Messi scores, plays full game, but Inter Miami settles for 1-1 tie at home vs. Toronto FC
Inter Miami ticket holders and Apple TV viewers and executives got a pleasant surprise Sunday night: Lionel Messi was in the starting lineup, played the full game and scored against Toronto FC, despite speculation he would be rested for the higher-stakes Champions Cup game against LAFC on Wednesday.
The Argentine icon gave fans at Chase Stadium, most of them in pink No. 10 Messi shirts, two memorable first-half moments to capture on their cell phones and tell their friends about. But it wasn’t enough, and the star-stacked Miami team settled for a 1-1 tie against a Toronto team that is winless through seven games.
With the tie, Inter Miami slipped to second place in the Eastern Conference behind the Columbus Crew. Miami has four wins, two ties and no losses for 14 points over six games The Crew has 15 points after four wins and three ties over seven games.
“Unfortunately, we did not get the result we wanted, which was to win to get to the Wednesday game in the best form possible,” Inter Miami coach Javier Mascherano said. “We started the game well, then we conceded some chances, maybe we lost some confidence and disconnected for a 10 or 15 minute gap in the first half. It was a difficult game, which we knew it would be because Toronto may not be in a good position in the table, but they have good quality in front and they played really, really well.”
Despite their 14th place standing in the East, Toronto was coming off a scoreless tie against Western Conference leader Vancouver and seems to be improving under new coach Robin Fraser, the former FIU standout who was raised in South Florida.
“Joe Public is not concerned about progress until they see results, but I’m really pleased with the commitment we’ve shown over the last couple of weeks, playing against the best teams in the West and East and coming out with points,” Fraser said.
But for Inter Miami, a tie was a disappointing result. Mascherano said it serves as a lesson to the team going forward, especially heading into the elimination game against LAFC.
“Futbol is not a button you can push to connect, push to disconnect and then push to connect again,” Mascherano said. “It doesn’t work that way. If we don’t understand that, we will suffer the way we suffered [Sunday night]. If we are not connected from start to finish on Wednesday, it will be very difficult.”
He also pointed out that because LAFC played its league game on Saturday and Miami on Sunday, Los Angeles will have one more day of rest than Miami.
“It’s a 24-hour difference and we are both playing in the same competition,” Mascherano said. “I find that strange. Why do they have 24 hours more rest than we do?”
That said, he said his team will be ready and highly motivated. He urged fans to return on Wednesday.
The first Messi highlight Sunday night was a sublime curling goal at the 39-minute mark, but it was nullified after video replay showed that Messi stepped on defender Nicksoen Gomis’ ankle in the penalty area before launching his shot. Miami fans booed upon hearing the decision.
As if that weren’t enough to dismay the home crowd, which included Miami Open champion tennis player Aryna Sabalenka, Toronto’s Italian star Federico Bernardeschi scored in first-half stoppage time to give the visitors a 1-0 lead, slipping the ball past a few Miami defenders on the chase after they turned the ball over at midfield.
But then, moments before the halftime whistle, just when it seemed Miami would enter the locker room trailing by a goal, Messi pulled some magic out of his legendary left boot and scored an equalizer. That goal counted. He collected a pass from Telasco Segovia and cranked a shot past Toronto keeper Sean Johnson into the bottom right corner of the net as the crowd of 20,200 erupted.
It appeared a Gonzalo Lujan hand ball across the field might have had an effect on the sequence of passes, but the goal was upheld. The referee later explained that “a review was not recommended because the VAR did not consider any contact with the hand to be part of the attacking possession phase.”
It was Messi’s sixth goal of the year across eight MLS and Champions Cup matches.
“Messi’s the best player who’s ever played the game, it’s hard to stop him,” Fraser said. “He found a good spot, and his finish was that of a very, very good player.”
Inter Miami fans began buzzing the moment they saw Messi on the field for pre-game warmups.
The biggest question coming into the game was whether Messi and other key starters such as Luis Suarez and Jordi Alba would play at all because the league game against 14th-place Toronto was sandwiched between the first and second legs of the Champions Cup quarterfinal series against LAFC.
Miami lost the opening leg 1-0 on the road in Los Angeles on Wednesday night and faces a must-win game in the home leg this upcoming Wednesday.
The Champions Cup uses aggregate scoring, and away goals are the tiebreaker, so Los Angeles will advance with a win, tie, or a single-goal loss so long as they score an away goal Wednesday at Chase Stadium. If Miami wins 1-0 on Wednesday, the game goes into extra time and the winner advances.
Mascherano was expected to rotate at least some of the lineup for the Toronto game, and he did, but it wasn’t the players fans would have expected. It made sense that Sergio Busquets would start because he is suspended for the game on Wednesday due to yellow card accumulation, but it was a surprise that Messi, Luis Suarez and Alba were in the Starting XI.
Mascherano explained his decision.
“As far as roster rotation, we spoke to the [four aforementioned] players and these are elite players who have played every three days their entire lives, they are used to it and we felt we had to make changes in other positions,” the coach said. “I understand sometimes people can be surprised, but I had said in my pre-game press conference that we would not overlook this game.”
Joining The Big Four in the starting lineup were: Segovia, Fede Redondo, Robert Taylor, Gonzalo Lujan, Toto Aviles, Ian Fray, and Drake Callender, starting at goalkeeper for the first time this season. Callender, the co-captain and starter the past three seasons, injured his right adductor muscle in mid-January while at U.S. national team winter camp and just returned to the Inter Miami active roster last week.
Toronto tested Callender early with a couple of dangerous situations. Back-to-back shots by Theo Corbeanu clanked off the post, one on the right, the other on the left.
“Anytime you get your first 90, it’s good,” Callender said. “Teams are getting into season form, so it was good to just get out there and get a feel for the game in a possession, out of a possession. Not the result we wanted, but it’s good to get a point and we’ll go from here.”
The upset-minded visitors continued to battle in the second half while Messi, Suarez, Busquets and Alba remained on the field. Fafa Picault, the Haitian-American who grew up in South Florida, entered the game in the second half, replacing Robert Taylor. Marcelo Weigandt, coming back from a hamstring injury, went in for Ian Fray.
Then, in the 69th minute, newly signed 18-year-old Ecuadorean forward Allen Obando made his Miami debut, replacing Suarez, who had a goal waved off for off-sides early in the game.
“I felt great and just very grateful to this team for giving me this opportunity,” Obando said. “We should have done more, but sometimes that happens in football.”
The last two Miami substitutions came with 10 minutes remaining, Yannick Bright for Redondo and Santi Morales for Segovia.
Messi remained on the field until the final whistle. But he ran out of magic.
Herald Deputy Sports Editor Andre Fernandez contributed to this report
This story was originally published April 6, 2025 at 5:55 PM.