Questions mount, silence from stars as Inter Miami regroups after Orlando loss
The image of Lionel Messi seen around the world Sunday was of the Argentine legend enjoying a tour of the F1 Miami Grand Prix with his family, visiting the paddock, meeting with Argentine driver Franco Colapinto and winner Kimi Antonelli, and sitting in the driver’s seat of a shiny race car.
It was a much-needed distraction from the nightmare he endured just a few hours earlier.
A dejected and clearly frustrated Messi was the first Inter Miami player to leave the Nu Stadium field Saturday night after his team, the defending MLS champions, squandered a 3-0 lead and lost 4-3 to archrival Orlando City in, arguably, the most embarrassing defeat since his arrival at the club nearly three years ago.
Miami beat Orlando 4-2 on the road in March, and this Orlando team has been one of the league’s weakest teams this season. It is a game that Inter Miami and its fans expected to win, especially after the team went up 3-0 in the first 33 minutes. Instead, following an epic collapse, Miami remained winless in its first four games at its sparkling new home.
It was only the third time in MLS’s 30-year history that a team has lost after leading by three goals. Despite Messi’s goal and two assists, it was Orlando’s Argentine No. 10, Martín Ojeda, who left the field celebrating after scoring a hat trick.
A smattering of boos was heard from the stands for the first time this season.
So, what’s going wrong? How is a team that rolled through the 2025 MLS playoffs, winning three of its last four games by four-goal margins, giving up a three-goal lead at home to Orlando City?
The team clearly misses retired Spanish legends Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, whose chemistry with Messi after so many years at Barcelona is irreplaceable. Strengthening the defense was the focus of the offseason acquisitions, but the additions of MLS Goalkeeper of the Year Dayne St. Clair, Brazilian center back Micael, Argentine defender Facundo Mura and right back Sergio Reguilon so far have not yielded results.
Inter Miami continues to get burned in transition, has allowed 19 goals in 11 games and recorded only one clean sheet.
The club invested $15 million in German Berterame, a prolific striker in Mexico with Monterrey, but the attack is not clicking the way it did during the playoffs, when a retreated Messi was flanked by speedy, energetic Mateo Silvetti and Tadeo Allende, who scored an MLS playoff record nine goals. Through eight games this season, Allende has no goals and no assists.
After Saturday’s game, the team’s leaders offered no answers to the assembled media. Messi, the captain, has not addressed the local media in more than two and a half years. Rodrigo De Paul and Berterame, the team’s other two designated players, were not made available.
De Paul has not spoken to the local media this season. Luis Suarez has been unavailable since last fall. St. Clair was not brought to postgame interviews, either.
The only two players who faced the music were South Florida natives Ian Fray, who scored the first goal, and Noah Allen, among the youngest players on the squad and the most willing to speak to reporters.
Inter Miami faced some criticism on social media during the past few days for trotting out young players such as Fray and Allen in such difficult moments while letting its stars hide from tough questions. On Monday, the club announced that Suarez will be available for interviews on Wednesday after training.
Interim coach Guillermo Hoyos, who replaced Javier Mascherano three weeks ago after his unexpected resignation, took just one question in the postgame interview and then walked out. He was asked what happened defensively that caused the team to concede four unanswered goals.
He offered a rambling reply about how people like to kick you when you’re down, how he will never speak critically of his players because he didn’t like when coaches did that when he was a player, how he has faced adversity in life, and how those moments “build men.”
Miami sits in third place in the Eastern Conference and has four games remaining before MLS takes a seven-week World Cup break. The next two matches are on the road, Saturday at 1 p.m. at Toronto FC and next Wednesday night at FC Cincinnati.
Toronto is in eighth place in the East and dealing with multiple injuries but coming off a confidence-building tie against West leader San Jose. Cincinnati is in sixth place, a perennial playoff contender and an intimidating place to play.
Inter Miami’s next home game is May 17 against the Portland Timbers, who are coached by former Miami coach Phil Neville.
“It’s devastating,” Allen said of the loss to Orlando. “I’m almost like broken…I feel like my girlfriend just broke up with me, if I’m honest. It’s a horrible feeling. We have to talk. We have to regroup.”
This story was originally published May 5, 2026 at 5:07 PM.