MLS Winners and Losers: San Diego FC’s attack, Carles Gil, LA Galaxy’s problems & more

It’s in the title, folks. Every week during the MLS season, Backheeled will dive into the biggest Winners and Losers from around the league. This week, San Diego FC took things to another level, Carles Gil found himself, the LA Galaxy hit a new low, and more.

Winner: The “Inter Miami are deeper than last year” narrative

In the aftermath of Inter Miami’s 2-1 home win over the Philadelphia Union on Saturday, there are two ways to read the game that pitted the East’s top two teams based on points per game against each other.

The first is this: Inter Miami won yet another game thanks to the singular talents of Lionel Messi, who came off the bench in the 55th minute and scored in the 57th minute to give his team what turned out to be an insurmountable lead despite Philly’s best set piece efforts. Add this game to the Messi tally.

The second is this: with their brightest star on the bench to open the match, Inter Miami thrived in the first half against the next-best team in the Eastern Conference.