Inter Miami vs. Toronto FC: Keys to Sunday Night Soccer

The Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental Tire show rolls on, this time down to Fort Lauderdale to get an up-close and personal look at the GOAT and a few of his closest friends, hosting a struggling Toronto FC side who are still kinda stuck in first gear (7 pm ET | MLS Season Pass, Apple TV+).

Inter Miami obviously aren’t. They’re off to a torrid start, are aiming for back-to-back Supporters’ Shields and seem to really love getting everyone’s best shot every single week. They’re playing like a big team with something to prove, which makes sense since they’re built like a big team with something to prove.

So are Toronto, in their own way. But they’re not playing like it. That's been a persistent problem for a once-dominant club that’s fallen on hard times of late.

Inter Miami CF

• Will Lionel Messi play? And if so, how much? That’s the big question entering every game these days as the reigning Landon Donovan MLS MVP continues to nurse a slight adductor strain back to health.
• With Messi in and out of the lineup, it’s one of the other legends (Luis Suárez) whose name has been biggest and brightest on the marquee. My colleague Sacha Kljestan has the Uruguayan No. 9 atop the early MVP rankings, and I don’t disagree with him.
• I’m gonna go sicko mode here and put Maxi Falcón as the third player to watch. For Miami to be as good as I think they can be, he needs to get healthy and fully integrated into the heart of that backline.

Toronto FC

• Will last year’s Federico Bernardeschi please stand up? The DP Italian winger has looked nothing like the guy who I voted for 2024’s Best XI. He’s just been disengaged and static off the ball.
• With Ola Brynhildsen fit, we should finally get a good, long look at the Norwegian No. 9. He's in town on loan for the season and is thus fighting for a longer-term job.
• It’s safe to say veteran goalkeeper Sean Johnson will be tested in this one. It’s safe to say he needs to perform better than he has been so far to start the season. It has been rough, and with Luka Gavran waiting in the wings, Johnson might be playing for his job.

It’s somehow come quietly – weird, when you consider how much hoopla there’s been around Miami for the past two years – but the Herons are flying. They’re atop the Supporters’ Shield standings, have created a bit of separation (they’re on 2.6 ppg; their nearest competitor is under 2.2) and are playing the type of ball that says they’ll likely be staying at these lofty heights for months to come.

They have already survived an injury to Messi. They have actually upgraded the Diego Gómez spot. They have added more quality depth. They have significantly improved the central defense. They have continued to develop their homegrowns and last year’s SuperDraft picks.

Expectations entering this season were already high. They have only climbed since first kick. It certainly feels like Miami are playing to break the single-season points record they set last year, and when that’s on the table, every single outing carries extra weight.

The only unabashedly good thing that’s happened for the Reds so far in 2025 was the semi-breakout of Deandre Kerr, the academy attacker who’d developed into a true center forward over the past 18 months and looked to have won the job. Two goals in 220 minutes for a team that doesn’t create much? That’s good work.

Then he limped off injured last week. I haven’t seen an official timeline on his expected return.

And the silver lining is gone just like that, which means things are tough in The Six. The high-end guys on the roster aren’t performing, the young players haven’t really developed, none of the midfielders have broken lines with their passing, none of the center backs have done particularly well defending in their own box, and so on.

They’re looking for any kind of ray of light here.

Inter Miami CF: When does Luis Suárez get a much-deserved rest?

Suárez is a grizzled 38-year-old. When he was with Grêmio in 2023, reports indicated the osteoarthritis in his right knee forced him to consider retirement. Tata Martino shared last July that Grêmio suffered from an inflamed knee and added, “it is a knee that he works on permanently, week by week.”

HE HAS STARTED ALL 10 MATCHES FOR INTER MIAMI IN 2025, PLAYING 785 OF AN AVAILABLE 900 MINUTES.

The Uruguayan is not only universally available with a knee he must coax into match readiness… but MVP-level productive! I am in complete awe. Suárez's warrior credentials cannot be questioned, but it’s hard to believe this pace is sustainable for a full season, plus Concacaf Champions Cup (however long that lasts), the FIFA Club World Cup and the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs.

Forward Allen Obando, the 18-year-old Ecuadorian wunderkind signed on loan last week, needs to get his visa issues settled, get integrated into the squad and start eating some minutes ASAP. Games like Toronto FC at home would seem to be the perfect opportunity to take a blow. We’ll see if Suárez gets one.

Toronto FC: Does going to Miami raise Toronto’s level or show their true colors?

Everybody seems to get up for Inter Miami, understandably so. Will Toronto rise to the occasion?

At this point, I’m not locked in on tactics, personnel choices or results for TFC. No, it’s much simpler than that. Will the Reds put up a fight? Will they stick together and compete for 90 minutes? Or will they wilt the moment Miami put one on them (because that’s going to happen)?

Toronto need a win desperately, of course, but any reason to believe they’ve got a turnaround in them would be invaluable currency for Robin Fraser at the moment.

Inter Miami CF

When Messi’s been on the field this year, they’ve played out of what I’ll call a 4-4-1-1. What I mean by that is Messi’s nominally a forward – they’ll usually defend with a front two and banks of four behind him, so it kind of looks like a 4-4-2 – but he’s totally free to drop in and become a playmaker, or flare wide to become a winger, or even, yes, do forward things running off of Suárez's movement and hold-up play.

It’s a completely free role. The game is oriented around him because when you orient things around Messi, he makes goals happen:

The midfield balance changes depending on whether or not Messi is out there. When he is, head coach Javier Mascherano tends to insert another ball-winner. When he isn’t, he tends to go with a more creative player. Often that’s young Venezuelan Telasco Segovia, who’s been simply brilliant.

The other change is that things become more 4-3-3ish when Messi’s on the bench. Suárez will drop in as a False 9 playmaker while the wingers stretch the field. And irrespective of the formation, it’s always going to be Sergio Busquets pulling the strings from deep.

One other note: This team’s not as ball-dominant as they were last year. They’re very content to play out of a mid-block for big chunks of the game, and even selectively press for a bit.

That nearly came back to bite them last week against Philadelphia, though, as they can get a bit complacent when they’re not actively pushing for goals. As talented and experienced as they are, they can’t let themselves go flat.

Toronto FC

It’s been hard to tell. New head coach Robin Fraser’s trying to cook dinner with someone else’s groceries, and so he’s kind of improvising his way through the early part of the season. We’ve seen a 4-3-3 and a 4-2-3-1 and a 3-4-2-1 and a 5-4-1 and, to be honest with you, none of it has really worked all that well.

Some of it is just a lack of cohesion in the team, and some of it is probably just not enough individual talent. Though even the guys who are, in fact, individually talented aren’t bringing it to bear:

If you’re going to play with wingers – and Fraser has always tried to have true wingers out there; lately it’s been Derrick Etienne Jr. on the left with Lorenzo Insigne as a nominal No. 10 – you need them to be goal-dangerous off the ball. So far, neither of the Italian DPs have been, while Etienne’s only had sporadic moments. All of which makes it really hard for the whole thing to actually work.

There’s also no threat of running in behind: TFC have hit only three through-balls all year as per FBRef, which is tied for second-to-last in the league. Even more concerning, I think, is that the Reds are down in the bottom third of the league in switches of play, when being able to play across the game channel like that was such an integral part of Fraser’s best Colorado Rapids teams. When they were really cooking, they’d drag you to one side, then open the game up and attack you up the other.

Toronto have done very, very little of that. So far, anyway.

Look, this feels like as big a mismatch as we’ll see all year. Before the season, I picked Miami to win the Shield and Toronto to win the Wooden Spoon. Neither have given me much reason to think I’ll be wrong.

But also… this is MLS. This league hits somebody in the face with the chaos hammer every single weekend. No reason it can’t be Toronto’s turn to swing it.

I think it’ll be a 4-3-3ish 4-2-3-1 with Segovia as a 10 and two field-stretching wingers. Expect Messi to come in for the final 35 minutes or so.

I’m going to assume they’ll stick with the 4-2-3-1 they used last week in what was probably their most solid defensive performance of the year. But a 5-4-1 wouldn’t shock me at all.