Lionel Messi won his second title with Inter Miami and his 46th with club and country on Wednesday night, and he couldn’t help but think about his chances to win again.
With Messi scoring two goals and Luis Suarez adding another, Inter Miami withstood a late comeback attempt from defending champion Columbus Crew to win 3-2 and claim the MLS Supporters’ Shield on Wednesday night.
“The truth is that we are happy to achieve the first goal and now we are thinking about what is coming, right?” Messi said in a postgame interview with Apple TV.
Inter Miami owner Jorge Mas kicked off the celebrations in the dressing room before presenting the team with the Supporters’ Shield trophy. Messi held up the trophy next to Mas while holding a bottle of “Mas+ by Messi” drink over his head. That’s product placement for you.
Inter Miami won the League Cup title last year, shortly after Messi’s arrival in July 2023 drew global attention. The Supporters’ Shield, a title given to the MLS regular-season champion, will be the club’s second under Messi. But Inter Miami is already focused on reaching the MLS Cup final on Dec. 7 and potentially playing in the FIFA Club World Cup in the United States next year.
“Leo was the game changer,” said Inter Miami coach Tata Martino, who also coached Messi at FC Barcelona and the Argentina national team. “Our goal is to get to Dec. 7, and we would like to play in the Club World Cup. With the names we have on our team, they could just give us a spot, but it would be more just and mean more if we earn it, and this Supporters’ Shield was very important for us.”
Messi scored his first goal of his own with his left foot in the 45th minute and then took a patent free kick just before half-time (45+4). It was sucked into the left side of the net to give Inter Miami a 2-0 lead, setting up a dramatic second half.
Suarez scored his 18th goal in the 48th minute, two minutes after Crew star Diego Rossi opened the second half with a goal.
Crew top scorer Cucho Hernandez converted a penalty in the 61st minute, but Inter Miami goalkeeper Drake Callender saved a second penalty to tie the score in the 84th minute.
Thanks to the staff’s tenacity, the game lived up to its billing as the best game of the MLS season, but Messi’s greatness left its mark.
“Today, in probably the most important match we have played this year so far, we found again the version of Leo that defines matches and championships,” Martino said.
Messi, a World Cup winner and two-time Copa America winner, was playing in just his fifth game since returning from a right ankle injury sustained in July’s Copa America final.
Although Messi scored three goals in his first four games, he was criticized for still looking tired and needing more time to get back into form. It was even said that he was partially to blame for Inter Miami going into the match with three straight draws, as the team lacked the overall rhythm to get their star player back in the lineup.
Indeed, while Messi may take some time to find the form we expect from the best player in the world by the time of the MLS Cup playoffs, he was more than up to par for Inter Miami in Columbus.
And as much as Messi helped Inter Miami win the MLS Supporters’ Shield, his teammates deserve a lot of credit for keeping the club at the top of the MLS standings for most of the season.
Despite missing 15 MLS games for Inter Miami this season, Messi still managed to score 17 goals in 17 games. Inter Miami’s record for the MLS season without Messi was 10-2-3 (S-U-N). He scored 32 of the 68 points the club collected through the final two games. From June 15 to August 31. On the 31st, Inter Miami played nine games without the injured Messi, winning eight of them (24 points).
Inter Miami has video games remaining – Saturday at Toronto and Oct. 19 web website hosting the New England Revolution – to contend for the MLS file for factors in a season. Inter Miami has sixty eight factors after the Crew win, and might attain seventy four with greater wins. The file set through the Revolution in 2021 is seventy three factors.
“Even though we have a great opportunity to go down in history in that, I also think it is less important,” Messi said of the MLS points record. He has his eyes on a deep playoff run.
“The first objective has been achieved and now we have to think about what is coming, right? The first (playoff matchup) is (best of) three, but then it`s a game (each). Anything can happen in a game, but we have a great advantage in that we play all the games at home, which is what we were looking for. I think we are very, very strong at home.”
Inter Miami, a team co-owned by David Beckham and the brothers Jorge and Jose Mas, has gone from being a perennial loser to the Supporters’ Shield winners. After Messi arrived last year, the team, which entered the league in 2020, was unable to make the playoffs.
Now, Inter Miami has secured home-field benefit for the MLS Cup Playoffs in which a 3rd membership title, and No. 47 for Messi, probable awaits.