Lionel Messi scores twice, assists for Inter Miami in 3-1 win vs. Nashville

By
Roy Nemer
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34

Lionel Messi scored twice and assisted for Inter Miami in their 3-1 win vs. Nashville.

Osvaldo Godoy of Mundo Albiceleste was in attendance as part of the media and he would capture Messi scoring in the warm up and his penalty goal in the match. Messi had two goals and one assist for Inter Miami, as he was involved in all three goals in their win.

Nashville took an early 1-0 lead through an own goal but minutes later, Messi would score his first of the game. His initial effort on goal was saved but the ball would fall back to him and he would get the rebound and score to draw Inter Miami level.

A corner kick for Inter Miami and Messi would take it, his cross inside the penalty area found Sergio Busquets and he would score to give Inter the 2-1 lead. But Messi had one more goal.

Inter Miami were awarded a penalty kick and up stepped the Argentine who scored to give Inter the 3-1 lead. Messi’s penalty was his first in the regulation 90 minutes of a match since scoring against Hugo Llorris for Argentina in the 2022 World Cup final.

He now has 20 goals for Inter Miami, nine away from Gonzalo Higuaín’s club record of 29 goals. Messi has nine goals and five assists in nine matches for Inter Miami this season.

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34 Comments

  2. He lost the ball a number of times. I have watched all of Roma matches. Years ago I overdefended him. Forget about Milan performance for once, Dybala is weak and can’t progress with the ball without being dispossessed or out muscled. He could have passed the ball. That was no accident.

    • I didn’t watch the match today, but I watch a lot of Roma matches and usually Dybala is pretty good at keeping possession, better than Messi to be honest , who tends to lose posession a lot while trying to dribble past opposition player and understandably. The France 2nd goal in the final ,where mbappe scored a volley was due to Messi losing posession to Coman, who easily stole the ball from Messi. Attacking players especially the ones who create chances do tend to lose posession of the ball.

      • Yup. Dybala has been among the top 10 players in Series A for the past two seasons. He won Serie A player of the month twice this season. He has been particularly praised for ball control and possession, and extricating the ball from difficult situations through trickery. He also has a goal contribution every 80 minutes. Far better than Alvarez, Nico Gonzalez etc. Heck Dybala’s goal contribution record is better than Alvarez and Nico even for the national team post 2018.

        I think some people here translate their fanatical devotion to Scaloni into fanatical hatred of players like Dybala, Garnacho etc. “Scaloni does not select them, so they must be terrible” kind of idiocy. Not to mention, being a fan of Messi somehow makes some people pathologically incapable of appreciating similar players, as if that would somehow diminish Messi.

        • Dyabala in his prime has to offer less to Scaloni’s team as he was to the predecessor coaches. Both Alvarez and Gonzalez contributed more to the success of the team in LFW position-Alvarez in Quatar 22 and Gonzalez in Brazil Copa 21 respectively.

          The above facts will not dawngrade Dyabala’s greatness as he is excelling well in Roma. Perhaps the overlapping of position and style of play with Leo was/is a contributing factor. Look at France they did it with Girud at the expense of Balan d’or winner-Benzema. Yet this won’t affect Benzema’s legendary status nor will make Girud any better to Benzema. After all, Dyabala has his part in the final match vs France.

  4. Having the best two players of all time from onr country says something.
    We just need to have a number of great players at the same time.
    For those who said Messi had no one with him in world cup needs to stick to baseball. Messi had a number of great players di maria, depaul, lauturo, etc.
    Maradona also had great players
    This sport is 11 vs 11. impossible to win a cup with one player.
    The differences between maradona and Messi are of course the officiating at maradonas time, and the lifestyle they lived.
    But both are the greatest.

  5. Fouls without context means nothing, Messi is world class avoiding fouls and legendary of not divining. Thats a football IQ thing. Look at Neymar and Grealish, they get double as fouls as prime Messi with worse dribbling. How? 1. dives 2. playing style, not good enough to avoid fouls 3. provoking defenders 4. overprotecting from referees, Messi in Maradona era would have fouled much less than Maradona with same dribbling success because these factors.

    Maradona was never a pure attacking midfielder as Riquelme or Zidane, more a forward than an attacker. He played in 80% of his career in 3-5-2 as one of the strikers, the second striker, Burruchaga was the attacking midfielder, in Napoli too 3-5-2 second striker. Young Maradona in Argentinos/Boca/Barca was clearly an attacker, look at his goal tallies.

    His most correct position is advanced midfielder/attacker as Alfredo Di Stefano, Johan Cruyff, Platini, Zico, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Gullit. Definitely not a classic midfield playmaker as Zidane, Riquelme, Bobby Charlton, Didi, Laudrup, Rivera, Rivellino, Iniesta.

    • When it comes to the NT and his one season at Boca you would be correct, Maradona was second striker. In 1986 he was support striker to Voldano with Burrechaga joining in during a counter attack. In 1990 Diego was support striker to Cannigia with Burrenchaga, again, joining in the attack.
      In Boca Diego was THE main striker hense why he scored 31 goals in 33 matches!!

      At Barca and Napoli however, Diego was an attacking midfielder. At Napoli they played more 3-4-3 than 3-5-2 with Diego being behind Careca and Giordano.

      So, to keep a long story short, Diego was attacker for Argentina and attacking midfielder for most of his club career.

          • rather advanced playmaker/forward (Di Stefano, Cruyff, Maradona, Platini, Zico, Gullit, Rivaldo, Roberto Baggio, Ronaldinho, Zizinho, Moreno, Kopa, Francescoli, Kakà) and not Maradona was the best goalscorer from this group.

          • Again, Maradona’s legend isn’t in his numbers but rather how he took average/decent teams like Argentina and Napoli and made them champs.
            Most of those you mentioneld played for some of the best sides in history:
            Cruyff for Ajax and then Barca
            Platini for Juve
            Gullit and Kaka for Milano
            Baggio (Milano, Inter, Juve etc…)
            Dinho, Rivaldo (Barca)
            Distefano and Kopa for Madrid

            Non of these guys went to a nothing team like Napoli and made them champs and non of these guys won the world cup almost single handedly.

  8. Crazy comparison here 🙂

    Here are my thoughts

    Markdona
    Crazy talent will the ball
    Played against odds
    Lack of protection
    Fields were not good. They were not like a carpet
    Was a bad ambassador overall
    Ruined his career. Lack of discipline

    Messi
    More versatile perhaps
    Great ambassador for Argentina and football
    Consistency and longevity is unparalleled
    More analyzed with much more data.
    Opponent coaches and players studied more to stop him. So had to evolve constantly
    Super disciplined given his initial childhood physical limitations
    Not easy to come after Diego the god

    Talents were generational. I feel there is not much there to complain about Messi holistically. Whereas with Diego he gave some opportunities for people to point a finger at him, mostly outside of football. Remember he did say some nasty things about Messi too.

    If Messi didn’t win eventually with Argentina people could have complained. But I guess at the end he nailed it.

    For me, I am Argentina fan because of Diego and Messi completed it.

    It’s not easy to come after Diego and deliver

  10. Look real fans know they both are like 2 eyes for the football world and Argentina. But some individual based fans trying to downgrade maradona. How can they possible this comparison and downgrade one legend? I don’t know. What happiness they get as they both are argentines. Also if the messi fans in this site are fans of his goal scoring stats then maradona is behind. But if they admire more Messi’s individual brilliance and beauty of the play then both maradona and messi are two bodies with one soul. Thats all.

  11. Unfortunately I wasn’t old enough to have the opportunity to watch great Diego play live but I have done a good amount of research why the greatest of the great consider Maradona the best ever. He was an attacking midfielder who could not only create multiple chances every match but score kind of goals even a world class striker with generational talent could hardly score. He never got the protection Messi got and didn’t have a long enough career either. Essentially, he was predominantly an attacking midfielder a once in a generation playmaker, capable of scoring important goals and control the pace of the game as per his will. Unfortunate to not win a second world cup in 1990 due to corrupt FIFA.

    Messi on the other hand is essentally a forward but more than good enough to play as a pure attacking midfielder. He is capable of creating multiple chances and score multiple goals in the same match. Since 2021, he has transformed his game to be a more of a attacking midfielder and doesn’t get into the box like he used to. Should have won two world cups but luck wasn’t on his side that day. His longevity and top class futballing IQ makes him the greatest of his generation and arguably the greatest of all time.

  12. Tata recently stated that there wont be any special plan for Messi and that he’ll play for IM normally until the start of Copa which is good because he’ll stay in footballing shape and bad, GOD forbid if he picks up an injury. I desperately want to see Dybala perform for ARG and not get injured for ONCE before hand.

    I don’t know where this discussion of whose best between Messi and Maradona came from or when it started but I ask ONE question: Pic El Diego playing NOW…….the dribbling brilliance, flare, confidence, drive, speed, talent…….and you’ll find your answer.
    I personally could care less whose best because they both play/played for my beloved team but I wouldn’t be the fanatical ARGENTINA fan I am today if it wasn’t for Maradona.
    As far as his personal life, look at the players from that era and shortly after, all lived their lives to the fullest and never looked back, just Imagine Ronaldo, THE REAL R9 staying healthy and many like him.

      • Yep, Maradona played less than 700 games in his career. For some perspective Maradona was fouled 150+ times across 4 WC, Messi was second most fouled player in WC but only fouled 68 times across 5 WC. Different era, different foul rules. You’re allowed to do full rugby tackle in Diego days.

        Van Basten became serie A top scorer by scoring less than 20 goals. That’s how hard to score back then especially in serie A.

        Also, Maradona was pure midfielder while Messi is free roaming forward and used to be a false 9 in his prime.

        Messi and Di Maria would have been injured instantly playing against that Cameroon and South Korea sides from 1990 & 1986. Those tackles were straight from mortal kombat.

    • Maradona was an attacking midfielder who spent most of his career playing in the best / most defensive league in the world by far the time (serie A) for a nothing team like Napoli and turned them into champions.
      Lio is a forward who spent most of his career playing for one of the best sides in history in a 2 horse race league like la Liga; and even when Barca weren’t the best they were still miles ahead of almost all teams in la Liga.

      Arguing about who is the GOAT between Messi and Maradona is like arguing about which hand being better in an ambidextrous boxer, it’s just pointless since both hands belong to the same boxer just like both Messi and Diego belong to Argentina.

      • Very well written and said Mamoun El Pipita!
        And your memory is way above average as i would say more than extraordinary good!

        I really have nothing more to add as u basicly said it all, through all your post’s as i read them all as everyone’s else too

        and only 1 thing popped in my mind as it was/ happened at during many of those time’s when Leo was still playing with Barca against Real at Bernabeu and i watched and heard this from several commentators theough many years and allways when he or Barca was playing at Bernabeu as obviously Real fan’s don’t like Barca and viceversus etc…

        Anyhow before i say this i want everybody to understand what Mamoun said so truly in his comment above :

        ” Arguing about who is the GOAT between Messi and Maradona is like arguing about which hand being better in an ambidextrous boxer, it’s just pointless since both hands belong to the same boxer just like both Messi and Diego belong to Argentina.”

        So this must be left as it is and said and written above and what i’m going to say will never effect MESSI nor it will never effect DIEGO either as i love them both equally and specially, because both happen to be Argentine’s even i’m not and both for me are, have been and will ever be, well DIEGO & MESSI or MESSI & DIEGO as truly the greatest ever !

        and also, yes for many simillarities, but yes also for many different reasons, which Mamoun allready explained more than well as obviously i’m reffering to their European clubs where they played at Europe etc…

        And maybe, that is why as now i will get to the point which i will only add as :

        ok some might say, because of DIEGO’ sake and ok and yes i will agree, but not because of i want compare DIEGO to MESSI or literally compare anyone with anyone as obviously Bernabeu plays a big role in this one what i heard through so many times when LEO’s Barca or Barca was at Bernabeu as such a game name’s as EL CLASSICO played in Bernabeu, so there is obviously some bitterness in this from REAL’s side towards LEO’s Barca mainly due to the fact, that Christiano happened to play in Real at those times too and comemtators say also many things during the matches etc…but,

        well i quess the comemtators most have had maybe somekind of politeness towards a home crowds fan’s and yes it is also understansable as the whole thing itself obviously is a fact too etc….

        and even DIEGO DID PLAY with BARCA too somehow for some reason what the comemtators were repeating year after another in this massive game played in Bernabeu was,

        that during then there were or had been only 3 opposition players applauded as standing ovations and i’m sorry, but one name i have forgotten, but other 2 were Alessandro Del Pierro surely in Juve shirt and DIEGO, though i’m not sure in which shirt…

        as if he had played with Barca or oerhaps with Napoli ( if that game ever tooked a part ) or perhaps with Sevilla anyhow the whole Bernabeu gave him standing ovation as, which they could obviusly not do for LEO as by Christiano’s present and what and impact of negativity, that would had on cry baby or he would had created such a epic story etc…at papers such as Marca or As etc….LOL!

        And obviously Iniesta is not i quess counted as the whole Spain was giving him standing ovations after 2010 WC

        So, maybe if Christiano would had not played in Real, then LEO would had been gifted a standing ovation by Real’s fans…

        As for me ii would loved, that equally as much as they gave an standing ovation to DIEGO and, yes for me LEO would had more than deserved too!,

        but as the media allways builded the hype around by MESSI and Christiano, well everyone knows, that there Could never really ever be as only 1 outcome, which obviously was MESSI !

        , but because of wanting to gain more money with such hype, well money run’s many and most of the things in this life, though not all in my oppinion and again someone might argue, that i’m more of an DIEGO fan, than MESSI’s , which absolutly no true at all ! As i love both equally and will never compare them between themselfs !

        As i’m only saying this, because of money wise and during Diego’s Napoli era he also was not only loved by his legendary football skills by the people of Napoli or i would say more less the whole southern Italy

        as also he constantly talked puplicly about how really poor people really were in southern Italy compare to the North of the country and that is also something, that no one will never forget in Napoli as even those who were still not born yet will learn this from their parents or grandparents and through their family’s etc…

        So too different era’s indeed and somehow DIEGO & CANI too were or happen to be more as rebels , which back then was quite obvious if u were an Argentine !

        As i’m not saying, that there are no more rebels left no surely there are plenty left and surely in Argentina as all over too and their root’s were deep from 70’s and even before that so only those who have experienced it by themsels or through their family’s knows best and huge respects to all those and everyone else too !

        ! R.I.P DIEGO & VAMOS LA PULGA & ALBICELESTE !