At the same Atlanta stadium where Messi helped Argentina beat England in the World Cup semi-finals in July, Messi delivered two scintillating goals to secure Miami’s third straight victory. Lionel Messi scored twice in the space of four minutes to lift Inter Miami to a 3-1 victory at Atlanta United on Saturday as the Herons’ MLS title defense continued to gain steam with the playoffs approaching. The 39-year-old superstar tops the Major League Soccer scoring chart with 25 goals, six ahead of Croatian striker Petar Musa of FC Dallas and Philadelphia’s Milan Iloski.
Messi now has four goals in three matches since his emotional Argentina send-off. Elsewhere, St. Louis City’s MLS record-tying 19-match unbeaten streak ended with a 3-2 loss at Minnesota as Philadelphia’s undefeated run reached 15 matches with a 2-2 draw with Charlotte. City had not lost an MLS match since falling 2-0 at Austin on May 3, with 13 victories and six drawn in the run. Philadelphia lost 6-4 at Miami on May 24 but since then the Union have won 12 times and drawn three, taking 39 of a possible 45 points since Ryan Richter took over as interim head coach during the league’s World Cup break.
Miami, who clinched a playoff berth on Wednesday, won their third straight game under Cristian “Kily” Gonzalez, who took over as coach last month.
Fafa Picault converted a penalty in the 89th minute to pull a goal back for Atlanta, but at second-from-bottom in the Eastern Conference Gerardo Martino’s team are running out of time to turn things around in time to reach the playoffs. Canadian Marcus Caldeira scored the game winner for Minnesota in the 86th minute after United fell behind early on St. Louis goals by Brazilian forward Rafael Navarro and South Korean winger Jeong Sang-bin.
