2nd in Eastern Conference
\n45 points (12W-4L-9D)<\/p>\n
Miami settled for a 2-2 home draw<\/a>\u00a0against Supporters’ Shield leaders Nashville SC<\/a> on Matchday 26. The Coyotes escaped South Florida with a late point thanks to Sam Surridge<\/a>‘s 91st-minute equalizer.\u00a0<\/p>\n It was the third straight league draw for the Herons, who bounced back midweek by winning the fourth title<\/a> in club history, courtesy of their 2-0 victory<\/a> over LIGA MX’s Cruz Azul in the 2026 Michelob ULTRA Campeones Cup<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Messi scored his 100th goal<\/a> for Miami and added an assist to secure their first trophy win at Nu Stadium, the club’s state-of-the-art, downtown Miami home ground that opened its doors in April.<\/p>\n Lionel Messi:\u00a0With a league-best 32 goal contributions (19g\/13a), Messi is on pace to clinch a historic third straight Landon Donovan MLS MVP award. Miami’s trophy-winning culture is as strong as ever, as evidenced by Wednesday’s Campeones Cup triumph.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now, the defending league champions have serious wind in their sails as they look to become the first back-to-back MLS Cup presented by Audi winners since the\u00a0LA Galaxy<\/a> in 2011-12.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Herons head into Sunday Night Soccer with a new title in tow, and a new head coach as well. Incoming boss Cristian “Kily” Gonz\u00e1lez made his first appearance on the sidelines<\/a> for Miami in Campeones Cup, and will make his MLS managerial debut against San Diego.<\/p>\n 9th in Western Conference San Diego are coming off their most lopsided loss in club history, a 5-0 home defeat<\/a> to the Philadelphia Union<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Chrome-and-Azul have dropped three in a row and are clinging to the final Audi MLS Cup Playoffs spot in the Western Conference.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Anders Dreyer:\u00a0The 2025 MLS Newcomer of the Year, Dreyer<\/a> has a team-best 20 goal contributions (9g\/11a) this season.\u00a0 It’s been an up-and-down second season for San Diego, who’ve experienced their fair share of the dreaded sophomore slump after topping the Western Conference during a historic 2025 MLS expansion campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, a second straight playoff appearance is still very much in the cards for the Chrome-and-Azul. That will especially be the case if they deliver a statement win on the road against Messi and the reigning MLS Cup champs under the Sunday Night Soccer spotlight.<\/p>\n The odds overwhelmingly favor a Miami home win, with the Herons earning 66% compared to 18% for San Diego.\u00a0<\/p>\n Market insights shared are current as of Thursday, Sept. 17 at 11 am ET.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2nd in Eastern Conference 45 points (12W-4L-9D) Miami settled for a 2-2 home draw\u00a0against Supporters’ Shield leaders Nashville…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5429,123,125,124,160191,76891,17162,4959,80458],"class_list":["post-402722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-inter-miami-cf","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-miavssd-09-20-2026","tag-priority-match","tag-san-diego-fc","tag-sendtonews","tag-sunday-night-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402722","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=402722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nLuis Su\u00e1rez:\u00a0The legendary Uruguayan striker continues to score at an elite level, producing 12g\/8a in MLS action this season.\u00a0
\nRodrigo De Paul: Messi’s now-former Argentina teammate<\/a> is still the No. 10’s “Bodyguard”<\/a> on the Herons, all while maintaining a 4g\/11a stat sheet.\u00a0
\nCasemiro:\u00a0The former Real Madrid and Manchester United midfielder arrived over the summer<\/a> to add even more star power to Miami’s A-List roster.<\/p>\n
\n30 points (8W-11L-6D)<\/p>\n
\nElias Achouri:\u00a0Achouri,<\/a> who represented Tunisia at this summer’s World Cup, has two goals in his first five starts for San Diego.\u00a0
\nC\u00e9dric Bakambu: A fellow summer signing and 2026 World Cup veteran with DR Congo,\u00a0Bakambu<\/a> is awaiting his first MLS start after debuting with a goal off the bench last week.
\nManu Duah: The 21-year-old Duah<\/a>‘s emergence as one of MLS’s best young center backs has reportedly led to interest from multiple clubs in Europe.<\/p>\n