ATLANTA — Four minutes separated Lionel Messi’s two goals at Atlanta United on Saturday night, and they carried Inter Miami to a 3-1 win that coach Kily González says he still cannot quite believe.
According to Xinhua’s match report, Germán Berterame put Miami ahead on the stroke of halftime, heading in Luis Suárez’s cross at the far post. After the break Berterame became the provider: in the 56th minute he played a one-two with Messi, who skipped around his marker and drilled a shot past goalkeeper Lucas Hoyos. Four minutes later Messi ran onto a Suárez pass, dribbled around Junior Alonso and finished into the far corner. Fafa Picault pulled one back from the penalty spot in the 89th minute.
The result is Miami’s third straight league win, the club’s own recap says, and Xinhua has it second in the Eastern Conference on 55 points from 30 games, with Atlanta 14th in the 15-team group on 30. González’s first MLS match as Miami coach, on September 20, was a 2-2 draw with San Diego FC. Goal.com’s match report adds the individual stakes: Messi has 25 league goals, six clear in the Golden Boot race, and shares the league lead in assists with LAFC’s Son Heung-min on 15.
González said after the final whistle, Goal.com reported, that Messi “never ceases to amaze the world” and that he “honestly can’t believe that a guy like him, at 39 years old, is doing what he’s doing.”
Xinhua’s report gives the scoring and the standings. Inter Miami’s own match recap adds the counting stats: it lists Atlanta with 21 shots to Miami’s seven, though Miami had 54.1 percent of possession. TEH could not check those figures against another report, so they stand as the club’s numbers. The recap also says Suárez’s pass for Messi’s second goal was his 12th league assist and made him the second player in club history to reach 100 goal contributions, and that Messi’s 15 assists make him the first player in MLS history with at least 15 in three consecutive seasons.
Goal.com put Messi’s career total at 936 after the brace. González said he believes Messi will reach 1,000. “I have faith in that,” he said.
