Inter Miami 3–2 Toronto FC 🔥 | Messi’s Brilliant Performance! 🐐⚽

Lionel Messi, Rodrigo de Paul, Luis Suarez, all in the starting 11 for Miami today, just a few days after winning 5-3 in Cincinnati. Energy of saying, this is my first trip back, let's send a message into the cauldron before the game. New stadiums, as good as it gets. Can Miami finally win in this building? Leo Messi has found his form. Nine goal contributions in his last three-game seat is once again atop Major League Soccer's goal contribution leaderboard with 16 so far this season. Just absurd. Into Luis Suarez, Diego Charrat, in the back of Suarez, who did well to find de Paul. Now Messi for Miami. Leo Messi carrying forward, still. Luis Suarez clips it to Messi! Oh wait, now it's one thing to have the intuition between the ears and understanding between each other, but you also have to have the technical ability to pull this play off. You cannot drop off of Luis Suarez 22 yards from goal, put pressure on him. You don't put pressure on him, he's allowed to have that quality to deliver a ball two inches any other way, it's 1-0 Miami. And that's why I think Phil Neville's pinpointing that we've got to score goals if we want to compete and win the game tonight. Pantemis comes to collect. Now Rodrigo de Paul with time. Into Suarez, over to Messi, around Charrat. Charrat trying to break it up, it's still Messi, it's blocked by Baez. Sermon was there as well. Yeah, it was a little sloppy though from Brandon Baez to lose possession in that moment because it allows Rodrigo de Paul Miami to turn them over and be on the front foot to Suarez, not allow him to hit that ball over the top and clip it. Bertarame gets there for Miami, leaves for Messi. Bertarame forward to Messi but too far, more of the ball in the first 14 minutes of this match. Off of Bassett, a Miami throw. But more of the ball, more possession, more shots, all of that doesn't matter if you don't take advantage of it. It feels inevitable that Miami will find their goals, so you have to take advantage of your chances, of your good passages of play when you play against Inter Miami. Miami's first corner, Messi goes short and gets it back. Messi cuts away from Velda, and then away from DaCosta, back post! Miller just sees it out, slightest of touches from Kamal Miller. That's another corner for Miami. That's an attacking player defending in more ways than one. Velda just cannot turn his back on Lionel Messi. You know he wants to cut it against the green, but just that little ding to the back post. Coming up big. Now Messi, oh, he was looking for the Olimpico and he apologizes a little bit to his team. He saw Pantemis out giving instructions, tried to play it quick. Elsie might get there, Lujan does enough. Bassett pressuring Messi. Messi turns away from it, broken up by Chara. Velda finally gets on it for Portland. Now the game is stretched and Rodrigo de Paul is streaking forward looking for Messi. Chara was there, Messi still on it. His shot was blocked by Chara. Diego Chara has just been so good for the Portland Timbers for 10 plus seasons. And he knew tonight was going to be difficult, just kind of shadowing those spaces where Messi loves to operate. Portland, not a team that usually has a lot of the ball. It's been a fun opening half hour. Miami 10 shots, Portland with 5. Miami comes forward again, Finn Sermon there to break it up. Nazi, right? And so those two goals that were given up to Paul in transition wasn't really aware of the moments defending. Tonight he's put in a little bit more work on that defensive side. Messi, Suarez, Sokovia. Messi! Messi who continues his torrid run of form. Into Miami, find their opener. 1-0. Torrid run of form going into a World Cup where both Rodrigo de Paul and Leo Messi made news this week that they've been training double days away from Inter-Miami to get ready for Argentina's defense of the World Cup. You've got to be lucky when you're good. A little bit of a deflection off of Sermon, but Sokovia understands that Messi's trailing. A little bit of a flick behind him. No mistake about it. His 12th goal of the year. Wonderful ball. Messi for a second just wide. I mean, we showed this in the MLS Countdown, didn't we? Yep. When Rodrigo de Paul picks up his head and plays these diagonal balls, he played a ball to the back post and it just missed Messi Wednesday night against Cincinnati. With the 1-0 lead thanks to Leo Messi's 12th goal of the season. Messi puts the ball back into play. Timber de Paul, the first player in the book today. Clips it into Leo Messi. Messi to Suarez. Back to Messi. Oh, still into Bertarame. Gave the credit to the brilliance of Leo Messi. A goal and an assist in this first half. Bertarame's goal doubles the lead 2-0 Miami. You've got to be kidding me. 38 years old and yet he's still moving like this. Oh my goodness. The rest of the world better beware. While he's been publicly indifferent on the World Cup, if you've watched anything over the last three or four weeks, he's ready and the world's ready. Minimum four minutes of added time in the first half. Inter-Miami leads Portland 2-0. A goal and an assist from Leo Messi. Bertarame, the goal scorer on the second. I mean, you said it. The World Cup's coming up. This is the penultimate game for Inter-Miami before the World Cup. Look at this ball. He looks ready. Wonderful ball. It's Ian Frey, wins a corner. But at 38 years old, you know, often you hear and read about, well, he walks a lot. He's always trying to find spaces. But what... DePaul will leave this corner for Messi. Now Rodrigo DePaul and Leo Messi. Oh, off of DePaul. I mean, even a ball like that ends up to his teammate. And Messi. Mikael. Messi. Suarez. Aguilón. Segovia. Messi. Oh, nutmegs Bassett. Aguilón. You've got to go in at halftime and have a message in a statement that you're going to leave with a clean sheet tonight. Miami halfway to their first win at New Stadium. But we know that doesn't guarantee anything. And then news broke an hour before kickoff that Allende's out for an extended period of time after knee surgery. Went to Barcelona. Broken up. Ball to Bertarame. Big block by Sermon. Messi's settling. Still Messi. Taken away. Bassett and sixth if you count Javier Morales' brief interim stint. Aguilón now. Back heel. DePaul. And Messi. DePaul and Suarez. He finds Bertarame. But look at the space from the back line from the literally three attacking players from Miami right now. Nobody stops DePaul and he leaves for Messi. The deflection is saved by Pantemis. I don't know if you're going to DePaul disagrees with that decision. So does Leo Messi. Three centerbacks for Portland. Bertarame up the middle. Makes it over to Messi. Messi! By Sermon who kept up well. Really good from Bertarame. Really strong hold-up play. But then to lay it out and give it. But Sermon defends this well. Good defending from the World Cup-bound centerback. Messi goes short to Segovia. Rodrigo DePaul. Segovia to Messi. DePaul. There. That's a wonderful ball from Segovia to DePaul. Back to Messi. Smith back to defend. Messi spinning. Messi! Well, there was no foul call there on Yannick Bright. But I thought Valde wasn't strong enough in that. But look at how quickly he can turn.