{"id":6458,"date":"2025-07-13T10:36:04","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T10:36:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/6458\/"},"modified":"2025-07-13T10:36:04","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T10:36:04","slug":"lionel-messis-super-human-form-paces-inter-miami-he-is-the-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/6458\/","title":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi&#8217;s super-human form paces Inter Miami: &#8220;He is the one&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Movie theaters around the country may be showing &#8220;Superman,&#8221; but the real Man of Steel was doing his own hero work in Fort Lauderdale.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/players\/lionel-messi\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lionel Messi<\/a> continued his super-human form Saturday night at Chase Stadium, logging a brace for a record fifth-consecutive MLS match to help <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/clubs\/inter-miami-cf\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Inter Miami CF<\/a> dispatch <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/clubs\/nashville-sc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nashville SC<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/competitions\/mls-regular-season\/2025\/matches\/miavsnsh-07-12-2025\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2-1<\/a>, and end their league-best 15-match unbeaten run.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There aren&#8217;t very many words. It&#8217;s incredible what he continues to do,&#8221; head coach Javier Mascherano told reporters post-match. &#8220;To break great records now every three days&#8230; I&#8217;ve said it a thousand times today; he is the flag for our team.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He is the one. He&#8217;s the leader. He shows us the way to compete.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\n      GOAT-level form<\/p>\n<p>With Saturday&#8217;s result, the Herons are unbeaten in six league matches while winning five in a row. Fifth in the Eastern Conference with 38 points, they have three games in hand on all four teams above them in the standings.<\/p>\n<p>Messi (16g\/7a) has been the unquestioned catalyst.<\/p>\n<p>At 38 years old, the legendary Argentine No. 10 has hit a vein of form that rivals the best stretches of his career. He&#8217;s bagged a brace in his last five league matches, logging a ridiculous 10 goals and five assists over this span.<\/p>\n<p>Even more crucially are the quality of teams he&#8217;s faced over this period: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/clubs\/columbus-crew\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Columbus Crew<\/a> and Nashville SC are among the favorites for MLS Cup, while the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/clubs\/new-england-revolution\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New England Revolution<\/a> have been one of the most defensively stout teams in the league.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a stretch of form that rolls back the clock to some of his best moments, harkening back to a six-game stretch in late 2012 in which he grabbed a brace in six consecutive LaLiga matches for FC Barcelona.<\/p>\n<p>\n      Golden Boot leader<\/p>\n<p>Now tied with Nashville&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/players\/sam-surridge\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sam Surridge<\/a> at the top of the Golden Boot presented by Audi race, Messi is also looking like a serious contender to become the first-ever Landon Donovan MLS MVP repeat winner.<\/p>\n<p>And with Messi putting on vintage performances week after week, a second straight Supporters&#8217; Shield may also be in store for the Herons.<\/p>\n<p>Mascherano, who played with Messi with both the Argentina national team and Barcelona, is simply enjoying the ride.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The truth is it is a blessing in my case, at least to be able to come with him in this area at this time of his career, to be with him.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Movie theaters around the country may be showing &#8220;Superman,&#8221; but the real Man of Steel was doing his&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[6866,6865,6864,6867,6863,6868,99],"class_list":["post-6458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-inter-miami-cf","tag-lionel-messi","tag-match-reaction","tag-miavsnsh-07-12-2025","tag-priority-match","tag-sendtonews","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}