Lionel Messi took the finish in the 26th minute, ran a few paces towards his own goal and stopped, looked up, and pointed to the sky. It was the first goal he had scored since his father died in Rosario on 8 August, and the finger to the sky was for him.

He had found the space no one else could see. Kai Wagner had him pinned near the byline. Messi cut inside on his left foot from 12 yards out and curled the ball past goalkeeper Andre Blake, the finish putting Inter Miami 2-1 up.

The match finished 2-2. Philadelphia’s defender Neil Pierre headed the hosts level in the 58th minute, and stoppage time collapsed into a scuffle that left Miami’s Yannick Bright and Philadelphia’s Cavan Sullivan with red cards.

The letter Messi wrote to his father

Jorge Messi died at a Rosario clinic on 8 August, aged 68, after a long illness. He had been his son’s representative for years and, as Lionel Messi has said before, the man he asked for a verdict after every match. A private funeral was held near Rosario the following day, with Argentina teammates among the mourners.

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Inter Miami granted the 39-year-old indefinite leave on 11 August, with no fixed date to come back.

Two days later, Messi shared an open letter to his father on Instagram.

“I don’t know what I will do without you. I don’t know how to move forward,” he wrote.

“I only played football, and now I have many doubts about whether I’ll keep doing it much longer,” he added later in the letter.

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He was back in the Miami squad soon afterwards. He did not find the net in either of his first two matches back.

Vassilev, Pintér, Pierre

Indiana Vassilev had put Philadelphia 1-0 up in the 11th minute, with 16-year-old academy product Cavan Sullivan claiming a secondary assist. Dániel Pintér levelled it for Miami before Messi’s go-ahead goal, and Pierre’s header dragged the hosts back to 2-2.

The finish drew a tribute from the man in the other dugout. Union interim head coach Ryan Richter was asked about it afterwards.

“I don’t know how he gets that out of his feet to find the finish, but that is why he is the greatest player ever,” Richter said.

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For Miami, the 26th-minute goal was Messi’s 13th of the MLS season, leaving him in the Golden Boot chase behind FC Dallas forward Petar Musa. The draw left Miami without a win in four league matches.

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