Inter Miami lived an unforgettable day on Saturday when they officially announced the signing of Leo Messi, but on the field they had another day to forget, since they chained their eleventh straight game in the MLS without knowing victory, with three draws and eight losses .
The team in pink, bottom team in the East, was thrashed in the field of St. Louis City, first in the West, 3-0 in the debut of Argentine Gerardo Martino as coach of Inter Miami.
Samuel Adeniran and Tim Parker, both with headers and after taking a corner, and Eduard Löwen, exquisitely executing a free kick, signed the goals for St. Louis City.
Inter Miami, who will present Messi this Sunday at a major event at the DRV PNK Stadium, has only 18 points after 22 games (five wins, 14 losses and three draws) and has not won in the MLS since last May 13, when they beat the New England Revolution 2-1.
The league now stops for the Leagues Cup, the new official tournament in which all the MLS and Liga MX teams will compete, so Messi’s debut with his new team is expected to be on Friday, July 21 against the Mexican Cruz Azul in this new competition.
For its part, Los Angeles FC (LAFC), current MLS champion, added a 1-1 away draw with Minnesota United.
The Mexican Carlos Vela scored for LAFC and has been scoring for two consecutive games while the Argentine Emanuel Reynoso tied for the Minnesota team, culminating a beautiful collective play.
The most explosive match of the day was between Cincinnati, first in the East, against Nashville, second in the same conference.
The victory was for Cincinnati 3-1 after a duel in which Nashville took the lead with a goal from Walker Zimmerman taking advantage of an error by local goalkeeper Roman Celentano.
The Argentine coach will direct Messi, just as he already did in the selection of his country.
However, Cincinnati came back with a penalty from Argentine Luciano Acosta, a goal from Colombian Santiago Arias and one more from Aaron Boupendza and also took advantage of the fact that Nashville was left with nine due to the expulsions of Taylor Washington and Fafà Picault.
Cincinnati accumulates 11 victories and a draw in 12 home games and enters the MLS break as the favorite to be crowned this year with the MLS Supporters’ Shield, the title that recognizes each year the best team in the regular season.
Acosta also extended his magnificent scoring moment and already has 12 goals, just one less than the top scorer in the league (Hany Mukhtar with 13 goals).
Leo Messi debuted as an actor in an Argentine series broadcast by streaming, “Los protectores”, in which he plays himself in front of a trio of representatives of soccer players.
In addition, Montreal beat Charlotte 2-0, New England Revolution destroyed DC United 4-0 (Argentinian Gustavo Bou scored a header) and Philadelphia Union defeated New York City 2-1 (Venezuelan José Martínez added somewhat for Philadelphia).
Finally, the Brazilian Antônio Carlos, with a powerful header, added a goal for Orlando City’s 1-2 comeback in the Atlanta United field of the Argentine Thiago Almada while the Chicago Fire took the three points against Toronto ( 1-0) with a goal in the 90th minute from Kacper Przybylko.
