{"id":219375,"date":"2026-04-05T07:26:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T07:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/219375\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T07:26:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T07:26:16","slug":"history-lionel-messi-scores-first-inter-miami-goal-at-nu-stadium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/219375\/","title":{"rendered":"HISTORY! Lionel Messi scores first Inter Miami goal at Nu Stadium"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/clubs\/inter-miami-cf\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Inter Miami CF<\/a>\u2019s legendary No. 10 scored the Herons&#8217; first-ever goal at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/news\/inter-miami-s-nu-stadium-begins-new-era-for-mls-stadiums\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nu Stadium<\/a>, the club\u2019s state-of-the-art, 26,700-seat soccer venue that officially opened its doors for Saturday\u2019s Matchday 6 visit from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/clubs\/austin-fc\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Austin FC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Messi struck for a 10th-minute equalizer, beating goalkeeper\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/players\/brad-stuver\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brad Stuver<\/a> with a powerful header that made the sold-out crowd erupt into a deafening roar.<\/p>\n<p>Fans then broke into their customary \u201cMessi, Messi, Messi\u201d chant after the two-time reigning Landon Donovan MLS MVP improved his personal tally to a club-best five goals on the season.<\/p>\n<p>Messi has been IMCF\u2019s star attraction since his transformative <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/news\/official-lionel-messi-signs-with-inter-miami\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">July 2023 arrival<\/a> in South Florida. The eight-time Ballon d\u2019Or winner led the Herons to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/competitions\/leagues-cup\/?utm_source=mlssoccer&amp;utm_medium=comp&amp;utm_campaign=lc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Leagues Cup<\/a> 2023, the 2024 Supporters\u2019 Shield and MLS Cup 2025 titles ahead of the club\u2019s move from Fort Lauderdale to Miami proper.<\/p>\n<p>Inter Miami honored their GOAT in the lead-up to Saturday\u2019s festivities by unveiling the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intermiamicf.com\/news\/inter-miami-cf-unveils-leo-messi-stand-at-nu-stadium\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Leo Messi Stand<\/a>, which spans sections 117-121 in the stadium&#8217;s lower bowl and 217-223 in the upper bowl.<\/p>\n<p>True to form, Messi delivered another historic moment by scoring the club&#8217;s inaugural goal at Nu Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>This comes amid a massive 2026 season for Messi and Miami, who are looking to win their first trophy in their new home.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, Messi and superstar Herons teammate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/players\/rodrigo-de-paul\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rodrigo De Paul<\/a> look set to help Argentina defend their 2022 World Cup title at this summer\u2019s 2026\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/competitions\/fifa-world-cup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FIFA World Cup<\/a> in the United States, Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Inter Miami CF\u2019s legendary No. 10 scored the Herons&#8217; first-ever goal at Nu Stadium, the club\u2019s state-of-the-art, 26,700-seat&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[99497,5429,1660,123,125,124,97373,76891,4959],"class_list":{"0":"post-219375","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-did-you-see-it","9":"tag-inter-miami-cf","10":"tag-lionel-messi","11":"tag-miami","12":"tag-miami-headlines","13":"tag-miami-news","14":"tag-miavsatx-04-04-2026","15":"tag-priority-match","16":"tag-sendtonews"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219375","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=219375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}