Inter Miami’s 7-1 rout of CF Montréal on Saturday ended a five-match winless streak across all competitions and spared Lionel Messi a piece of history he did not want on his CV. According to beIN Sports, the Argentine had never gone more than five club appearances without a win, a mark he set at Barcelona in 2013.
Messi decided the story with his boots. He scored four times against Montréal for the first four-goal haul of his MLS career and set up Luis Suárez for another. Casemiro headed in the opener in the 20th minute, and 18-year-old academy product Alexander Shaw also scored. Messi’s tally moved to 18 league goals for the season, taking him top of the MLS Golden Boot race.
“There are no words to describe such footballing beauty. So much is going on that words simply fall short,” interim head coach Guillermo Hoyos said afterwards.
A fourth loss in five before the reset
The rescue looked more urgent because of what came before. A week earlier, Miami had walked off their own pitch beaten 2-1 by Toronto FC, a fourth defeat in five matches across all competitions. Josh Sargent and Derrick Etienne Jr. scored three minutes apart shortly after the hour. Messi pulled one back in the 82nd minute for his 14th league goal of the season and his 64th in 71 appearances for the club, but it was not enough.
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The winless run had also taken in Leagues Cup defeats to Monterrey and Club León, a heavy loss at Nashville and a draw at Philadelphia. Miami had not won a match of any kind for three weeks.
Sports Illustrated calls Messi the asset and the problem
The Montréal thrashing does not close down the harder question Miami’s summer has been asking. If a five-match winless run only breaks because Messi produces four goals from a standing start, what happens on the nights he does not?
That is the case Sports Illustrated laid out in a piece last week, describing Messi as both Inter Miami’s “biggest asset” and, in the same headline, “their biggest problem”. He now has 18 league goals and has provided close to half of the team’s regular-season output; opponents shaping their games around him have repeatedly found the supporting cast wanting.
“That’s what it means to have Messi on the team,” Casemiro told Apple TV.
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“We have to enjoy these moments because he is a person, a player that makes history.”
Kily González takes over from Hoyos
The winless run was already reshaping the touchline. On 27 August, Inter Miami announced that Cristian “Kily” González, the former Argentina, Valencia and Inter Milan midfielder, had agreed to become the club’s new head coach. He will take charge once his work permits come through; until then, Hoyos, who succeeded Javier Mascherano in April, remains in the dugout.
González arrives having managed Rosario Central, Unión de Santa Fe and Platense in Argentina, and he played alongside Messi in Argentina’s 2005 World Cup qualifying campaign.
Miami sit second in the Eastern Conference on 42 points from 22 games and host Atlanta United on Saturday, 5 September.
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