Lionel Messi scored 29 goals in 28 games, making the Argentine star the top scorer in MLS for the first time.
Published October 19, 2025
Lionel Messi scored a hat trick and added an assist, and Baltasar Rodriguez scored the tying goal as visiting Inter Miami used a second-half onslaught to defeat Nashville SC 5-2 in a showdown Saturday night.
Telasco Segovia also scored for Inter Miami (19-7-8, 65 points), which won its third straight game. Miami will be the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs and will face No. 6 Nashville in the first round.
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Sam Surridge and Jacob Schaffelberg scored for Nashville (16-12-6, 54 points), which didn’t allow a shot in the first 34 minutes but fell into disarray in the second half.
Messi was the clear winner of the 2025 MLS Golden Boot race, finishing the regular season with 29 goals. Next best were Los Angeles FC’s Dennis Bouanga (24 goals) and Surridge (24 goals). The 38-year-old also led the league in assists with 19.
Rocco Rios Novo made five saves for Miami, and Nashville’s Joe Willis had four stops.
Nashville led 2-1 in the second half until Andy Najjar was called for a handball.
Messi took the follow-up penalty in the 63rd minute and easily fired a shot with his left foot into the left corner of the goal to level the game.
The goal gave Miami momentum and they took the lead just four minutes later.
Luis Suarez fired a right-footed shot, but Willis parried it away. However, the ball bounced back to Rodriguez, who fired a right-footed shot past Willis to give Miami a 3-2 lead.
Messi regained his momentum in the 81st minute, firing a left-footed shot into the bottom left corner to make it 4-2.
In the first minute of stoppage time in the second half, Messi held the ball and pressed on to Willis before feeding a wide-open Segovia, who kicked the ball into the net to end the chaos.
Miami outscored Nashville 17-15 and had a 9-7 edge in shots on target.
Nashville dominated the game in the first half, but led just 2-1 at halftime.
Miami’s first shot was aimed at Messi’s goal in the 34th minute. After receiving the ball from Jordi Alba, he deftly moved around three defenders before firing a left-footed shot into the left corner of the goal.
Nashville responded in the 43rd minute when Hany Mukhtar sent a short centering pass to Surridge, who scored with a header.
Nashville scored again in the 6th minute of first-half stoppage time. Mukhtar took a shot, but it hit the right goal post and the ball went directly to Schaffelburg, who smashed it home to give Nashville the lead.
