Lionel Messi had chances at goals time and time again, only to keep being denied. Turns out, all he needed to do was deliver the right pass at the right time.
Jordi Alba turned a pass from Messi into the go-ahead goal in the 60th minute, Luis Suarez also scored and Inter Miami beat Atlanta United 2-1 on Friday night in the opening game of a best-of-three first-round Major League Soccer playoff series.
It was not the easiest of openers for the Supporters’ Shield winners and No. 1 overall seed in the MLS Cup playoffs, a team that set a league record with 74 points in the regular season, 34 points ahead of wild-card Atlanta in the standings.
Saba Lobjanidze scored for Atlanta, which got eight saves from goalkeeper Brad Guzan. Game 2 will be Nov. 2 at Atlanta — the last road game of the season, no matter what, for Inter Miami. Game 3, if necessary, will be Nov. 9 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
“It’s going to be difficult for us,” Inter Miami coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino said. “It’s going to be difficult as this rival has been throughout the season.”
Inter Miami’s first-ever home playoff game and Messi’s MLS playoff debut was sold out — Messi games almost always are, everywhere in the world — and MLS even had a camera isolated on him throughout the match, streaming that view on TikTok. There were plans to also show the match live on a massive screen in New York’s Times Square; that ended up getting called off, but Apple will schedule a viewing of another match there.
Atlanta was the only team that beat Inter Miami when Messi was in the lineup this season, and it was almost as though the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner — and finalist for MLS MVP honors — knew it wouldn’t be easy.
“It gets settled on the field,” Messi said in an interview taped before the playoffs, one that MLS teased on social media and said will be distributed on its Season Pass platform. “Anything can happen in a match.”
And for 60 minutes, the scoreboard said these teams were even.
Suarez scored with the match barely a minute old, and Messi had three high-quality chances later in the half.
Messi’s left foot nearly made it 2-0 after six minutes; Guzan had to sprawl to his right to barely deflect the shot away. Messi found a bit of space and fired again in the 26th minute; this time, Guzan punched it over the crossbar. And in the 29th minute, it wasn’t Guzan who denied Messi — it was the post. The rebound came to Inter Miami’s Marcelo Weigandt, and his shot got punched away by Guzan.
If not for Guzan, it could have been 2-0, 3-0, maybe even 4-0 at that point.
Instead, it was 1-1 at intermission. Lobjanidze got behind the defense and beat Drake Callender from close range in the 39th minute, and Atlanta — which won at Chase Stadium in May — was all square going into the second half.
“We were frustrated,” Martino said.
In the 52nd minute, Messi’s direct kick from 25 yards nearly gave Inter Miami the lead again but curled just wide of the post to Guzan’s left. The breakthrough came about eight minutes later, with Messi getting lifted into the air by Alba in celebration after the goal.
“We’ve got to keep our heads up, and we’ve got to go again,” Guzan said. “We’ve had our backs against the wall for quite some time now. And when our backs have been against the wall, we’ve found a way. Our backs are against the wall now. We’ve got to go into Game 2 and we’ve got to win.”
The night took a bad turn for Inter Miami late. Ian Fray, a South Florida native who has already dealt with three ACL tears, left in the 90th minute after a noncontact injury left him unable to put any weight on his right leg. There was no immediate word on the severity of Fray’s injury.
“It was a very good game … but we’re not feeling as satisfied as we could because of Ian,” Martino said. “We are all a little bit sad. We’ll wait to see what injury he has.”