Substitute Fafà Picault scored for Inter Miami CF in the 89th minute, and Lionel Messi struck for the first time in the MLS regular season in a dramatic, late 2-1 victory at Atlanta United FC on Sunday.
Miami (3-1-0) triumphed despite six saves from Atlanta’s Brad Guzan, who played an integral role in his team’s playoff upset of Messi’s squad in a best-of-three series last fall in the opening round of the MLS Cup playoffs.
Atlanta shocked the Supporters’ Shield winners by winning the rubber match 3-2 on the road to eliminate Messi and Miami from the playoffs.
Messi’s goal came in the 20th minute of just his second regular season appearance for Miami, which has already played eight matches because of Concacaf Champions Cup action. The World Cup winner started the game after being sidelined for three games due to muscle fatigue before coming off the bench on Thursday night in a 2-0 win at Cavalier FC of Jamaica.
The start for Messi came on the heels of Miami manager Javier Mascherano defending the usage of his star player early in the season.
Emmanuel Latte Lath scored his third goal in the 11th minute to give Atlanta (1-1-2) an early lead. But his teammates are still stuck on one goal combined as Atlanta’s winless run extended to three matches after defeating Montreal in their season opener.
Both teams had plenty of chances for a second-half winner from open play, but the diminutive Picault provided an unlikely header to ultimately decide the game.
Jordi Alba got the ball out wide from a late short corner kick and sent an outswinging ball to the back post. Picault outmuscled Ajani Fortune and sent a header bouncing back across goal, somehow wrong footing Guzan and nestling inside the far left post.
It was Picault’s first goal for his sixth MLS club, having moved to Miami from Vancouver this offseason.
Miguel Almirón started the attack, opening the scoring with an excellent ball over the top to play Brooks Lennon down the right. Lennon then played an excellent cross that Latte Lath met with a powerful back-post header past Rocco Ríos Novo.
Latte Lath thought he has his second just after the quarter-hour mark, but it was ruled offside. Miami pulled level on its next foray forward.
Guzan sprawled off his line to disrupt an initial cross from the right, but Messi surprised Bartosz Slisz with some rare defensive pressure to dispossess the midfielder as Atlanta tried to play out. From there, he weaved his way past the sliding Derrick Williams, then deftly chipped the charging Guzan.
Atlanta United plays FC Cincinnati on the road Saturday. Inter Miami is idle until it hosts the Philadelphia Union on March 29.
Information from Reuters and The Associated Press was used in this story.
