{"id":219261,"date":"2026-04-05T04:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T04:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/219261\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T04:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T04:00:11","slug":"miami-2-2-austin-apr-4-2026-game-analysis-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/219261\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami 2-2 Austin (Apr 4, 2026) Game Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lionel Messi<\/a> scored on the long-awaited opening night in his new home stadium. And Luis Su\u00e1rez<\/a> found a way to tie things up late in the second half.<\/p>\n

It was good enough to salvage a point for Inter Miami.<\/p>\n

Messi scored on a header in the 10th minute, Suarez hammered home a volley in the 82nd minute and Inter Miami escaped with a 2-2 tie against Austin FC<\/a> in the defending MLS<\/a> champions’ first match at their still-under-construction stadium near Miami International Airport on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Inter Miami (3-1-2) is now unbeaten in its last five MLS matches, and Austin (1-2-3) is now winless in its last four contests.<\/p>\n

MLS Commissioner Don Garber was at the match, lauding the work that David Beckham – who picked Miami 13 years ago – did to get to this day. Inter Miami is in its seventh MLS season, its third with Messi, but has played home matches in Fort Lauderdale until now.<\/p>\n

Garber touted the stadium opening as the latest sign of growth for MLS.<\/p>\n

“I think our best days are still ahead,” Garber said. “David shined a light on our league, and Leo’s taking that torch, and he’s showing it around. And we’re getting calls from players around the world.”<\/p>\n

The Herons never led; Austin took a 1-0 lead on Guilherme Biro<\/a>‘s goal – the first ever at Nu Stadium – in the sixth minute, and the visitors went up 2-1 when speedy reserve Jayden Nelson<\/a> scored in the 53rd minute.<\/p>\n

Messi and Suarez both got tying goals, and Inter Miami missed some chances for a potential winner in the final minutes. Maybe the best of the lot: Mateo Silvetti<\/a>‘s chance in the 87th minute, when he accepted a cross from the right wing and tried to one-time the ball but sent it sailing high.<\/p>\n

Suarez thought he scored in the 90th minute after a free kick from Messi, but the play was called offside. And Messi had a chance about three minutes later from inside the box, but Brad Stuver<\/a> got low for a save diving to his left to keep the game knotted at 2-2.<\/p>\n

Austin led much of the second half, after Nelson came on at intermission and gave his club a spark.<\/p>\n

Nelson — who played for Vancouver against Inter Miami in last season’s MLS Cup final — got behind the defense, avoided going offside and took a pass from Myrto Uzuni<\/a> in the middle of the field about 30 yards from the goal.<\/p>\n

He sent a low shot that got past charging Inter Miami goalie Dayne St. Clair<\/a> and kissed off the inside of the left goalpost before settling into the net.<\/p>\n

Up next Austin: Host LA Galaxy<\/a> on April 11.<\/p>\n

Inter Miami: Host New York Red Bulls on April 11.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi scored on the long-awaited opening night in his new home stadium. And Luis Su\u00e1rez found a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-219261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}