Messi comes off the bench, scores crucial goal as Inter Miami holds off Philadelphia
Even when he doesn’t start, and enters a game in the second half, it usually doesn’t take Lionel Messi long to find the back of the net.
On Saturday night, it only took him two minutes.
Messi began Inter Miami’s matchup against Philadelphia on the bench.
He entered in the 55th minute. By the 57th minute, Messi was making it look easy once again, taking a quick feed from Luis Suarez and crossing a ball perfectly past Philly goalkeeper Andre Blake to send the majority of the capacity crowd at Chase Stadium into a frenzy.
More importantly, the score proved crucial to help Inter Miami hang on for a 2-1 victory over the Union in a battle between the top two teams in MLS’ Eastern Conference standings.
“We wanted (Messi) to get some minutes, and the idea was maybe for him to get 30-35 and with the additional time he played more, but he felt good,” Inter Miami coach Javier Mascherano said. “We didn’t want to risk him from the start, playing him the whole match. But he finished strong and made us all really happy.”
The win leapfrogged Inter Miami (4-0-1) back into first place in the conference with 13 points and dealt Philadelphia (4-2-0) its second loss of the season, dropping the Union to second place.
Inter Miami remained undefeated across all competitions through its first nine matches under first-year coach Javier Mascherano.
Philadelphia made things close in the 80th minute when Daniel Gazdag took a cross from Quinn Sullivan and fired it from the center of the box past Oscar Ustari to cut Miami’s lead in half.
Ustari, who returned to Inter Miami’s lineup after serving a red-card suspension in the club’s previous match on March 16 against Atlanta United, was forced to leave the match shortly after following another Philadelphia scoring chance.
This gave goalkeeper Drake Callender the opportunity to play for the first time this season after missing the team’s first eight games across all competitions due to an adductor injury.
Mascherano said Ustari, who was also briefly attended to by team trainers late in the first half but remained in the game at that point, was dealing with cramps, which prompted his removal from the contest.
Callender entered in the 86th minute and did not allow a ball to get past him as Inter Miami successfully held off Philadelphia despite an additional nine minutes of stoppage time and some contentious play between the sides down the stretch.
“Drake responded very well and we know how important a player he is to this organization,” Mascherano said. “This is a team in Philadelphia that scores a lot of goals with their four strong forwards and can do a lot of damage with their quality both technical and physical.”
Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets each drew yellow cards during stoppage time.
Messi nearly delivered a third goal for his club and second for him in the 99th minute on a header off a cross from Suarez, but Blake smothered the attempt.
After the match, Mascherano did not say for certain if Messi will travel with the team to Los Angeles for Wednesday’s match against LAFC as part of the quarterfinal round of the Concacaf Champions Cup, but said he is hopeful Messi will bounce back strong enough to play in that game.
Messi entered the game in place of Robert Taylor.
In the first half, Messi watched as Taylor scored his first MLS goal of the season in the 23rd minute off a play that was beautifully set up by Jordi Alba and Benja Cremaschi.
Alba secured possession on the run just past midfield and delivered a great long cross past Philadelphia’s defenders to Cremaschi. After one touch, Cremaschi crossed it back to his left back, out of the reach of Blake, and perfectly to Taylor, who was wide open in front of an empty net and fired it into the back of the net.
It was Taylor’s 13th career goal in an MLS match.
“Robert is a player who we value a lot,” Mascherano said. “He has a lot of competition on this team with guys like Tadeo (Allende), Fafa (Picault) and sometimes even Benja in that spot. We’re really happy for him coming back from injury and he responded how we were hoping he would.”
Messi looked like his usual self immediately in his first game since suffering a strain in his left thigh and dealing with an adductor issue following Inter Miami’s most recent game on March 16 at Atlanta.
Messi, however, did not miss an Inter Miami match since the team did not play during the recent FIFA international break.
Messi was unable to play for Argentina during the break in his home country’s World Cup qualifier matches against Brazil and Uruguay.
Allende, who has two goals this season for Inter Miami, sat out Saturday’s game.
Ian Fray started at right back and had a strong game for Miami on the defensive end.
The victory was crucial for Inter Miami, which began another busy stretch on Saturday. The matchup against Philadelphia was the first of five matches in a span of 15 days for Miami, which begins a two-game set against LAFC in the Concacaf Champions Cup quarterfinals on Wednesday night in Los Angeles. Inter Miami also faces Toronto at home next Sunday in MLS play before hosting LAFC in the second leg of the Champions Cup quarterfinals and then travels to play Chicago on April 13 in an MLS match.
“We had a lot of players that needed the break to recuperate and guys who were out playing internationally and sometimes this type of game, you have to find a way,” Mascherano said. “This is where you see the depth of this club and how we will need everybody to step up in such a long season. Wins like this convince everyone that every match is important and that’s what I try to stress to them every day.”
This story was originally published March 29, 2025 at 6:52 PM.
