Overview
- Lionel Messi started and played 90 minutes in Inter Miami’s 4-0 win over D.C. United on Saturday, scoring twice to break the club’s five-match MLS winless streak.
- Messi had played his farewell match for Argentina earlier in the week, ending a 21-year international career and returning straight to club action in Miami.
- The two goals took Messi to a reported 23 MLS goals this season with widely cited totals also listing 13 assists, keeping him atop the Golden Boot race and central to MVP discussion.
- The victory was coach Cristian “Kily” González’s first MLS league win since his mid-September appointment and lifted Inter Miami to second place in the Eastern Conference on 49 points.
- Luis Suárez also scored twice and Germán Berterame supplied two assists, and a single report noted Messi’s 118th appearance tied him with Drake Callender for second on Inter Miami’s all-time list.