Messi, Allende braces lead Inter Miami to series-clinching 4-0 rout of Nashville
Almost a year to the day since their embarrassing first-round playoff exit on their home field, Lionel Messi and his Inter Miami teammates made sure history did not repeat itself.
Messi and Tadeo Allende each scored braces to lead Miami to a 4-0 rout of Nashville SC that advanced the team to the knockout round of the MLS playoffs for the first time in club history.
Inter Miami will face FC Cincinnati on the road either Nov. 22 or 23 in the single-elimination Eastern Conference semifinal game.
Their season and pride were on the line Saturday night at Chase Stadium. Star forward Luis Suarez was suspended and watching from a suite. And Nashville SC was across the field for the fourth game in a row, determined to end Miami’s season, as Atlanta United had done a year earlier.
But Miami dominated start to finish in the decisive game of the Best-of-3 series. Coach Javier Mascherano urged his players to bottle up their frustration from the Game 2 loss and unleash it on Saturday.
That they did.
The team celebrated the historic victory on the field and then in the locker room, where loud music blared long after the final whistle.
“I thought the team played an almost perfect game,” Mascherano said. “We played at a very high level on all our lines. We were very intense from the first minute, very organized in the high press. I’m very appreciative of these players because even though the other day we left Nashville with a bitter feeling, they understood what we faced on this night, what was at stake for the club with a chance to take the team to a playoff phase it had never reached.”
As usual, Messi was the catalyst when his team needed him most.
At the 10-minute mark, as if on cue, the Argentine No. 10 showed how serious he was about winning. He dribbled through four Nashville defenders and cranked a low left-footed shot to the bottom right corner to give Inter Miami a 1-0 lead.
The home fans, most of them in pink replica Messi shirts, erupted as their 38-year-old hero was swarmed by his jubilant teammates. Suarez flashed a giant grin.
The play began when Miami defender Ian Fray put pressure on a Nashville attacker, the ball got to Tadeo Allende, who redirected the ball into Messi’s path, and he took it from there, leaving yellow shirts in his wake.
Messi doubled Miami’s lead in the 39th minute when Jordi Alba delivered a long ball to Mateo Silvetti, who started in place of Suarez, and the Argentine teenager made a heady play, cutting the ball back to an open Messi in front of the goal. Messi scored an easy goal from close range and the home crowd of 19,049, which included Ivanka Trump, went wild.
It was Messi’s 15th goal in the past 10 games and his eighth in four games against Nashville during the past three weeks. Despite Nashville’s 11 shots throughout the match, goalkeeper Rocco Ríos Novo kept the team’s first clean sheet of the 2025 postseason.
Messi, who won the MLS Golden Boot and is expected to be voted MLS MVP for the second year in a row, finished the three-game series against Nashville with five goals. He has 12 goals against Nashville since his arrival in Miami in July 2023, which is the most against any MLS opponent.
“Leo is the one who guided our team in the high press, and for him to do that at age 38 is crazy,” Mascherano said. “We all know what he can do with the ball, but what he did without the ball was impressive.”
Miami took a 2-0 lead into halftime and then Tadeo Allende put on a show in the second half, scoring a pair of goals in the 73rd and 76th minutes to stretch the Miami lead to 4-0.
Allende’s first goal came after Alba worked hard to keep the ball in bounds just outside the left corner of the goal and then found Allende in the box. His second goal came on a fast break with a through ball from Messi.
Miami, with the most expensive roster in MLS history, failed to meet expectations last season, losing to Atlanta in the first round of the playoffs. Mascherano and his players stressed for weeks how determined they were to avoid another embarrassing exit.
“We’ve had some very, very good stretches during the regular season and in other competitions as well, and it would have been very unfair to be eliminated at this stage,” Mascherano said.
“I’m also happy for the club because after what happened last year, there was a bit of a feeling in the air, and you could sense that it could happen again. Now that’s all in the past, forgotten, and we can look forward.”
A familiar foe stood in the way on Saturday.
Over the past three weeks Inter Miami beat Nashville 5-2 on the road in the regular season finale, won at home 3-1 in Game 1 of the playoffs and lost Game 2 in Nashville last weekend, which forced Game 3.
Maschereno went with the same starters he used in Game 2 with the exception of Suarez, who served a red card suspension.
The ban was imposed by the MLS Disciplinary Committee on Wednesday following a review requested by Nashville SC. The committee ruled that Suarez kicked Nashville defender Andy Najar in the 71st minute of Game 2. Suarez appealed the decision, but it was upheld.
Silvetti, the 19-year-old Argentine attacker who joined the team in late-August, started in place of Suarez.
Asked about Silvetti’s performance, Mascherano said: “Toto [Silvetti] played a very good game, was very important in this win, but it would be unjust to single out any one player because this victory belongs to every player on our roster. All week they worked hard and had their heads on what happened in Nashville and how to turn that around, so this was their prize.”
The rest of the Starting XI included: Rocco Rios Novo, Ian Fray, Maxi Falcon, Noah Allen, Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets, Rodrigo De Paul, Tadeo Allende, Baltasar Rodriguez and Messi, the team captain and league Golden Boot winner.
Mascherano used a 4-3-3 formation Silvetti and Allende flanking Messi and a midfield of Busquets, De Paul and Rodriguez.
Miami’s bench players were Oscar Ustari, Marcelo Weigandt, Toto Aviles, Gonzalo Lujan, Yannick Bright, Telasco Segovia, Santi Morales, Fafa Picault and Allen Obando.
Segovia replaced Rodriguez in the 60th minute. Bright went in for Silvetti at the 75-minute mark and Aviles replaced Allende in added time.
Nashville’s starters were Joe Willis, Jack Maher, Josh Bauer, captain Walker Zimmerman, Najar, Patrick Yazbek, Sam Surridge, Matthew Corcoran, Alex Muyl, Edvard Tagseth and Hany Mukhtar.
“What makes me most happy about this team is the positive spirit that was evident all week and how we arrived at this moment,” Mascherano said. “After 10 months, so many games, so many trips, so much wear-and-tear, what can often happen is you reach this final stretch of the season and lose steam. But it’s been the opposite. I have seen a lot of smiles and energy at training, great atmosphere, and that is so important.”
This story was originally published November 8, 2025 at 8:08 PM.