{"id":398361,"date":"2026-09-13T03:44:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T03:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/398361\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T03:44:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T03:44:19","slug":"messi-scores-his-19th-mls-goal-as-inter-miami-draws-2-2-with-nashville-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/398361\/","title":{"rendered":"Messi scores his 19th MLS goal as Inter Miami draws 2-2 with Nashville"},"content":{"rendered":"

By TYLER CARMONA<\/p>\n

Associated Press<\/p>\n

Associated Press<\/p>\n

Published:\u00a0September 12, 2026 at 10:06 PM<\/p>\n

\"\"Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi (10) celebrates after scoring a goal during the second half of an MLS soccer match against the Nashville Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo\/Marta Lavandier) (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved) (Marta Lavandier\/AP Photo\/Marta Lavandier) \"\"Nashville midfielder Patrick Yazbek (8) and defender Reed Baker-Whiting (27) defend Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi (10) during the second half of an MLS soccer match, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo\/Marta Lavandier) (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved) (Marta Lavandier\/AP Photo\/Marta Lavandier) \"\"Nashville forward Sam Surridge hits the ball to score during the first half of an MLS soccer match against the Inter Miami Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo\/Marta Lavandier) (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved) (Marta Lavandier\/AP Photo\/Marta Lavandier) \"\"Inter Miami players celebrate Nashville’s own goal during the first half of an MLS soccer match Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo\/Marta Lavandier) (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved) (Marta Lavandier\/AP Photo\/Marta Lavandier) \"\"Inter Miami defender Fricio Caicedo (15) defends Nashville forward Sam Surridge (9) during the first half of an MLS soccer match, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo\/Marta Lavandier) (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved) (Marta Lavandier\/AP Photo\/Marta Lavandier) <\/p>\n

MIAMI (AP) \u2014 Lionel Messi scored his MLS-leading 19th goal of the season as Inter Miami played first-place Nashville to a 2-2 tie on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Messi appeared to have Miami on its way to its first win over Nashville this season when he scored with a left-footed shot to make it 2-1 in the 62nd. Nashville’s Sam Surridge equalized with his second goal of the night just a minute into stoppage time to keep his club unbeaten in four meetings with Miami this season.<\/p>\n

The draw also kept Nashville nine points ahead of second-place Miami in the Eastern Conference standings.<\/p>\n

Nashville struck just four minutes into the match when Surridge finished Andy Najar\u2019s pass for his 14th goal of the season.<\/p>\n

The score was evened in the 19th when Nashville defender Reed Baker-Whiting scored an own goal on a corner kick.<\/p>\n

Messi had a shot blocked from outside the box in the 27th minute and sent a free kick wide shortly afterward before breaking through in the second half.<\/p>\n

Rodrigo De Paul found Messi outside the penalty area, and the eight-time Ballon d\u2019Or winner sent a left-footed shot into the bottom-left corner for his 19th MLS goal of the season.<\/p>\n

Miami was looking to avenge a 4-1 loss to Nashville in the teams\u2019 previous meeting on Aug. 15. Nashville also eliminated Miami from the Concacaf Champions Cup earlier this season.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

Nashville: Hosts the Chicago Fire next Saturday.<\/p>\n

Inter Miami: Hosts Liga MX champion Cruz Azul on Wednesday in the Campeones Cup.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

See AP\u2019s full soccer coverage here<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By TYLER CARMONA Associated Press Associated Press Published:\u00a0September 12, 2026 at 10:06 PM Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-398361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398361","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=398361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}