Lionel Messi Ends Scoring Drought With First Goal for Inter Miami After His Father’s Death

Lionel Messi scored his first goal for Inter Miami on Wednesday night after the death of his father earlier this month, curling a left-footed finish into the corner at Subaru Park before pointing to the sky in a quiet gesture of tribute. The goal came in a 2-2 draw with the Philadelphia Union that ended with two red cards and a share of the points.

A Goal Delivered With a Smile and a Tribute

Messi’s father and longtime representative, Jorge Messi, died on August 7 in Rosario, Argentina, at the age of 68. Messi missed Inter Miami’s match against Monterrey the following day to travel home for the funeral, returning to the field on August 12 as a substitute in a defeat to Leon. He played the full 90 minutes in Miami’s 4-1 loss to Nashville the following Saturday, a game in which he missed a penalty and hit the post twice without finding the net.

Wednesday night, at Subaru Park in Chester, Pennsylvania, ended that wait. Messi’s cross was headed by Luis Suarez into the path of forward Daniel Pinter, who finished to give Inter Miami an early lead in the 21st minute. Messi then added a goal of his own in the 26th, cutting inside onto his favored left foot from twelve yards and curling a shot into the far corner. He allowed himself a brief smile with teammates before pointing toward the sky, the tribute he has carried through his career and one that carried extra meaning on the night his goal drought following his father’s death came to an end.

A Chaotic Draw at Subaru Park

Philadelphia responded quickly. Indiana Vassilev scored on a first-half volley, with 16-year-old midfielder Cavan Sullivan credited with the assist, to pull the Union back level before the interval. The Union then went ahead through 18-year-old defender Neil Pierre, who headed home his third goal in five games in the 58th minute. Philadelphia forward Milan Iloski thought he had put the Union in front for a second time in the 62nd minute, but the goal was reviewed and ruled out for an offside in the buildup.

The match ended with two players sent off in stoppage time, Yannick Bright and Sullivan both shown red cards after a scuffle away from the ball. Rodrigo De Paul, Messi’s Argentina teammate at this year’s World Cup, was suspended for the game after accumulating yellow cards and did not feature for Inter Miami.

Messi’s Season by the Numbers

The goal and assist took Messi to 13 goals and nine assists in 17 MLS appearances this season. Against the Union specifically, he now has six goals and four assists in six matches in all competitions, a run of form against one opponent that few defenses around the league have managed to contain. Inter Miami entered Wednesday’s game in second place in the Eastern Conference, sitting behind first-place Nashville after Saturday’s 4-1 defeat.

The draw arrived in the middle of a difficult run for Inter Miami, who had lost three straight games in all competitions coming into the match, including back-to-back defeats to Mexican opposition in the Leagues Cup. Before that stretch, Miami had gone unbeaten in seven consecutive MLS matches, a run stretching back to May 9 that had positioned them as one of the form teams in the league heading into the summer. The three-game losing run, and Messi’s own struggles in front of goal across it, marked a sharp change from that earlier unbeaten stretch.

Miami improved to 11 wins, three losses and six draws on the season with the point earned in Chester, keeping them in a playoff position in the Eastern Conference even with the recent dip in form. Philadelphia, at five wins, ten losses and five draws, remain closer to the bottom of the table, though the turnaround under Richter has offered the club a platform to close that gap over the closing weeks of the regular season.

A Difficult August

The weeks after Jorge Messi’s death have been some of the hardest of his son’s career away from the field. Messi missed the funeral preparations while still involved with the team’s Leagues Cup campaign before flying home, then returned to competitive action within days, playing through a stretch in which the results, and his own form in front of goal, did not go his way. His father had worked as his agent and representative for most of his professional career, a constant presence around Messi’s transfers and contract negotiations going back to his early years in Europe.

Wednesday’s goal, arriving with the tribute gesture that has become part of his goal celebrations over the years, offered a visible marker of a player working his way back to form while still carrying the loss of his father. The finish itself, a trademark curled shot from the edge of the box onto his favored left foot, was the kind of goal Messi has scored hundreds of times across his career. The celebration that followed, restrained rather than the wide grin and sprint toward the corner flag associated with some of his biggest moments, reflected where his mind still was in the days following the funeral.

Philadelphia’s Emerging Young Core

Philadelphia’s response showed why this fixture has produced high-scoring, unpredictable results between the two sides all season. Interim coach Ryan Richter has led the Union to an unbeaten run of five games, four wins and a draw, in the time he has held the role, and Wednesday’s performance extended that run against one of the league’s strongest teams. Sullivan, at 16, and Pierre, at 18, both playing central roles in that fightback, are further evidence of the young talent Philadelphia has built into its first team this season, with Sullivan’s assist on Vassilev’s goal his seventh of the campaign.

Inter Miami’s own history against the Union has swung wildly in recent meetings. The two sides played out a 6-4 Inter Miami win on May 24, the last game between them before both teams broke for the World Cup, a match in which Messi did not score but Suarez scored a hat-trick as Miami came from behind twice to win. Wednesday’s draw, by contrast, was shaped as much by defensive lapses and refereeing reviews as by attacking quality, a far scrappier occasion than the goal-fest the two clubs produced in May.

Suarez’s involvement in both games underlines how much Inter Miami’s attack still depends on the partnership between the two South Americans. His header set up Pinter for the opening goal on Wednesday, just as his hat-trick had driven the win in May, a reminder that Messi’s return to scoring form arrived inside a team performance rather than as an isolated moment. The pair have combined for goals throughout their time together at the club, and Wednesday’s opener continued that pattern even before Messi’s own goal arrived five minutes later.

What Comes Next

Inter Miami will look to build on Messi’s return to form as the MLS regular season moves toward its final stretch, with the club still occupying a playoff position in the Eastern Conference even after the recent dip in results. The remaining schedule offers Miami a chance to rebuild the kind of unbeaten run that carried them through the middle of the season, with Messi’s return to scoring form arriving at a point when the team needs its biggest performer back to his best.

For Messi personally, Wednesday’s goal marked a small, visible step in a season now shaped as much by personal loss as by anything happening on the field. He has continued to play through the weeks that followed the funeral, returning to the lineup within days of his father’s death and appearing in every Miami match that followed, aside from the game missed for the funeral itself. The tribute to the sky, delivered inside a stadium far from Rosario, said as much about where his mind still was as the finish itself, a reminder that even at 39 and playing in front of a packed away stadium, Messi was still processing a loss shared far beyond that stadium in Chester.

Inter Miami’s next assignment will offer little time to reflect on the moment, with the MLS playoff race tightening across the Eastern Conference and the Leagues Cup quarterfinals still to come this month. For a team built so heavily around Messi’s form, Wednesday’s goal, whatever it meant personally, also arrived as a needed signal that its best player is starting to find his way back to full sharpness heading into the most important stretch of the season, with playoff positioning and a Leagues Cup run still both very much in play for Inter Miami over the coming weeks.