Nashville goalkeeper Brian Schwake got down low in the 23rd minute and pushed Messi’s effort away in front of a sellout GEODIS Park, preserving the home side’s early lead inside a top-of-the-table Major League Soccer match Nashville would go on to win 4-1.

The miss meant more than one saved chance. It was the third penalty in a row Messi has failed to convert, across three different matches on two continents.

The last time that happened, he was 26 years old and still at Barcelona.

Three keepers, three misses

The current run started at the 2026 World Cup. In the eighth minute of Argentina’s group stage meeting with Austria on 22 June, Lautaro Martínez was fouled inside the area, and Messi took the spot kick and dragged it wide of the right post. Argentina still won 2-0.

Read also: New Zealand closes the last blank spot on Infantino's opposition map

Just over two weeks later, on 7 July, Egypt goalkeeper Mostafa Shobeir got a firm hand to another Messi penalty in the round of 16. Argentina rallied late to win 3-2, but the miss made Messi the first player to miss two spot kicks at a single World Cup.

Then came Nashville. Sergio Reguilón buried the rebound off Schwake’s save, but a video review ruled the goal out for encroachment after the Spaniard stepped into the box before the kick. Messi later struck both posts deep in second-half stoppage time.

The 2014 stretch he last matched

Before this run, Messi’s only comparable slump came in 2014. That drought started at Real Betis in April, continued against Levante in September and Brazil in October, and only ended in November against Croatia. It stretched across seven months while he was in his prime at Barcelona.

His overall career record from the spot remains strong. Messi has now converted 114 of 149 attempts, a rate of 76.5 percent.

Read also: Schumacher's 2027 pitch takes another hit as Turn 4 ends his Markham run

A summer that has already tested him

The Nashville miss came a week after the death of his father, Jorge Messi. He died on 8 August at 68 at Sanatorio Centro in Rosario, where he had been receiving treatment for a long illness. Messi returned to Inter Miami’s squad shortly afterwards and started at Nashville days later.

This week, head coach Guillermo Hoyos said Messi was in the right place mentally.

“He looks good, expressing himself on the pitch, a place he knows to perfection, and at peace,” Hoyos told reporters.

The trip to Tennessee also came less than a month after Argentina lost the World Cup final. Spain beat them 1-0 at MetLife Stadium on 19 July when Ferran Torres struck at the start of the second period of extra time.

Read also: McLaren finish the Hungary upgrade at Zandvoort's F1 farewell

Nashville stayed top of the Eastern Conference on 43 points. Inter Miami slipped five points behind on 38, with the MLS regular season entering its final stretch and the playoffs weeks away.

Read also: Kompany's Bayern back at the Yellow Wall for Beckenbauer Supercup opener