FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — If Inter Miami CF rallies today to advance past the LAFC and earn a berth in the CONCACAF Champions Cup semifinals, the high-powered Herons would have survived and conquered without iconic midfielder Sergio Busquets pulling the strings.

During the first leg of the two-match aggregate series last week at BMO Stadium, which LAFC won, 1-0, Busquets received a yellow card in the 71st minute following a hard foul against Turkish forward Cengiz Ünder.

As a result of Busquets’ second caution of the competition, the 36-year-old Spaniard was automatically suspended for the decisive second leg against LAFC at Chase Stadium today.

After his 15-year stint in La Liga, Busquets departed for MLS in the summer of 2023. He debuted for Miami at the exact same moment as his legendary Barcelona teammate Lionel Messi, and the defensive midfielder, a World Cup winner in 2010, has been as good as advertised, which is to say he’s been a workhorse and a thoroughbred all at once.

For one of the sport’s great winners, today marks just his seventh missed competitive game with Miami spanning 76 contests over 2 1/2 years.

The pink-clad team is 2-1-3 when Busquets doesn’t suit up, although LAFC head coach Steve Cherundolo sees little reason to think much about the 2010 World Cup champion’s absence considering Messi’s presence alongside the likes of Luis Suarez and Jordi Alba.

“His experience in big games, his quality they’ll certainly miss,” Cherundolo said Saturday after LAFC fell, 1-0, in a league match at Houston. “But they have a good roster, a very good team and I expect Miami to throw their best at us on Wednesday.

“I’m not sure it changes a whole lot.”

In the first match LAFC defended well as a collective unit, allowing a goal by Nathan Ordaz to hold up as the game-winner. Ordaz has scored in each of his last two appearances in the Champions Cup. At 21 years and 80 days, he is the youngest to do so for an MLS team.

Miami head coach Javier Mascherano said his team was not at its best last week after losing for the first time this year including preseason friendlies, MLS regular-season matches and the CONCACAF Champions Cup.

On Sunday, Inter Miami hosted Toronto to a 1-1 regular-season draw — yet another instance when the Herons, through stints of disconnection, were bailed out by Messi.

“He’s one of the greatest ever and that’s something we have to deal with,” Cherundolo said of the 37-year-old Argentine, who has six goals in all competitions this season. “I thought we dealt with it very well in the first leg.”

Despite the quick turnaround from Sunday to today, Mascherano played Messi through the final whistle against Toronto. However, the first-year coach took issue with LAFC getting an extra day of rest.

“It’s a 24-hour difference and we are both playing in the same competition,” Mascherano said Sunday evening. “I find that strange. Why do they have 24 hours more rest than we do?”

The fiery former Barcelona and Argentine international described today’s contest as “a final,” calling for Inter Miami supporters to come out in force.

Cherundolo doesn’t view the matchup that way. For the pragmatic former American international, a quarterfinal is a quarterfinal.

“At this stage of the season we’ve had a lot of games already but we’d love to advance,” he said.

In preparation, LAFC stayed in Houston, where the team recovered and trained prior to arriving in Florida on Monday.