The night started off miserably for Lionel Messi and Inter Miami as the Argentine captain made a rare mistake that proved costly, leading to an early lead by CF Montreal.
But he more than redeemed himself with two brilliant goals and an assist as Miami won, 4-1, on the road Saturday in the team’s return to MLS action after its exit from the Club World Cup.
If there was any question about how seriously Inter Miami is taking its return to the MLS season, it was answered with the starting lineup coach Javier Mascherano put on the field.
Messi, Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets and five other starters from the Club World Cup Round-of-16 game against Paris Saint-Germain were in the Starting XI against Montreal.
The game started off poorly for Miami. In the second minute, Messi sent a back pass directly into the path of Montreal forward Prince Owusu, who scored an easy goal on a left-footed shot from the center of the box to give the home team a 1-0 lead.
Alba had a golden chance to score the equalizer in the 15th minute, but his left-footed shot bounced off the right post. Tadeo Allende had a good shot from the right side at the 20-minute mark, but it was saved by Jonathan Sirois. Thirteen minutes later, Allende got an assist from Messi and found the back of the net to tie it up 1-1. Busquets got the play started with a through ball to Messi.
Then, Messi made up for the early error with a spectacular go-ahead goal, weaving his way through four defenders and then curling a perfect low shot to the far low corner. The huge smile on his face showed how much the goal meant to him as he was engulfed by his jubilant teammates.
Inter Miami headed into halftime with a 2-1 lead.
Telasco Segovia made it 3-1 at the 60-minute mark on a blast from the left side with an assist from Allende.
And Miami wasn’t done. Messi delivered more magic two minutes later, collecting the ball on the counter attack and dribbling past four defenders, leaving them twisting and turning as he kept the ball on his trusty left foot and then unleashed a shot that hit the top center of the goal.
“Messi! Messi!” chanted the crowd at Stade Saputo.
Inter Miami has seven games over the next 25 days, including four of the next five on the road, so Mascherano said he plans to do some roster rotation in the coming weeks. But on Saturday, he went with his heavy hitters.
“Clearly, we have a lot of games coming up, plus all the ones we have already played, so we will need everyone to participate,” he said. “We’ll see how we can manage some roster changes without feeling it too much because I don’t like to change six or seven players from one match to the other.”
Although facing CF Montreal, the last place team in the Eastern Conference, might seem like a letdown after facing European champion PSG in front of a crowd of 65,000, Mascherano and his players entered the game highly motivated to build off their tournament success.
They said if they could get through matches against Al Ahly, Porto and Palmeiras undefeated, they can win domestic league games and contend for the MLS Cup. Miami beat Montreal 4-2 at home on May 28 with a pair of goals by Messi and two more by Suarez.
Inter Miami has ground to make up, as it slipped from third place to seventh during its Club World Cup break and has played four fewer matches than all the teams ahead of them in the standings.
Miami now sits 11 points behind first-place Philadelphia Union, 10 behind second-place Cincinnati and nine behind third-place Nashville. The top seven qualify for the playoffs, which begin in late October. The eighth- and ninth-place teams enter a playoff for the final spot.
Due to its tournament commitments, Miami has played only 16 MLS matches, while its rivals have played 20. Messi and his teammates had not played a league match since their 5-1 win over the Columbus Crew in late May. The next stretch of the schedule is jam-packed as the team tries to catch up.
Following the Montreal game, Inter Miami plays at New England on July 9, at home against Nashville on July 12, on the road at Cincinnati July 16, on the road at New York Red Bulls on July 19, and then at home against Cincinnati on July 26.
“Our motivation now is to compete in our league, and to achieve something this club has been aiming for year after year,” Mascherano said. “We want to get as far as we can, qualify for the playoffs, be in position to have home field advantage, and from there we’ll see what happens at the end of October.”
Segovia added: “We had a great tournament overall in the Club World Cup and now we shift our attention to the league. We are motivated against Montreal because we want the earn three points, and we want to be in first place in the league. We have a lot of games this month and we want to win them all.
“The level of competition in the Club World Cup was very high and we benefited from that because it let us know that if we play like we did against Porto and Palmeiras, we can win the league.”
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