Lionel Messi won’t have longtime teammate Luis Su\u00e1rez alongside him for a match that could end Inter Miami’s season on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Su\u00e1rez has been suspended for Saturday’s series-deciding playoff game against Nashville SC, Major League Soccer announced Wednesday, for his actions in Game 2 of the series \u2014 specifically, kicking Nashville’s Andy N\u00e1jar \u2014 this past weekend.<\/p>\n
Su\u00e1rez was also fined an undisclosed amount, MLS said. Inter Miami must win on Saturday in Game 3 of the series with Nashville, or its season will end.<\/p>\n
MLS’ disciplinary committee said Su\u00e1rez’s “violent conduct” in the 71st minute of the match on Nov. 1<\/a> merited the suspension, even though no foul was called against him on the play. By MLS rules, the committee can unanimously agree to issue a suspension even if no foul was called in real time.<\/p>\n Su\u00e1rez reached out with his right leg and struck N\u00e1jar, with neither one anywhere near the ball.<\/p>\n Suarez’s suspensions<\/p>\n MLS suspended Su\u00e1rez earlier this season for three league matches after he was caught spitting at someone<\/a> during a melee following Inter Miami’s loss to the Seattle Sounders in the Leagues Cup final on Aug. 31. Leagues Cup also suspended Su\u00e1rez for six future matches in its tournament; MLS took action even though the acts that marred the finish of that game were not in a league match.<\/p>\n Su\u00e1rez has served suspensions on three other occasions during his career for biting opponents.<\/p>\n Additionally, MLS said Wednesday that Inter Miami defender Ian Fray has been fined for “violating the league’s policy regarding simulation\/embellishment” during the Nashville match last weekend. The amount of the fine was not disclosed.<\/p>\n Inter Miami won Game 1 of the series, then dropped Game 2 at Nashville. Inter Miami failed to get out of the first round last season, dropping a Game 3 at home to Atlanta.<\/p>\n Suarez’s uncertain future with Miami<\/p>\n Messi played with Su\u00e1rez \u2014 whose status for 2026 and beyond isn’t certain \u2014 as well as Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba for years with Barcelona. Su\u00e1rez followed<\/a> Busquets and Alba to Inter Miami after Messi stunned many in the soccer world by choosing to sign with Inter Miami midway through 2023.<\/p>\n Messi has extended his contract<\/a> through 2028. Busquets and Alba <\/a>are retiring when this Inter Miami season ends.<\/p>\n \n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi won’t have longtime teammate Luis Su\u00e1rez alongside him for a match that could end Inter Miami’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1660,8003,123,125,124,6567,2062,110],"class_list":{"0":"post-34820","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-lionel-messi","9":"tag-major-league-soccer","10":"tag-miami","11":"tag-miami-headlines","12":"tag-miami-news","13":"tag-nashville","14":"tag-soccer","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34820","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=34820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}