Messi, Inter Miami seek redemption in rematch vs. Seattle Sounders on Tuesday
Sixteen days after Inter Miami left Seattle’s Lumen Field humbled and embarrassed by a 3-0 loss to the Sounders in a heated Leagues Cup final that ended in an ugly postgame brawl, the teams meet again in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday night.
This time, there is no Cup on the line. It is a regular-season MLS game. But Miami will be highly motivated.
Not only do Messi and his teammates want to prove they can beat the Sounders, but they are desperate for a win after dropping to eighth place in the Eastern Conference standings after Saturday’s 3-0 loss at Charlotte FC. Despite Messi playing 90 minutes in both games, he has gone scoreless, even missing a penalty kick he normally would make.
Inter Miami has four games in hand on several of its conference opponents with eight games remaining, but has struggled of late, with just one victory in its previous four matches. The men in pink sit a point behind New York City FC for an automatic playoff berth.
Seattle, meanwhile, has been one of the best MLS teams since the summer with just one loss in its past 16 games.
Miami coach Javier Mascherano insists there will be no carryover from the tempers that flared during and after the match against Seattle two weeks ago.
“That’s in the past,” he said on Monday morning before training. “Matches don’t repeat themselves. The only thing the same is the opponent. But this is a different game, different competition, different circumstances. It is important for us to have a good performance, win, climb the standings and generate the confidence that this team has had most of the season.”
Because Miami has played in three tournaments in addition to the MLS season, the team now must catch up with a jam-packed MLS schedule during the next several weeks with a game every three to four days.
“Obviously, we don’t have enough time to prepare for this game, since it has been less than 48 hours since we played Charlotte,” Mascherano said. “We analyzed the Charlotte and Seattle games and will try to find the way to correct the collective errors we made in both games.
“Our objective will be to play like we did in the second half against Seattle, where we generated chances and could have tied it. We had five or six scoring chances against Charlotte, too. We were not as efficient as we were in other games. The score 3-0 against Charlotte appears lopsided, but it was closer than that. They got one chance in the first half on scored on a play where we lost the ball.”
Making matters more complicated for Miami, seven players are unavailable. Luis Suarez is serving the second of his three-game MLS ban for spitting on a Sounders security official after the Leagues Cup final. Tomas Aviles is serving a red-card suspension. Five players are injured: Fafa Picault, Telasco Segovia, Baltasar Rodriguez, David Ruiz and Allen Obando.
“The roster is what it is, but it’s a lot to ask with the number of games we have to play in such a short window of time,” Mascherano said. “No excuses. We will work with who we have and maybe bring up a few from the second team.”
With such a thin roster, it is possible 19-year-old Mateo Silvetti could make his MLS debut. He would likely come off the bench, as the Argentine attacker, who came from Newell’s Old Boys, arrived in camp Sunday and trained with the team for the first time on Monday.
An injury kept him out of action for three months, but he said he is fully recovered and eager to contribute to his new team. He is from Messi’s hometown of Rosario, so being Messi’s teammate is particularly special, he said. He also played for Mascherano and his staff with the Argentine U20 national team.
“It was my goal to come here, continue to grow as a player, take the leap from Argentina and see what level I can reach,” Silvetti said Monday morning in his first interview with the local media. “I am happy to be here with all these important players in a league that is growing a lot. There is a lot I can learn.”
Mascherano spoke highly of Silvetti.
“He’s a very serious young man, seems older than he is because of his maturity level,” Mascherano said. “He’s available to play, and barring anything strange, will be on the roster. But he hasn’t played an official match for four months. He’ll have to adjust as he goes because we don’t have much time to integrate him.”
How to Watch Inter Miami vs. Seattle Sounders: The game kicks off at 7:30 p.m. and will be shown on Apple TV MLS Season Pass. Tickets are available at intermiamicf.com/tickets
This story was originally published September 15, 2025 at 2:59 PM.