Lionel Messi sets up both goals as Inter Miami opens MLS season with a 2-0 win over Real Salt Lake

SPORTSAREENA.comFebruary 22, 2024

13 2 minutes read

Doug McIntyre

Soccer Journalist

Inter Miami shook off a grueling preseason that produced simply a single win by opening the brand new MLS marketing campaign with a convincing 2-0 victory over Real Salt Lake in South Florida on Wednesday.

Lionel Messi set up the one purpose his group would want when he sprung Miami winger Robert Taylor behind RSL’s again line. The Finnish nationwide teamer blasted the ball via keeper Zac MacMath, who someway was unable to make what ought to’ve been a comparatively easy save:

With RSL urgent arduous for the equalizer late, Diego Gómez put the match away for the Herons when he scored the second with simply seven minutes of normal time remaining.

Play of the sport

With the rating nonetheless 1-0, Miami was tiring noticeably as the guests poured on the strain. But Messi noticed a gap when RSL coughed the ball up close to the midway line. The Argentine celebrity surged up the center of the sector, performed a fast go to former Barcelona teammate Luis Suárez. Suárez, who was making his MLS debut, instantly discovered Gómez to his proper and the Paraguayan midfielder coolly slotted his effort into the underside nook of the online to safe all three factors.

Turning level

As a lot as Miami dominated the opener from the primary kick of the ball, the match was nonetheless scoreless as halftime approached. Not solely would it not have been irritating for the hosts to enter the locker room at halftime nonetheless scoreless, it would’ve allowed doubt to creep into their minds after struggling in a variety of tuneup matches over the final month.

Instead, they acquired the all-important first purpose from Taylor thanks largely to MacMath’s gaffe, a reward the Herons have been more than pleased to take.

Key stat

The Herons had a 60-40 possession benefit till they started to tire within the second half, and so they have been really out-shot by the guests 17-15. But the quantity that stands out most for RSL is zero. That’s what number of photographs the guests had managed to placed on goal throughout the first 70 minutes of the match.

What’s subsequent for Inter Miami?

It’s a fast turnaround for Messi & Co. Following Wednesday’s season-opening triumph, Tata Martino’s group will journey throughout the continent to Los Angeles, the place they’re going to face the five-time MLS Cup champions LA Galaxy on Sunday.

It’s the primary time Messi will face the Galaxy. It additionally marks a special day for Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham who, very similar to Messi twenty years later, shocked the soccer world when he left the highest degree of the European membership recreation and moved to MLS. Beckham starred for the Galaxy from 2007-12, profitable a pair of MLS Cups earlier than ending his profession with Paris Saint-Germain — one in all Messi’s former groups — a 12 months later.

What’s subsequent for Real Salt Lake?

While Miami has simply 4 days till its subsequent match, RSL has even much less relaxation. Pablo Mastroeni’s aspect subsequent performs at St. Louis City on Saturday earlier than heading again to Utah for its residence opener on March 2 in opposition to LAFC.

Doug McIntyre is a soccer author for FOX Sports. Before becoming a member of FOX Sports in 2021, he was a employees author with ESPN and Yahoo Sports and he has lined United States males’s and girls’s nationwide groups at a number of FIFA World Cups. Follow him on Twitter @ByDougMcIntyre.