Lionel Messi scores twice while leading Inter Miami after NYCFC to officially secure the place of the MLS postseason

Lionel Messi and Inter Miami go to the playoffs.

Messi scored twice in the second half on Wednesday night to take Miami to a 4-0 dominant victory over the New York City FC in Citi Field. That led Messi to five goals in total scored in the last nine days, and Miami’s place was officially secured in Major League Soccer’s postseason for the third consecutive time.

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Miami took an advantage of a goal in the half time, thanks to a late goal by Baltasar Rodríguez just before the break. Messi finally gave Miami Room to work when he scored his first goal of the night in the 74th minute. He caught a pass in the middle of the field and contributed an easy goal with his left foot.

Luis Suarez extended the advantage of Miami not 10 minutes later when he scored a criminal shot, which almost put the game out of the NYCFC reach. Then, to a large extent, Messi caught a pass by Marcelo Weigandt and made his way easily through the field beyond several defenders before hitting his second goal from the night from the right side of the box.

Messi has now scored 24 goals this season. He has also scored at least two goals in eight of the last 12 games of the team, and now he is the fourth player in the history of MLS to score multiple goals in eight games in a single season.

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Messi first joined Inter Miami in 2023, and immediately took them to a title of the lipstick that summer. The team won the followers shield last year, but Atlanta United eliminated them from the first round of the playoffs. Also a contract of several years with Inter Miami, although details of that agreement are not yet known.

The victory on Wednesday night was the 16th of the Miami season. The club is currently in third place in the east conference classification with 55 points in 29 games, five points from the Philadelphia Union. They will face Toronto’s tempo next Saturday afternoon.

“We are happy because we are now officially qualified for the playoffs. That was very important to us, now we have to continue advancing,” said Miami coach Javier Mascherano, through ESPN.

“We know that we have two games in our hand, so we will try to rest and recover before going to Toronto. We know how difficult it will be on Saturday because we have less than 72 hours to play, but we will try to play as well as possible and win the game and qualify as high as possible. If we can win the five sending games that we will have excellent and we will have that opportunity to fight for the supporters of the followers.”