What do you mean, Messi didn’t score?
Someone in MLS finally managed to stop Lionel Messi.
Messi and Inter Miami could only manage a 0-0 draw with Nashville SC, marking the first time that any team has managed to keep the Argentine legend from scoring or assisting a goal.
Coming into the match, Messi had scored in all seven of Miami’s Leagues Cup matches, followed by two assists in a wild U.S. Open Cup semifinal. Even when restricted to a substitute’s role in his MLS debut, Messi scored another delightful goal.
That short night’s work set him up to make his first start in MLS play Wednesday night, and in a quirk of the schedule, it just so happened to be a rematch of an epic Leagues Cup final. Less than two weeks ago, Miami won in dramatic fashion, but this game was a bit different.
For one thing, Nashville choose to rest its own star No. 10, Hany Mukhtar, a nod to the reality of life in the league as MLS served up a nearly full slate of mid-week matches in the summer heat.
Messi Mania remained a strange experience for longtime MLS fans. How often, for example, would you expect to see baseball legend Ken Griffey Jr. working a midseason Wednesday night match on a photographer’s credential?
Or, for that matter, when are you going to see Gianni Infantino turn up to see a mid-week game featuring what was at kickoff MLS’s 27th-best team?
Unusual guests or not, Nashville once again proved itself to be a team that can unsettle Miami.
The Herons, with Messi largely restricted to creating for others rather than calling his own number, saw a small handful of looks fly wide or high. Miami enjoyed 74% of the possession, but the two teams combined for just 0.56 total expected goals in a choppy first half.
The biggest moment in the opening 45 minutes may have ended up being nothing more spectacular than Sergio Busquets grabbing referee Chris Penso with both hands and not being booked for doing so.
Nashville sent Mukhtar on at halftime, benefitting from a more open game as Miami — who remain in desperate need of points — started taking more risks.
If anything, Miami ended up lucky to escape with anything. First, Mukhtar’s finish past Drake Callender was chalked off for offside. Later, Jacob Shaffelburg’s late cross struck DeAndre Yedlin’s right arm seemingly inside the box.
A stoppage-time VAR check into it did reveal the handling offense, but also caught the Nashville winger for being offside earlier in the move, negating what would have been a gut-punch penalty kick call.
Deep in stoppage time, Messi nearly conjured up a goal that for him would be ordinary, and for anyone else would be a miracle. He raced past multiple Nashville players, pinging a low shot with his less-favored right foot towards goal that forced Elliot Panicco into his best save of the night.
While Miami may look at getting a shutout against a good team as some kind of positive, the reality is that the home draw is a severe blow to the team’s already remote playoff hopes. Miami trudged off the field at DRV PNK Stadium 10 points out of a playoff place with 10 games to play, and were fortunate that the Chicago Fire (who lost later on Wednesday) didn’t increase that gap.
In other words, even Messi might not be able to wriggle out of this particular jam.
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