Messi’s dominant performance against Atlanta came after he briefly left his duties with Argentina during FIFA.
Published October 12, 2025
Lionel Messi scored two goals and assisted another for 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 missed his native Argentina’s friendly match against Venezuela in Miami the night before, helping Inter Miami (18-7-8, 62 points) secure at least the third seed in the Eastern Conference with a victory.
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The Herons still have a chance to grab the No. 2 seed if they can finish with more points than FC Cincinnati, which also has 62 points. If both teams finish with the same points, a head-to-head tiebreaker would clinch the higher seed for Cincinnati.
Atlanta United (5 wins, 16 losses, 12 draws, 27 points), who eliminated Inter Miami in the first round of the MLS playoffs last season, have lost three straight and are winless in their past five games.
Both teams were short on talent this week due to the FIFA International Window. However, Messi, who opted to play for his club rather than his country this weekend, currently leads MLS with 26 goals and is tied for the league lead with San Diego’s Anders Dreyer with 18 assists.
Messi’s first goal came in the 39th minute. He controlled a cross pass from Baltasar Rodriguez and curled a shot into the top corner of the goal to break the scoreless deadlock. He rounded off the scoring with his second goal in the 87th minute off an assist from Alba.
Messi created a chance for Miami’s second goal in the 52nd minute, looping a long ball across the field to Alba, who was charging towards the Atlanta goal. Alba did the rest, sending the ball over Atlanta keeper Jaden Hibbert.
Luis Suarez added another point in the 61st minute with a perfectly timed shot into the back of the goal from a high Atlanta clearance, curling the ball past Hibbert. Inter Miami’s Rocco Rios Novo started in goal and kept a clean sheet.
Atlanta United, who have suffered a number of injuries to key players this season, were forced to take a new approach when Stian Gregersen was forced to leave the game in the 14th minute due to a possible hamstring problem.
Saturday’s game will be Inter’s final MLS regular season game at Chase Stadium, with the team moving to Miami Freedom Park in 2026.
