg win over Sporting KC<\/a> last week, Jordi Alba passed the captain’s armband to Allen, the 20-year-old homegrown defender who\u2019s earned his elders\u2019 respect despite external concerns about his size and athleticism.<\/p>\n It was a fleeting detail in the dying moments of a long-decided series. Yet as Cremaschi points out, the small details matter quite a bit to a group hungry for multiple trophies after last season\u2019s Audi MLS Cup Playoffs collapse.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe in them. We know that they have a big potential,\u201d said Mascherano in English afterwards. \u201cSo I love to work with [them] \u2013 obviously I love to work also with the \u2018old guys\u2019 or the big men, but I know that the young players can give us [so] much, and I tell them, they need to give a step forward.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have to believe in themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n“It’s a dream”<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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Future is Bright<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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Learning through experience<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
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Passing the torch<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n