Inter Miami have been eliminated from the MLS playoffs. After their October 21st match, Inter Miami will NOT play another MLS game until late February.
Match Report
Messi, who was a doubt for this weekend's match in South Florida, entered Saturday night's game in the 55' minute for defender Tomas Aviles in an offensive substitution, with the score still 0-0 at the time.
But, roughly 23 minutes later, and Bareal scored off a fine save made by Inter Miami goalkeeper Drake Callendar to gift all three points to Cincinnati - the No. 1 seed of MLS' Eastern Conference.
Inter Miami (9-17-6, 33 points) were eliminated from playoff contention due to their loss combined with CF Montreal's win over the Portland Timbers.
Messi, 36, played on Saturday evening for the first time since September 20, after missing two weeks with a reaggravated scar tissue injury in his leg. He could not capitalize on a few chances in Cincinnati's end when came in on as a substitute in the second half.
As a result, he was condemned to his very first loss as an Inter Miami player. Up until Saturday night's game, the team had avoided defeat in all 12 of his appearances, only coming unstuck when he was unavailable.
FC Cincinnati (20-5-8, 68 points) continued the best season in their young franchise history. They had already clinched the Supporters' Shield for the league's best record in the regular season.
Roman Celentano made two saves for Cincinnati. Callender had five saves for Miami.
Inter Miami had possession for 61.6 percent of the game, but just two of their 16 shot attempts were on target.
Inter Miami controlled play in the first half and hit the woodwork on three separate occasions. Aviles hit the crossbar head-on from the center of the box, Josef Martinez pinged the far post with a shot and Benjamin Cremaschi's close-range shot went off the crossbar before the end of the scoreless first half.
When Messi came on, 10 minutes after halftime, he quickly won a free kick in scoring range in the 59th minute, but he sent his attempt well over the crossbar.
Cincinnati finally broke through by getting a steal in Miami's end. Yuya Kubo moved in and fired on Callender, who parried it to his right. But Barreal was charging in on that side and easily deposited it in the net for his fifth goal of the season.
In the 87th minute, Messi got a left-footed shot through some traffic, but it dribbled past the net and out of play.
Messi drew two late fouls near the box, one in the 90th minute and one in stoppage time. On the first free kick, Messi tried to cross the ball in to a teammate and Cincinnati cleared it, setting up a fruitless Miami corner kick.
On the latter, Messi's shot at goal went over the bar again. Miami ends it season as champions of the League Cup, runners-up of the U.S. Open Cup and in 14th place out of 15 in the MLS' Eastern Conference.
Only Toronto (4-10-19, 22 points) trail the Herons in the league. Since Messi's July debut, Inter Miami only won one of the six games he missed and only lost one of the 13 he's played in.
Match Events
0' The match is about to start!
8' CLOSE! Aviles hits the bar
12' Callender makes good save
22' Martinez hits the bar too
24' Cremaschi hits the bar
30' Farias' long shot stopped
55' Sub! Messi replaces Aviles
59' Messi's free kick over the bar
66' Callender makes good save again
78' GOAL! Inter Miami CF 0-1 Cincinnati (Álvaro Barreal)
94' Messi's free kick over the bar
Line-ups
Inter Miami CF XI: Sergiy Kryvtsov, Busquets, Josef Martínez, Yedlin, Kamal Miller, Facundo Farías, Drake Callender, Noah Allen, David Ruíz, Benja Cremaschi, Tomás Avilés
Subs: Messi, Dixon Arroyo, Robert Taylor, Víctor Ulloa, Jean Mota, Nicolás Stefanelli, Robbie Robinson, CJ dos Santos, Ryan Sailor
Cincinnati XI: Arias, Júnior Moreno, Matt Miazga, Luciano Acosta, Nick Hagglund, Sergio Santos, Brandon Vazquez, Obinna Nwobodo, Álvaro Barreal, Roman Celentano, Ian Murphy
Subs: Yuya Kubo, Alec Kann, Dominique Badji, Aaron Boupendza, Marco Angulo, Yerson Mosquera, Bret Halsey, Gerardo Valenzuela, Malik Pinto
GobindaRanaXettri
538
Inter Miami have been eliminated from MLS Cup playoff contention. This makes Massi way to Barcelona.
bataceny
469
It is mind blowing to see people comparing a player that have to literally stop dribbling to wait in the penalty box to be able to match Messi numbers when it comes to scoring. Outside scoring, He is now another average player. When it comes to dribbling for the last two decades, their numbers are not nearly close. The same thing can be said to: key passes Chance creations Assist Carries Carries that enters the final third Dribbling 4 to 5 players to score a goal. They call him complete for doing one function of the game in a different way not know it Is about doing many functions of the game in a efficient way.
GILBOY
442
The referee tried his best for miami to win but can't help Cincinnati is too good for them
NeXusAJ
389
This makes Messi's League cup journey suspicious. They even postponed every MLS matches that were supposed to play between league cup too. That cup was rigged only to make sure Messi MLS debut won't end without a trophy. Don't get angry with just look at the teams they defeated at cup no of goals they scored.
MITOCHONDRIA
331
MESSI FANS ARE SO QUIET NOWADAYS [Crylaugh][Crylaugh]
EdisonBaby
264
So Messi to BARCA right 👍
EmeraldJ
246
The most biased and unreasonable fans on earth...
malablata
236
Messi is a serious problem to this team. They need to terminate his contract and kick him out. He's totally finished at age 35....... The reason we love Cristiano Ronaldo.
Rikhardo1
217
FIFA Baby goat Messi failed them. Bribecelona tiny tiny fans were all celebrating him as the savior of Inter Miami. Now here we go, they won't be allowed to play MLS game until late February. In the meantime Ronaldo is shining like a golden star and making Al Nassr a team that no one can defeat. Ronaldo is the real impactful GOAT 💪👏🐐♥️👌
Sla1091
186
Others goat 🐐ended up without goal & assist..... Let's laugh at him a bit🤣
Ebubechukwu1996
186
ESPN and other football platforms on Twitter are silent I guess they don't have Subscriptions to post again
duaikrstyz
177
Messi Stats: Offsides: 3 Goal: 0 Assist: 0 Dribbles Completed: 0/10 Key Passes: 0 Chances Created: 0
Peaceking1234
163
Please The Defeat Doesn't Change the FACT " HE IS STILL THE 👇💯🐐👑
Mawbikmpy
121
Bousquet and Alba seeing Messi leaving mls After he make inter Miami eliminated be like. jo,this guy lied to us ooo
Elizabethse
111
Here is the GIF, click: http://www.goalgif.xyz/v2/live/matchGifs?match_id=53692645&language=en
bhargavcr7
83
It's 0-0 until PEPSI , FIFA'S SON , BURGERS LEAGUE HERO, ENTER THE GAME 🗿🤣😂🍔🤣🗿😂🍔
AFer19185813
11
Messi is a serious problem to this team. They need to terminate his contract and kick him out. He's totally finished at age 35....... The reason we love Cristiano Ronaldo.
He just won them a cup hater your just mad Ronalda will never win would cup 🤣🤣