{"id":238906,"date":"2026-04-20T13:30:43","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T13:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/238906\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T13:30:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T13:30:43","slug":"golazo-lionel-messi-thrills-record-crowd-for-colorado-vs-miami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/238906\/","title":{"rendered":"GOLAZO! Lionel Messi thrills record crowd for Colorado vs. Miami"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who needs a permanent head coach when you have Lionel Messi<\/a>?<\/p>\n

The iconic Argentine No. 10 was at his best on Saturday, scoring a brilliant game-winning goal to complete a brace and lead\u00a0Inter Miami CF<\/a> to a 3-2 victory<\/a> at the Colorado Rapids<\/a> in their first game since Javier Mascherano\u2019s departure<\/a> as manager.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A record-breaking crowd<\/a> of 75,824 fans, the second-highest single-game attendance in MLS history, witnessed Messi\u2019s latest masterpiece that helped the Herons successfully begin their new era under interim boss Guillermo Hoyos.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the magic that God gave our No. 10,\u201d Hoyos told reporters post-game at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver.<\/p>\n

\n The Messi show<\/p>\n

Messi got things going with an 18th-minute penalty kick, before fellow Designated Player Germ\u00e1n Berterame<\/a> doubled Miami’s lead heading into halftime. Berterame has scored in two straight games after opening<\/a> his MLS account last week against Red Bull New York<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Colorado flirted with the comeback via second-half goals from Rafael Navarro<\/a> and Darren Yapi<\/a>, but Messi had the final say with his 79th-minute stunner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there was an important reaction after the 2-2, where we had to change our shape,\u201d Hoyos said. \u201cAnd well, I\u2019ll repeat it: the lamp was rubbed, and out comes that goal that only he [Messi] can score.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great blessing to have him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n Momentum-builder<\/p>\n

Messi\u2019s brace pushed him to seven goals on the season, two shy of FC Dallas<\/a> striker\u00a0Petar Musa<\/a>‘s nine for the Golden Boot presented by Audi lead. In 2025, Messi won the Golden Boot with 29 tallies.<\/p>\n

At 38, the two-time reigning Landon Donovan MLS MVP remains at an elite level as he’s poised to lead defending champions Argentina at this summer’s 2026 FIFA World Cup<\/a> in the United States, Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n

For Miami, Saturday\u2019s win also snapped a two-game winless streak.<\/p>\n

The Herons will look to keep the positive results going during Wednesday\u2019s visit to\u00a0Real Salt Lake<\/a> (9:30 pm ET | Apple TV<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201c[Today] was a beautiful experience because there are players of enormous quality [on the team], the best player in history is here,\u201d said Hoyos.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I got very emotional many times. Because that\u2019s what football is: emotion.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who needs a permanent head coach when you have Lionel Messi? The iconic Argentine No. 10 was at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[104466,5429,1660,16163,123,125,124,76891,4959],"class_list":{"0":"post-238906","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-colvsmia-04-18-2026","9":"tag-inter-miami-cf","10":"tag-lionel-messi","11":"tag-match-reaction","12":"tag-miami","13":"tag-miami-headlines","14":"tag-miami-news","15":"tag-priority-match","16":"tag-sendtonews"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238906","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=238906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}