{"id":376229,"date":"2026-08-20T04:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T04:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/376229\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T04:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T04:12:10","slug":"messi-scores-for-miami-in-testy-draw-with-philadelphia-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/376229\/","title":{"rendered":"Messi scores for Miami in testy draw with Philadelphia Union"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHESTER, Pa. — – Lionel Messi<\/a> had a goal and assist as Inter Miami and the Philadelphia Union played to a 2-2 draw on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

Messi’s cross was headed by Luis Suarez<\/a> into the path of forward Daniel Pinter<\/a> for the first Inter Miami goal in the 21st minute.<\/p>\n

Messi cut inside to his preferred left foot from 12 yards out in the 26th and curled a shot into the corner of the net for his first goal since returning to action following the death of his father.<\/p>\n

Messi has 13 goals and nine assists in 17 MLS games this season. He has six goals and four assists in six matches in all competitions against the Union.<\/p>\n

Indiana Vassilev<\/a> scored on a volley in the first half to give the Union the lead, then 18-year-old defender Neil Pierre<\/a> headed home his third goal in five games this season in the 58th minute to tie the score. Cavan Sullivan<\/a>, the Union’s 16-year-old midfielder, was credited with his seventh assist of the season on Vassilev’s goal.<\/p>\n

Union forward Milan Iloski<\/a> appeared to put the Union ahead in the 62nd minute, but the goal was reviewed and waved off with Pierre offside in the buildup.<\/p>\n

The game ended with a pair of red cards in stoppage time to Yannick Bright<\/a> and Sullivan for a scuffle off the ball.<\/p>\n

Inter Miami (11-3-6) entered the game in second place in the Eastern Conference after losing to first-place Nashville on Saturday, 4-1. Messi played 90 minutes in that loss, in which he missed a penalty, hit the post twice and assisted on Telasco Segovia’s goal. He had a game-high 11 shot attempts.<\/p>\n

Miami had lost three straight games in all competitions entering Wednesday, having lost to a pair of Mexican clubs in the Leagues Cup. The Nashville loss ended a seven-game unbeaten run in MLS (6-0-1) dating to May 9.<\/p>\n

Messi appeared as a sub in the Aug. 12 loss to Leon, playing 45 minutes. He missed the Aug. 8 match against Monterrey to travel home for the funeral of his father, Jorge, who died on Aug. 7.<\/p>\n

The Union (5-10-5) are unbeaten in five games (4-0-1) since Ryan Richter was named interim coach.<\/p>\n

Rodrigo De Paul<\/a>, who like Messi was part of Argentina’s runner-up team at the World Cup, was suspended Wednesday night for yellow-card accumulation.<\/p>\n

Inter Miami beat the Union, 6-4, on May 24, the last game before the World Cup break for both teams. Messi didn’t have a goal, but Suarez scored a hat trick in helping Miami rally from first-half deficits for 2-0 and 3-1.<\/p>\n

——<\/p>\n

See AP’s full soccer coverage here<\/a>br\/]<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHESTER, Pa. — – Lionel Messi had a goal and assist as Inter Miami and the Philadelphia Union…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[151568,4899,93002,123,125,124,120432,2062],"class_list":["post-376229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-151568","tag-espn","tag-inter-miami-cf-usainter_miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-philadelphia-union-usaphiladelphia","tag-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376229","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=376229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}