Lionel Messi leads Inter Miami to its first-ever Supporters Protect

Lionel Messi and Inter Miami have one other trophy, together with home-field benefit all through the Major League Soccer playoffs.

Messi scored twice within the remaining minutes of the primary half, goalie Drake Callender stopped a penalty kick within the 84th minute and Inter Miami beat the defending MLS Cup champion Columbus Crew 3-2 on Wednesday evening, wrapping up the Supporters Protect given yearly to the workforce with the perfect regular-season file.

It was Messi’s forty sixth main trophy gained for membership or nation, extending his file for essentially the most by any males’s soccer participant in historical past. And it’s the second he has gained with Inter Miami, this Supporters Protect being added to the Leagues Cup trophy the Herons claimed shortly after Messi joined the membership in 2023.

“We knew this was a bunch that would battle for this,” Messi mentioned.

Luis Suárez additionally scored for Inter Miami, which is able to open a best-of-three first-round playoff collection within the remaining weekend of October. If the workforce wins that collection, it could have the correct to host each match it performs the remainder of the season — an Japanese Convention semifinal (scheduled for Nov. 23 or 24), the East remaining (Nov. 30 or Dec. 1) and the MLS Cup remaining on Dec. 7.

“We’ve got a pleasant alternative to go down in historical past … and now we take into consideration what’s coming,” Messi instructed Apple TV after the match. “We’ve got an incredible benefit in that we play all of the video games at house, which was what we have been in search of. I believe that we’re very, very sturdy at house.”

Additionally nonetheless inside attain for Inter Miami: the perfect MLS regular-season mark ever. Wednesday’s win pushed Inter Miami’s file to 20-4-8 this season, giving it 68 factors. If the membership wins its remaining two matches — Saturday at Toronto and Oct. 19 at house towards New England — it could end with 74 factors.

New England has the single-season factors file, ending with 73 in 2021.

Messi opened the scoring within the forty fifth minute, taking a protracted move from Jordi Alba — his longtime teammate at Barcelona, the membership with which Messi gained 35 of his trophies — and splitting two defenders earlier than one way or the other getting the ball previous Columbus goalkeeper Patrick Schulte for a 1-0 lead.

And about 5 minutes into first-half stoppage time, Messi struck once more on a free kick from about 30 yards out. Schulte appeared fooled, and Messi squeezed the ball between the goalie and the close to submit for a 2-0 lead.

“Dominant,” Inter Miami coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino mentioned.

Diego Rossi scored within the first minute of the second half for Columbus to chop the lead in half, but it surely didn’t take lengthy for Inter Miami to revive the two-goal cushion. Virtually instantly after play resumed, Schulte was upended by one among his personal defenders and Suarez despatched a header into an empty web for a 3-1 edge.

Juan “Cucho” Hernández’s penalty kick within the 61st minute obtained Columbus inside 3-2. However as soon as once more, the momentum didn’t final for lengthy. Rudy Camacho was despatched off for his second yellow card within the 63rd minute, that means the Crew needed to play with 10 males the remainder of the way in which.

Didn’t matter. Columbus nonetheless created some huge possibilities down the stretch.

A deflected ball within the 76th minute obtained throughout the field and onto the correct foot of Mohamed Farsi — however his shot was blocked by Callender, who was completely positioned to guard the lead.

Then got here extra drama, when Inter Miami was referred to as for its second handball contained in the field — an automated penalty kick — of the second half. Hernández picked the left aspect of the online, however Callender made the save look virtually simple.

That save helped end what Messi began.

It was the fifth two-goal sport of the MLS season for Messi, who now has 17 objectives in 17 league matches this season. He’s missed 15 of Inter Miami’s MLS matches in 2024, both due to commitments to Argentina’s nationwide workforce or the two-month absence that he wanted to recuperate from a badly injured ankle — an injury that occurred throughout his nation’s run to the Copa America title in July.

Inter Miami, in MLS play this season, is now 10-1-6 with Messi within the lineup.

“All year long we had many, many accidents, the place we couldn’t all be collectively … however the group was getting essentially the most out of each robust sport,” Messi mentioned.

The Crew and the LA Galaxy entered Wednesday nonetheless with a mathematical hope of passing Inter Miami within the race for the Supporters Protect, and Cincinnati was 9 factors again with 9 factors nonetheless potential.

However now, they’re all enjoying for second.

“Dec. 7 is what we wish,” Martino mentioned, referring to the date of the MLS Cup remaining. “However this isn’t insignificant in the present day.”

Reporting by The Related Press.

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