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Messi’s record from the penalty spot is poor by his sky-high standards, including missing twice during the 2026 World Cup.

Forward Lionel Messi missed yet another penalty and was booked as Inter Miami suffered a 4-1 defeat at Nashville in a top-of-the-table Major League Soccer clash on Saturday.

England’s Sam Surridge and Germany’s Hany Mukhtar scored second-half goals for the hosts, Nashville, in a showdown between the MLS overall leaders.

Argentina and Miami captain Messi was denied from the penalty spot in the first half and was issued a yellow card in the 59th minute but also assisted Miami’s lone goal, scored by Telasco Segovia.

Messi, the 2022 World Cup winner, struck both posts in second-half stoppage time.

Nashville lead MLS with 43 points and a record of 13-2 with four drawn, while Inter Miami are second on 38 points.

Nashville had already knocked Miami out of this year’s CONCACAF Champions Cup in the round of 16.

Defending MLS champions Miami, who had been a league-best 8-1-1 on the road, saw a seven-match undefeated MLS run snapped as Nashville remained unbeaten at home in the MLS campaign.

Honduran defender Andy Najar scored with a header in the 17th minute to give Nashville a 1-0 lead.

Miami had a chance to equalise with a Messi penalty kick in the 23rd minute, but Nashville goalkeeper Brian Schwake saved his weak effort.

Messi’s recent record from the penalty spot is poor by his sky-high standards, including missing twice at the FIFA World Cup 2026.

The visitors netted the equaliser three minutes into first-half stoppage time when Venezuelan Segovia blasted in a right-footed shot off an assist by Messi.

Mukhtar, the 2022 MLS Most Valuable Player, put Nashville back in front in the 49th minute.

Surridge gave Nashville a 3-1 lead, and Mukhtar added his second in the 63rd for extra insurance as the hosts pulled away.

The Galaxy announced on Friday Hirving “Chucky” Lozano is joining its roster, making one of the most significant moves of the MLS transfer window in an attempt to turn around a disappointing season while the team still has a chance to make the playoffs.

The Mexican forward arrives on loan from San Diego FC through December with an option to buy. Lozano will occupy a designated player spot, becoming the new offensive leader of the team coached by Greg Vanney for the final stretch of the season.

Although his time with San Diego FC began in June 2024 with high expectations as the first designated player signed in the club’s history, the relationship between Lozano and the club deteriorated.

The Mexican forward suffered several muscle injuries that limited his playing time last season and toward the end of Lozano’s tenure, coach Mikey Varas opted not to feature Lozano because he didn’t fit with the club’s sporting vision.

The combination of physical problems and internal disagreements ultimately paved the way for his departure even though he made a strong offensive impact.

“Hirving is a player whom we tried to acquire three years ago, so this feels like something of a full-circle moment. He is a fierce competitor with an excellent track record of performing on teams that have competed for titles in multiple leagues, including his debut season in MLS,” Galaxy general manager Will Kuntz said.

Kuntz said after evaluating various options to strengthen the roster, the club concluded that Lozano was the ideal fit to help them tackle the final 15 games of the season.

“We have a talented group, a strong locker room, and a clear objective over these final 15 games of the season, and we are thrilled that Hirving and his family are joining the Galaxy,” Kuntz said.

In 33 matches with San Diego FC, Lozano recorded 20 goal contributions, including goals and assists.

Before arriving in MLS, Lozano made his professional debut with Pachuca, where he won the 2016 Clausura and the 2016–17 CONCACAF Champions League, a tournament in which he finished as the top scorer.

He later moved to PSV Eindhoven, where he won the Eredivisie title in the 2017–18 season before signing with Napoli in Italy. With the Neapolitan club, he played in 155 matches, scored 30 goals and was part of the historic squad that won the Scudetto in the 2022–23 season, ending a wait of more than three decades for the club.

He returned to PSV in 2023 and added two more consecutive Dutch league titles before embarking on his MLS adventure.

With the Mexican national team, he has accumulated more than 70 international appearances, 18 goals, and 12 assists.

He etched his name into Mexican soccer history by scoring the goal that gave El Tri a 1-0 victory over Germany at the 2018 World Cup in Russia — one of the national team’s most important World Cup victories.

He also represented Mexico at the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, in addition to competing in the Copa América, the Confederations Cup, the Gold Cup and the CONCACAF Nations League. In 2018, he was named CONCACAF Player of the Year.

At 31, Lozano joins the Galaxy —which no longer has Gabriel Pec — as the team seeks to strengthen its attack to stay in the hunt for a playoff spot.

The Galaxy hope to capitalize on his speed, ability to play on both wings and experience in high-pressure situations.

Larry Berg, the co-managing owner of LAFC, was chosen Monday to become the third commissioner in MLS history when Don Garber retires in December.

Berg has been with LAFC since the club’s founding, helping build the team into the league’s most successful franchise since entering MLS in 2018. He has held ownership stakes in Italy’s AS Roma and Welsh club Swansea City and has served MLS as co-chair of the league’s sporting and competition committee.

Berg, 60, also spent more than three decades in private equity, serving as a senior partner at Apollo Global Management before retiring in 2022.

“I’m honored to lead Major League Soccer into its next era,” Berg, a lifelong soccer fan and player, said in a statement released by the league. “Thanks to the vision and commitment of so many people, Major League Soccer has achieved tremendous success, but I believe our greatest opportunities are still ahead.

“We have an extraordinary opportunity to strengthen the quality of our competition, develop more world-class players, deepen our connection with supporters, and continue elevating Major League Soccer’s place in the global game.”

Berg has some big shoes to fill just as MLS enters an important stage of its development. Under Garber, who served 27 years, MLS expanded from 10 to 30 teams. Garber also oversaw multiple changes in the league’s salary structure, including the advent of the designated-player rule, which allowed MLS clubs to sign stars such as Lionel Messi, David Beckham, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thierry Henry while boosting the median guaranteed salary to $360,000.

Two years after Garber became commissioner, he helped save the league from bankruptcy and he’ll leave with the combined value of the league’s 30 teams estimated at $23 billion. Five teams, including Berg’s LAFC, are each valued at more than $1 billion.

Berg will face some daunting challenges with the league trying to ride the wave of soccer’s popularity following the U.S.’ just second-ever hosting of the World Cup; the change to a fall-spring competition schedule, which will debut next year; and the start of negotiations on a new TV contract to replace the streaming deal with Apple, which expires in 2029.

“Having worked closely with Larry over the past decade, I’ve seen firsthand the qualities that make him an exceptional leader, and I have complete confidence he is the right person to serve as Major League Soccer’s next commissioner,” Garber said. “His integrity, judgment, collaborative leadership, and unwavering commitment to building LAFC and the league have made him an invaluable partner.”

Before assuming his new role, Berg must divest his ownership interest in LAFC.

Lionel Messi returns to Inter Miami after Argentina’s World Cup final defeat by Spain, which led to retirement rumours.

Football superstar Lionel Messi ‌has returned to practice for Inter Miami, 10 ⁠days after Argentina’s World Cup run ended with a 1-0 extra-time loss to Spain in ⁠the final earlier this month.

The two-time defending MLS MVP missed Miami’s first two matches after ⁠the World Cup break against Chicago and Montreal, both of which the team still won, extending its winning streak to six matches.

The 39-year-old also chose not to participate ‌in Wednesday night’s MLS against Liga MX All-Star Game in Charlotte, instead taking some time off to visit his father, Jorge, who the Messi family announced during the World Cup is battling an undisclosed illness.

Messi concluded this year’s World Cup, ⁠his record sixth, with eight ⁠goals and four assists, coming one win away from leading Argentina to be the first team to win consecutive World Cups since ⁠Brazil in 1958 and 1962.

He was the first player to break Miroslav ⁠Klose’s record for career World ⁠Cup goals with his 17th in Argentina’s second match, but French sensation Kylian Mbappe finished the World Cup one goal ahead of ‌Messi, 22 to 21.

Inter Miami (11-2-4, 37 points) is two points behind Nashville SC atop the Eastern Conference ‌standings. ‌It is not yet known if Messi’s return will come in Saturday’s home match against the Columbus Crew.

There had been some speculation that Messi would not only conclude his international career following the World Cup, but that he may also call time on his playing days at club level.

The former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain forward has won eight Ballon d’Or titles, the annual award for the player voted the best in the world that year.

Remember when we were sure the World Cup would suffer from all the issues that had everyone seeing red before the first ball was kicked?

And remember when we were certain soccer could never catch on in this country?

Despite controversies over visas and ticket prices and transportation, and in spite of consternation over expansion and new rules, the game has, as usual, proved too good to fail.

And we, the American people, have become unusually engrossed in it.

We’ve been tuning in on TV in record numbers and, even at exorbitant prices, helping to sell out our 70,000-some-capacity stadiums. Before group play was even finished, this tournament — staged also in Mexico and Canada — already outdrew the 1994 World Cup, which was hosted by the United States and set an attendance record of nearly 3.6 million.

We’ve been loving the healthy cultural exchange, and we’re being reminded that cultural barriers of traditional sports fandom can be breached.

So now, to keep our interest from drying out like a pitch on a hot summer day, the goal should be to keep the market saturated with soccer. That will take Major League Soccer tearing down all the walls.

It’s already turned the page on its calendar, adopting a summer-to-spring season format that will better blend with the global game.

Now MLS needs to make its games easier to watch, and to do its part to make the sport easier to play.

Canada goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau, left, celebrates with teammate Jonathan David after a 1-0 win over South Africa at the World Cup on Sunday.

(Kelvin Kuo / Los Angeles Times)

While the proverbial iron is hot, it needs a strike like Stephen Eustáquio’s winning rocket in the 92nd minute of Canada’s 1-0 victory against South Africa on Sunday at SoFi Stadium.

Eleven players on the two teams were MLS representatives — including Eustáquio, who spent the last six months in LAFC’s midfield.

Goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau, who played two seasons with LAFC and now plays for Orlando City, stopped the only shot he saw for his second clean sheet this World Cup, which saw the Canadians succeed in their first knockout stage appearance.

There’s been no avoiding MLS players in this World Cup. The greatest of them is piling up goals for Argentina: Lionel Messi, the Inter Miami superstar, is now the all-time World Cup goal-scorer (with 19).

MLS has set an attendance record too, with 44 players participating. It ranks as the league with the second-most players apart from the top five European leagues. LAFC had three current players in the mix.

But wait. Record skip. Before you celebrate the MLS’s contributions to this soccer spectacle, check with the VAR. Yep, without the 13 MLS players representing nations that rank 40th or lower in FIFA’s world ranking, there actually would be fewer than the 37 MLS participants at the World Cup four years ago.

A baby’s first steps are for celebrating, but three decades after the league’s formation, MLS is still searching for a giant leap. It’s still having a mean time of trying to make “fetch” happen for real.

It would help to make its games more readily available — not to the already converted, but to fans who didn’t even know what they didn’t know about soccer until the World Cup began in their backyards.

MLS has already brought MLS from behind Apple’s season pass paywall. And the league and streaming service also reportedly have agreed to a revised media rights deal that will end at the end of the 2028-29 season, three and a half years earlier than expected.

But the hat trick would be to remove the need to subscribe to streaming service to watch MLS games altogether, and then get those matches onto the networks people know to tune into for their sports.

Normalize watching American soccer.

And stop gatekeeping. MLS’s developmental programs are too restrictive and exclusive — they’re not developing more soccer players, they’re curtailing who can play.

It’s in the league’s interests, and the sport’s in this country, to encourage as many players to play as much as they can — including for their high school teams, which MLS Next bars.

They’ve got people in the tent; the goal should be to make them want to stay.

To make them want to join the world’s circus, not to let it pack up and move on, out of sight and out of mind, until it swings back through years from now.

Timothy Tillman scored in the 86th minute, his first goal in more than two years, Thomas Hasal had five saves, and LAFC beat the Seattle Sounders 1-0 on Sunday night in the final MLS match before the 2026 World Cup break.

LAFC (7-5-3) ended a three-game losing streak and a four-game winless stretch.

LAFC has won six straight and is 9-0-1 at home against the Sounders in the regular season. Seattle has two wins at BMO Stadium in the MLS Cup playoffs, most recently a 2-1 victory in extra time to advance to the 2024 Western Conference final.

Tyler Boyd played a cross from the right side to the back post, where Tillman put away a sliding half-volley to give LAFC a 1-0 lead.

Hasal, who had his first shutout since 2022 for Vancouver, made his second consecutive start (his third this season) in the place the injured Hugo Lloris, who is out (leg) indefinitely. Lloris leads MLS with eight shutouts, including an MLS-record six straight to open the season.

Andrew Thomas had two saves for the Sounders (7-3-3).

Seattle has given up 11 goals this season, tied with Nashville — the points leader in all of MLS with 33 — for the fewest in the league.

The Sounders are 3-2-2 and have conceded just four goals on the road this season.

Seattle’s Danny Musovski subbed on for Paul Rothrock in the 69th minute and hit the crossbar with a shot from the center of the area in the 76th.

The Sounders lost 2-0 at home against the Galaxy on May 16 to snap a nine-game unbeaten streak dating to a 2-1 loss at Real Salt Lake on Feb. 28. The loss to the Galaxy also snapped Seattle’s 22-game home unbeaten streak across all competitions.