Messi contributed two assists in Inter Miami's victory

In the 51st minute of the match at BMO Stadium, Sergio Busquets held the ball in his own half and then turned around to pass it back to the center circle for Messi. After a few moments of observing the ball, the Inter Miami captain striker poked through the home defense so that Jordie Alba could slide from the left to defeat goalkeeper John McCarthy in the face-off.

In the 83rd minute, Miami counterattacked quickly. Messi took advantage of center-back Aaron Long's weak chest to break the ball to break through. A Los Angeles FC player rushed to pressurize, but No. 10 calmly passed to the right for Campana to finish well into the far corner when facing McCarthy.

These are Messi's first two assists through three matches in MLS. In round 35, Messi came on as a substitute and sealed a 2-0 victory for Inter Miami over New York Red Bulls. Round 36, when returning to the starting role, the Argentine striker was silent in the 0-0 draw with Nashville at DRV PNK's home field.

In all competitions, Messi has played 11 matches for Miami, scored 11 goals and assisted 5 times. In addition to three MLS games, he made seven appearances, scoring 10 goals, assisting one in the Leagues Cup, and one in the US Cup semi-finals, where he also had two assists.

The victory for Inter Miami would have been more complete if Messi had not missed a good opportunity in the 38th minute. He bounced off the wall with Diego Gomez and then moved into the restricted area, bypassing Long to face McCarthy. But his left foot shot was then blocked by the home keeper with his hand. In the stands, singer Selena Gomez expressed surprise and regret over this mess.

In this match, Los Angeles entered the game better, creating many waves at the beginning of the match thanks to the speed and cunning of former Barca player Carlos Vela and striker Denis Bouanga. But Inter Miami still opened the score with an unexpected situation in the 14th minute, when Aviles passed a long ball from home, splitting the right armpit of the Los Angeles defense so that Farias could reach over and kick the ball past goalkeeper McCarthy. The ball hit the post on the far corner and went into the net.

Finishing is the major limitation of Los Angeles in this match. Statistics show that the home team BMO 22 times bombarded, including six times sending the ball to the goal, but it was not effective. After being led, Vela, Bouanga and Mario Gonzalez all had good chances to equalize in the first half, but missed. It wasn't until the first minute of compensation that Los Angeles succeeded in finding a way into the away team's goal, with a dangerous header from left-back Ryan Hollingshead after the corner.

Miami finished nine times in total, with six on goal and broke in efficiency when scoring three goals. This victory helps Messi and his teammates continue to hope to compete for tickets to the MLS Play-offs. Miami currently has 25 points, three points more than the bottom of the Eastern group Toronto FC, and less than the ninth place of D.C. United - the last place with tickets to the MLS Play-offs - eight points, but are playing two fewer games.

After today's match, Messi will return to join the Argentina team for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. The 36-year-old striker will definitely miss Inter Miami's match against Sporting Kansas City on the evening of September 9, and will only return for the Atlanta United match on September 9. September 16.