FORT LAUDERDALE.- Lionel Messi dressed in street clothes and watched from a box as Montreal took advantage of several defensive failures by Inter Miami to hand his team its first defeat of the season on Sunday, a 3-2 loss at home.
Messi did not play on Sunday as he was in doubt after the injury to his left leg he suffered in his previous game. The blow occurred in the 2-2 draw against Nashville in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions Cup round of 16 last Thursday.
Resting the Argentine star made sense, considering that Inter Miami will play two more games in the next six days. There will be four games in a period of 10 days. In addition, Messi was called up by Argentina for a pair of preparation matches for the Copa América on March 22 and 26, which could be six matches in 20 days for the 36-year-old attacker, who had participated in all four matches of his team at the start of the 2024 season.
“We talked about it about a week ago and we agreed that this was the game where I had to rest, regardless of what happened with Nashville,” said Gerardo Martino, Miami’s Argentine coach.
The visitors took the lead with a header from Colombian defender Fernando Álvarez in the 13th minute and Miami leveled in the 71st with Ecuadorian attacker Leonardo Campana scoring after a cross from Lawson Sunderland.
Four minutes in, Montreal recovered with a goal from Uruguayan striker Matías Cóccaro and his strike partner Sunusi Ibrahim scored the third in the 78th.
In a frenetic closing at Chase Stadium, Jordi Alba scored for Miami in the 80th with a left footed shot from outside the area to the upper left corner, putting definitive numbers.
Apart from Messi, Luis Suárez and Sergio Busquets were also not there from the start but both entered in the second half.
It was Miami’s first loss of the young season and it now shares the top of the Eastern Conference with four other teams, Montreal, the New York Red Bulls, Toronto and reigning champion Columbus.
“I think we deserved to win the game,” said Martino. “What I believe and worry about is that we are a team that does not defend hard in the moments it has to defend, whether on a moving ball or a still ball.”
Elsewhere on Sunday, Riqui Puig and Dejan Joveljic scored the final two goals in a frenetic second half and the LA Galaxy rallied to draw 2-2 with Nashville. DC United and FC Cincinnati tied without goals.
Source: With information from AP
