MIAMI (AP) \u2014 Lionel Messi had a goal and assisted on another as Inter Miami won its first game at Nu Stadium, 2-0 over the Portland Timbers on Sunday.<\/p>\n
German Berterame also scored for Inter Miami, which had three draws and a loss at its new 26,000-seat stadium before Sunday\u2019s victory.<\/p>\n
Messi opened the scoring with his 13th goal of the season in the 31st minute. Luis Su\u00e1rez sent a pass inside to Telasco Segovia, who flicked a pass on to Messi, who beat Portland goalkeeper James Pantemis from 12 yards.<\/p>\n
Inter Miami padded the lead on Berterame\u2019s goal in the 42nd minute. Messi dribbled past two defenders and centered to Berterame, who converted inside the left post.<\/p>\n
The Timbers had the first scoring threat when Inter Miami goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair deflected Cole Bassett\u2019s shot from the edge of the large area in the 11th minute.<\/p>\n
The familiar singing, cheering, flag waving and drum beating from Inter Miami\u2019s organized supporters\u2019 groups \u201cLa Familia\u201d were absent until late in the match. The groups reportedly are upset that the players have not acknowledged their presence in the new stadium and remained silent as a form of protest before they began singing in the 85th minute.<\/p>\n
The match was the first between the teams since Portland coach Phil Neville was fired as Inter Miami\u2019s coach in 2023, shortly before Messi started playing for the Herons.<\/p>\n
Neville is close friends with Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham and told reporters after the Timbers got to South Florida late last week that he was aware Messi choosing Miami would likely mean a coaching change. The club has had four coaches since, including two interim bosses, all of them from Messi\u2019s native Argentina.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the start of the (2023) season, I was under no illusions that probably when\/if he came in that I wouldn\u2019t be here, and that\u2019s totally fine,\u201d Neville said, referring to Messi. \u201cI understood football.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sunday was also the first Inter Miami match since the team revealed that forward Tadeo Allende had what was described as successful arthroscopic surgery on his right knee \u201cto address the discomfort he had been experiencing in recent weeks.\u201d There\u2019s no timetable for his return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI (AP) \u2014 Lionel Messi had a goal and assisted on another as Inter Miami won its first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[15257,26641,117322,1660,1658,123,125,124,756,1664,117321,1661,1662,1663,4399,117323,26606,10193,117320],"class_list":["post-274634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-david-beckham","tag-dayne-st-clair","tag-james-pantemis","tag-lionel-messi","tag-luis-suarez","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-phil-neville","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-32554-ap-online-soccer-game-stories","tag-product-32562-ap-online-other-sports-news","tag-product-40780-ap-florida-sports-only","tag-product-40808-ap-oregon-sports-only","tag-tadeo-allende","tag-telasco-segovia","tag-timbers-inter-miami-score-messi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274634","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=274634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}