{"id":405657,"date":"2026-09-20T20:32:33","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T20:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/405657\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T20:32:33","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T20:32:33","slug":"is-lionel-messi-playing-today-projected-lineups-for-inter-miami-vs-san-diego-fc-in-2026-mls-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/405657\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Lionel Messi playing today? Projected lineups for Inter Miami vs San Diego FC in 2026 MLS season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lionel Messi<\/a> is set to start as Inter Miami host San Diego FC on Sunday at Nu Stadium, with Cristian \u201cKily\u201d Gonz\u00e1lez fielding a fully fit squad and no fresh fitness concerns to navigate heading into kickoff.<\/p>\n

The stakes carry plenty of playoff weight for both sides. Miami<\/a> sit second in the Eastern Conference on 45 points, though they had gone winless in three straight MLS matches before this window, with back-to-back-to-back draws against Atlanta United, Chicago Fire, and Nashville SC.<\/p>\n

That rough patch in the MLS<\/a> now comes with a silver lining, though. Miami arrive with renewed momentum after beating Cruz Azul in the Campeones Cup final, a result that snapped their winless run and could carry over into Sunday\u2019s matchup.<\/p>\n

San Diego FC, for their part, arrive in far worse form. The Western Conference side sit ninth in their conference on 30 points and are riding a three-game losing streak, capped by a lopsided 0-5 defeat at home to Philadelphia Union last time out.<\/p>\n

Miami still boast one of the league\u2019s most dangerous attacks, led by Messi\u2019s league-high 32 goal contributions (19 goals, 13 assists) this season, while San Diego will lean on Anders Dreyer, their most productive attacker with 9 goals.<\/p>\n

\"Lionel<\/p>\n

see also<\/p>\n

Lionel Messi reaches 100 goals in 115 Inter Miami games: How many matches did it take him with Barcelona and Argentina?<\/p>\n

<\/a>Inter Miami projected lineup<\/p>\n

Kily Gonz\u00e1lez will again have to make do without Mateo Silvetti and Tadeo Allende, both ruled out for the remainder of the season after undergoing season-ending surgeries, on his shoulder and knee respectively.<\/p>\n

Inter Miami projected starting XI: Dayne St. Clair; Ian Fray, Casemiro, Maximiliano Falc\u00f3n, Fricio Caicedo; Rodrigo De Paul, Yannick Bright, Matias Galarza; Lionel Messi, Germ\u00e1n Berterame, Luis Su\u00e1rez.<\/p>\n

San Diego FC projected lineup<\/p>\n

Mikey Varas will be missing Oscar Verhoeven through suspension after accumulating yellow cards, while Gabriel Pirani, Alex Mighten, and Marcus Ingvartsen are all considered doubtful with lower-body issues. Goalkeeper CJ dos Santos is set to return between the posts after serving his own suspension, pushing Duran Ferree back to the bench.<\/p>\n

San Diego FC projected starting XI: CJ dos Santos; Kalen Sargeant, Ian Murphy, Manny Duah, Onni Valakari; Jasper L\u00f6ffelsend, Jack Skahan, Aaron Herrera; El\u00edas Achouri, Marcus Ingvartsen, Anders Dreyer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi is set to start as Inter Miami host San Diego FC on Sunday at Nu Stadium,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[10073,1660,123,125,124,5692,17162],"class_list":["post-405657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-inter-miami","tag-lionel-messi","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-mls","tag-san-diego-fc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405657","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=405657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}