Messi scored a brace and broke the tournament record in a crushing victory over Inter Miami

Lionel Messi once again proved that there is no concept of "loss of form" for him. Returning from Argentina's World Cup finals, the star striker put on quite a show at the Nou Stadium in Miami during the opening match of the 2026 League Cup. The match started unexpectedly for the home team: in the fourth minute, the guests from San Luis opened the scoring thanks to David Rodríguez's accurate header. However, the joy of the Mexican team was short-lived. Miami responded in a flash, and did it as spectacularly as possible. Lionel Messi burst into the box at full speed and curled home Noah Allen's cross from the left wing with a magnificent volley. "Those of us who have played football know what it takes to find the time and space to connect, to meet the cross from left to right and hit it cleanly on the fly with the left foot. If we were talking about painting, it would be Picasso," Inter Miami head coach Guillermo Oyos expressed his emotions. The Argentine was unstoppable this evening. Messi assisted on Telasco Segovia (who was also assisted by Noah Allen for an amazing 3 assists per game). A little later, the captain scored his second goal, masterfully dealing with two defenders and the goalkeeper after another pass from Allen. Mikael put the full stop in the first half, bringing the score to 4:1 with a header after a corner. With the double, Messi reached the mark of 14 goals in the League Cup. He surpassed Denis Buanga (13) to become the top scorer in the history of the tournament. This is Messi's 5th multi-goal match in his 12 career League Cup games. Teammate Noah Allen scored a hat trick of assists for the first time in his career. In the second half, the game lost a bit of momentum due to heavy rains, which caused the match to be delayed. San Luis was able to win back one goal thanks to the efforts of Rafa Llorente, but they were not enough for more. Not without unpleasant news for Miami. The team is currently without Luis Suarez, who is serving a six-match ban for the incident in the 2025 League Cup final. In addition, at the end of the game, the young player Matteo Silvetti suffered a painful injury — a dislocated shoulder. Inter Miami's next challenge is this Saturday when they face Monterrey. Meanwhile, Atlético de San Luis will try to rehabilitate against Nashville on Sunday.