Inter Miami's U.S. Open Cup disappointment serves as lesson for how to approach matches without Lionel Messi

The hosts were far from their best and without their top player in the cup final defeat

FORT LAUDERDALE -- While the additions of Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba raised Inter Miami's ceiling of expectations, it was the young players who could not match the lofty standards and showed that there is a long way to go after losing the U.S. Open Cup final to the Houston Dynamo on Wednesday, 2-1.

Without Messi and Alba due to fatigue, Tata Martino turned to the young players on the team with five younger than 25 starting the Open Cup final. Noah Allen, Benjamin Cremaschi, Diego Gomez, Facundo Farias and Leonardo Campana are all excellent players in their own right but given the keys to the attack against an experienced Dynamo midfield, they've shown where there must be dramatic improvements. 

"He elevates everyone, and I saw a little bit when Wayne Rooney came to D.C. United, and when he was on the field, it just was different. You're going to battle with a legend, a guy that you can believe in and that has just won everything," Dynamo head coach Ben Olsen said when asked what was different facing the Herons without Messi. "I don't think that was necessarily the case. I don't think there was any lack of energy or fight from them. I think it was just, you know, they were missing their best player."