Messi

Lionel Messi scored twice in Inter Miami’s 4-0 MLS win over Atlanta United, a day after being rested by Argentina for their friendly against Venezuela.

Argentina captain Messi, 38, was called up for Friday’s match against Venezuela at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, home of NFL side the Miami Dolphins, and Tuesday’s game against Puerto Rico, which has been relocated from Chicago to Fort Lauderdale.

With the MLS continuing during the international break it was not clear if Messi would play for Inter Miami on Saturday in their penultimate regular season match.

The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner trained with Argentina during the week but watched Friday’s match – which Argentina won 1-0 – from the stands, with national boss Lionel Scaloni saying he wanted to see Lautaro Martinez and Julian Alvarez play together.

Miami boss Javier Mascherano said they asked for Messi to leave the national set-up to play in their home match and he started against Atlanta, curling in his opener in the 39th minute and adding his second in the 87th to take him to the top of the MLS scoring charts with 26 goals.

He also assisted Jordi Alba’s second-half strike, while Luis Suarez scored Miami’s other goal.

“Yesterday, before the match, I talked to [Argentina manager Lionel] Scaloni, and he said no, that he was not going to use him, that he was going to sit him down. And I spoke to Leo to see if he could play,” said Mascherano.

“It was his decision, and clearly he saw the opportunity that if he wasn’t going to play against Venezuela yesterday, we could use him. Leo, of course, was ready to do it.

“He is a very special player, he’s an icon, and even though he didn’t train last week with us, we saw what he did today. He has helped us to win, he managed to score. That for him was important.”

Inter are already guaranteed a play-off spot and sit third in the eastern conference, tied on points with second-placed FC Cincinnati.

Messi’s dominant performance against Atlanta came after he briefly left international duty with Argentina during the FIFA window.

Lionel Messi scored two goals and assisted on another by Jordi Alba to lead Inter Miami to a 4-0 home victory over Atlanta United on Saturday night in Major League Soccer (MLS) at Chase Stadium in Florida.

Messi, who sat out his home nation, Argentina’s, friendly against Venezuela that was held in Miami one night earlier, started and helped Inter Miami (18-7-8, 62 points) guarantee itself at least the No 3 seed in the Eastern Conference with the victory.

The Herons still have a chance to secure the No 2 seed if they can finish with more points than FC Cincinnati, which also has 62 points. If the teams finish with the same number of points, Cincinnati would clinch the higher seed by virtue of the head-to-head tiebreaker.

Atlanta United (5-16-12, 27 points), which eliminated Inter Miami from the MLS playoffs in the first round last season, lost its third match in a row and is winless in its past five.

Both teams were short-handed due to the FIFA international window this week. But Messi, who chose to play for club over country this weekend, now leads the MLS in goals, with 26, and his 18th assist tied San Diego’s Anders Dreyer for the league lead.

Messi’s first goal came in the 39th minute when he controlled a crossing pass from Baltasar Rodriguez and curled in a shot to the far top corner to break a scoreless deadlock. His second goal capped the scoring in the 87th minute off an assist from Alba.

In the 52nd minute, Messi created the chance that led to Miami’s second score, when he looped a long ball across the field to Alba as he surged towards Atlanta’s goal. Alba did the rest, lobbing the ball over Atlanta keeper Jayden Hibbert.

Luis Suarez added to the tally in the 61st minute, when he timed a shot perfectly off a high clearance attempt by Atlanta into the back of the net, curling the ball past Hibbert. Inter Miami’s Rocco Rios Novo started in goal and recorded the clean sheet.

Atlanta United, which has been riddled with injuries to key players this season, had to deal with another when, in the 14th minute, Stian Gregersen was forced to leave the game with what appeared to be a potential hamstring issue.

Saturday’s fixture was the final MLS regular-season match at Chase Stadium for Inter, with the team relocating to Miami Freedom Park in 2026.

HE IS the English striker formerly of Stoke, Yeovil and Weymouth in a  shootout for the MLS Golden Boot with Lionel Messi.

Sam Surridge, now of Nashville SC, is on 23 league strikes, just one behind the Greatest Of All Time — as well as LAFC’s Denis Bouanga — in the Stateside goalscoring stakes.

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The ex-England Under-21 international has the odds stacked against him as he has only one game left to take the crown, as opposed to Messi’s two and Bouanga’s three.

And, in an exciting twist of fixture fate, that solitary match is at home to the iconic Argentinian’s Inter Miami a week today.

Yet Surridge, who played in the Premier League with Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest, told SunSport: “I’ve probably got to get a hat-trick so it’s not going to be easy.

“But at the same time I’ll always back myself to score and it would be an amazing achievement.

“We’re fighting at a really good point in our league. We just won the cup and we need to get into the top four to get a good play-off spot.

“I’ll do as much as I can to do it.

“It’s great. Just to mention my name along with his is a huge achievement.”

Berkshire-born Surridge came through the ranks at Bournemouth under Eddie Howe and had formative lower-league loans at Weymouth, Poole Town, Yeovil, Oldham and Swansea.

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He had a half a season at Stoke before moving to  Forest, where he played 20 Premier League games in 2022-23 but netted only once.

His world has changed completely, however, since moving to the other side of the Pond in 2023.

He is now the main man with Tennessee side Nashville.

Though he has Messi to thank for convincing him to make the revitalising switch in the first place.

Surridge will hope his upcoming meeting with the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner goes better than the last one, when Miami won 2-1 thanks to Messi’s double — including a sublime free-kick.

The 27-year-old added: “At first I didn’t want to come here because I just wanted to stay in England.

“But then I saw Messi join Inter Miami and I knew they were going to host the World Cup and the size of the league was going to grow.

“Since I’ve been here, the standard has been getting better and better every year.

“Going into that game against Miami in July, we were on a ten-game unbeaten streak, I was on 16, he was on 14.

‘IT WAS CRAZY’

“I remember we gave a foul away on the edge of the box and you just knew he was going to score from it.

“It was crazy — you knew exactly where he was going to put the ball. And he did.

“You’re trying to focus on the game but at the same time you know he’s playing. It’s not easy.

“He is coming to the end of his career but he only won the Ballon d’Or two years ago.”

Surridge has been relishing his role as Nashville’s go-to guy up top and recently scored the match-winning goal to clinch the US Open Cup — America’s equivalent of the FA Cup.

It was the first piece of silverware in Tennessee in a long time, although Surridge was sent off right at the end of the game for two late yellows.

Surridge puts his inspired form in part down to the recent birth of son Noah.

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He added: “In the past, I’ve probably let it eat me up when I’ve had a bad game or not scored a goal.

“But now as one game is gone, I’m straight on to the next, back home with my family and being a dad.

“That’s a massive factor (in my form) this season, giving me that renewed focus.” Surridge is experiencing week in, week out the soaring temperatures that Harry Kane and the rest of the England team will have to deal with at the World Cup next summer.

And forward Surridge, who played with the likes of Marc Guehi for the Young Lions, said: “I know England are going to find it hard to cope with the weather over here because it’s not easy adjusting to it.

“There’s going to be a lot of South American teams that are used to it.

“Especially when you go to places like Miami, and places more south of Nashville, it’s not easy to play in the heat. There’s going to be a lot of toing and froing, sitting off and trying to break teams down.

“They should be pushing the games back because we play at 7pm most games and it’s still ridiculously hot.

“At the Club World Cup, I’ve seen them play at games at 2pm and 3pm in the 30-degree heat and it’s almost impossible.”

‘PICKING THE MOMENTS’

So what would his advice be for Thomas Tuchel’s side braving the heat?

The striker replied: “It’s not saving yourself in games, it’s more about picking the moments.

“Because as soon as you get into a full-on sprint in that heat, it’s hard to get your breath back.

“I think managers will set up their teams differently for that reason.

“You see pressing teams where they’re full-on pressing and, as soon as they break down, they’re going to struggle.

“It’s about conserving your energy where you can.”

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