Lionel Messi controls the ball during a Major League Soccer (MLS) regular season football match. Photo: AFP
MIAMI:
Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi won his second consecutive MLS Golden Boot award on Saturday after the defending champions took second place in the Eastern Conference with a wasteful 3-3 draw against Charlotte on the final day of the regular season.Â
The Argentine superstar did not score but set up the first two goals at Miami’s Nu Stadium, both from corners, to help procure his club a home-field advantage for the first two playoff rounds.
Messi’s 26 goals this season were enough to make him the first back-to-back MLS Golden Boot award winner. Petar Musa of Dallas was second on 22, not scoring in his club’s 3-1 home victory over Colorado.
Ian Fray, Luis Suarez and Rodrigo De Paul racked up three first-half strikes for Inter Miami before Liel Abada’s brace soon after the break sparked a comeback sealed by Rodolfo Aloko’s late strike.
Runaway overall leaders Nashville broke the all-time MLS points record for a season with a whopping 77 after beating Cincinnati 2-0. At 23-3 with eight drawn, Nashville won the East and broke the mark of 74 points set by Miami in 2024.
Miami finished second in the East on 60 points as third-place New England failed to take advantage of Inter’s draw with a surprise 1-0 loss at Orlando to end on 58.
Messi’s men will face Columbus to begin the MLS playoffs. Other East matchups send New England against Philadelphia, Charlotte against Chicago and top seed Nashville against the wild-card winner, Orlando or Cincinnati.
Columbus took advantage of the Cincinnati loss with a 4-3 victory at Chicago to finish seventh and avoid the wild card round.
At Miami, Messi’s 14th-minute corner fell unexpectedly to Charlotte’s Luca de la Torre, who spooned it up for Fray to open the scoring.
Another Messi corner in the 33rd minute found Suarez wide open at the near post. The Uruguayan glanced in his header for 2-0.
De Paul made it three before halftime, but Abada pulled back a goal for the visitors early and bagged a second in the 55th minute.
In the 90th, Aloko bagged the equalizer, responding first to the ball as Smalls’s shot ricocheted off the post.
A visibly frustrated Messi hit the post in stoppage time before Aloko came inches from bagging an unlikely winner with a thunderous shot into the outside netting.
Seattle, Real advance
Western Conference champion Vancouver beat Canadian rivals Montreal 2-0 to finish second overall, giving the Whitecaps a home-field edge if they should face Inter Miami in a rematch of last year’s MLS Cup final.
There were six teams fighting for the last three Western Conference playoff spots on “Decision Day” with every MLS squad on the pitch.
Portland, Colorado and the Los Angeles Galaxy needed only to win to secure a playoff berth but only Portland did so, the Timbers winning 2-0 at Austin while Real Salt Lake beat the Galaxy 2-1 and Colorado fell at Dallas, which allowed Real into the post-season.
Seattle claimed the other spot with a 2-1 home win over Los Angeles FC. Albert Rusnak scored in the first minute and assisted on Sebastian Gomez’s goal in the 31st for seattle and Eddie Segura’s response in the 82nd minute was too little too late.
Minnesota beat visiting San Jose 3-1 but joined the Galaxy a point shy of the last-in Real Salt Lake.
Opening Western Conference playoff pairings find Vancouver against the Seattle-Salt Lake wildcard winner, Dallas against Portland, LAFC against St. Louis and Houston against San Jose
