HARRISON, NJ — Lionel Messi haunted New York Red Bulls once again as Inter Miami came from a goal down to win 5-1 in a romp at Sports Illustrated Stadium on Saturday night.
Messi, who has now scored in all four appearances against the Red Bulls since moving to MLS, scored two and set up another in an imperious performance in front of a packed crowd in Harrison, which responded with raucous cheers to even the most mundane of actions from the Argentinian legend.
The Red Bulls had made a dream start when Alexander Hack converted from close range to give Sandro Schwarz’s side a deserved lead after an impressive opening quarter-hour, but Miami, with Messi to the fore, ensured that it quickly turned into a nightmare.
He was heavily involved in a Miami one-two punch that turned the game on its head midway through the first half, with Jordi Alba and Telasco Segovia converting inside the area.
Segovia added a third on the stroke of halftime before Messi took center stage in the second half to extinguish any hopes of a New York comeback. The Argentinian maestro scored a 15-minute brace midway through the second period, marking his sixth brace in seven games and moving him clear in the race for the MLS Golden Boot.
However, his first goal appeared to be clearly offside despite being cleared and checked by the video assistant referee.
In a postgame press conference, Schwarz alluded to the goal being offside and stated repeatedly that he was “shocked” by its allowance, adding that the goal effectively ended the game as a contest.
“I’m shocked about what happened today,” Schwarz said. “That is for me, difficult to accept.”
He added that the fourth goal “killed us” from a mental point of view and said it was pointless to analyze the second half.
The result marks another miserable result for New York against Miami, with Schwarz’s side losing by a combined 15-4 in their past three outings against Messi and Co. It also marks just their second home defeat of the season.
Hack’s 14th-minute opener was nothing short of what the hosts deserved after an excellent opening quarter, where the hosts caused real problems for Miami with their press.
Miami struggled to get out of their own half against an energetic Red Bulls side that forced several errors out of a visibly nervous Rocco Rios Novo in the Miami goal.
Those nerves were evident when the hosts took the lead when the stand-in keeper failed to claim a routine corner and allowed Hack to virtually convert from the goal line to send the outnumbered Red Bulls fans into raptures.
It only took Messi and Miami three minutes to turn the game on its head, however.
In a move seen countless times during his time at Barcelona, Messi found a pocket of space just inside the New York half before playing an inch-perfect, defense-splitting pass to find Alba inside the area and take right-back Mohammed Sofo out of the game.
Alba still had plenty to do, but rifled an unstoppable shot past Coronel and into the roof of the net from a tight angle on 24 minutes.
That combination came up trumps again three minutes later when Messi chipped a delightful pass to Alba, who volleyed a cut back for Segovia to finish from close range past Coronel, who should have done better to keep out the effort.
The Miami one-two punch seemed to deflate the Red Bulls, who struggled to replicate the energy that caused the visitors so much problems in the opening 20 minutes.
In fact, it was Miami who remained in the ascendancy as the game approached the interval and the visitors would add another sucker punch in first-half stoppage time when Segovia whipped an unstoppable effort past a motionless Coronel from the edge of the area after the Red Bulls failed to clear their lines.
Hack said the Red Bulls “played like boys” in important moments during the first half, bemoaning how easily his side lost the ball as Miami took control.
Schwartz, meanwhile, conceded that his side did not defend transitions well enough, stating that Miami’s quick turnaround deflated his players after an encouraging start.
“That is then against a really good quality team,” Schwarz said. “In this situation, then we made a big mistake against a really good team, when you give them space.”
The hosts raised their energy levels after the restart and should have pulled a goal back on 57 minutes when Emil Forsberg blazed over from a promising position inside the area.
He was made to pay dearly for that miss three minutes later when Messi latched onto a Sergio Busquets pass before calmly rounding Coronel and tapping into the back of the net to kill the game off as a contest.
As if there were any doubt, Messi’s goal drew a veritable explosion of noise from the largely pro-Inter Miami crowd and left no illusions as to who the vast majority of fans inside Sports Illustrated Stadium were here to see.
Messi, however, did appear to be leaning offside when Busquets played the through ball, leaving Schwartz dumbfounded.
“If you see the line, this is unbelievable,” Schwartz said.
Messi provided further delight on 75 minutes when he trapped a Benjamin Cramasci cross on his chest at the back post and guided a half volley beyond Cornel and into the top corner.
There was to be no Messi hattrick, however, as the red-clad home supporters filtered out en masse – still leaving the ground more than half-full with pink shirts.
