{"id":274819,"date":"2026-05-18T05:15:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T05:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/274819\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T05:15:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T05:15:11","slug":"history-maker-lionel-messi-dazzles-in-first-inter-miami-win-at-nu-stadium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/274819\/","title":{"rendered":"History maker! Lionel Messi dazzles in first Inter Miami win at Nu Stadium"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lionel Messi<\/a> came to play under the Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental Tire spotlight.<\/p>\n

The legendary Argentine No. 10\u2019s masterful 1g\/1a performance guided Inter Miami CF<\/a> to their first-ever win at Nu Stadium, a 2-0 decision<\/a> over the Portland Timbers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Did you see the game? Beautiful game, right?” interim manager Guillermo Hoyos quipped to reporters before starting his post-match press conference.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“… The players drew, they painted, they did everything. Honestly, it was a huge sacrifice.”<\/p>\n

Messi\u2019s latest display elevated him to 12g\/6a on the season, good for a league-best 18 goal contributions. He’s also second in the MLS Golden Boot presented by Audi race with just one match to play before the 2026 FIFA World Cup<\/a> break.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thanks to the back-to-back Landon Donovan MLS MVP, the Herons are second in the Eastern Conference standings with 28 points (8W-2L-4D record), after snapping a four-game winless streak (0W-1L-3D) at their new Downtown Miami venue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We are constantly amazed by these players who are simply wonderful,” added Hoyos.<\/p>\n

\n World Cup form<\/p>\n

Messi was equal parts scoring and playmaking genius, breaking the ice with a trademark finish before brilliantly dancing through multiple Timbers defenders and dishing a perfect assist for Germ\u00e1n Berterame.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The players always, always look to create situations and plays,” said Hoyos. “They express themselves.”<\/p>\n

Messi, in particular, is in scorching form ahead of this summer\u2019s World Cup, producing 5g\/6a in his last four games.<\/p>\n

A 2022 champion with IMCF teammate Rodrigo De Paul<\/a>, Messi and El Motorcito are set to lead La Albiceleste’s title defense at this summer’s competition.<\/p>\n

\n Out on a high note<\/p>\n

With just one game remaining before the month-long World Cup pause, Miami want to enter the break with even more momentum on their side.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They’ll get that chance on May 24 at home against the\u00a0Philadelphia Union<\/a> (7:30 pm ET | Apple TV<\/a>; FOX, FOX Deportes).<\/p>\n

“We earned three very important points at home for the first time,” said Hoyos. “There are a lot of emotions, because we really wanted to win here.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi came to play under the Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental Tire spotlight. The legendary Argentine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5429,1660,16163,123,125,124,116809,76891,4959,80458],"class_list":["post-274819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-inter-miami-cf","tag-lionel-messi","tag-match-reaction","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-miavspor-05-17-2026","tag-priority-match","tag-sendtonews","tag-sunday-night-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274819","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=274819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}