Lionel Messi scored twice as Inter Miami beat the defending Major League Soccer (MLS) champions the Columbus Crew 3-2 to clinch the Supporters’ Shield awarded for the best regular season record.
Messi had been subdued until the 45th minute when he put Inter ahead — chesting down a long ball into the box and getting a lucky bounce off Crew defender Malte Amundsen before poking home.
Minutes later, Messi made it 2-0, taking advantage of a poorly assembled wall to curl a laser-precision free-kick into the corner past the stationary Columbus keeper Patrick Schulte.
Photo: Adam Cairns-USA TODAY
Messi, who recently returned from a two-month injury absence, has now scored 17 goals and produced 15 assists in 17 matches
However, 20 seconds after the start of the second half, Columbus pulled a goal back when the ball fell to Diego Rossi just inside the box and he cleverly curled his shot into the far corner.
Straight from the restart, Columbus gifted Miami a third when Schulte raced off his line, but with defender Rudy Camacho in his way, he dropped the ball to Luis Suarez who headed into the unguarded goal.
The Crew battled back again though and made it 3-2 through a Cucho Hernandez penalty after Noah Allen handled in the box.
“I’m happy to achieve the first goal and think about what’s coming. Today was a very tough opponent. We knew it, they are the last champion, of the Leagues Cup. They are a great team,” Messi told Apple TV.
“[Although they were] down a man, we suffered until the end and that shows what this team is,” he said.
The champion of Major League Soccer is determined by the winner of the MLS Cup playoffs — where Eastern Conference rivals the Crew and Miami could meet again.
Inter Miami have 68 points with two matches remaining, ensuring they would finish the MLS campaign as the league’s best record. If they win both games, they would establish a new single-season points record.
Inter, the Eastern Conference top seeds, would have home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
Columbus are second in the East with Cincinnati, who lost 3-2 to New York City, in third place. Orlando, who beat Philadelphia 2-1 are fourth.
The eighth and ninth-placed teams in each conference would meet in the wild-card round. The first round of the playoffs is played on a “best of three” basis with the top four teams given two home games. The conference semi-finals and finals are single-elimination games.
Messi said the Shield was a “secondary” prize for his team and said the MLS Cup title remains the main goal for the team.
“The first round is three games, but then it’s one game and anything can happen. But we have the great advantage of playing all the games at home, which is what we were looking for. We are very strong at home,” he added.
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and partner Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia yesterday advanced to the women’s doubles final at the Australian Open after defeating New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe and Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 6-3 in their semi-final. Hsieh has won nine Grand Slam doubles titles and has a shot at a 10th tomorrow, when the Latvian-Taiwanese duo are to play Taylor Townsend of the US and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic in the championship match at the A$96.5 million (US$61 million) outdoor hard court tournament at Melbourne Park. Townsend and Siniakova eliminated Russian pair Diana Shnaider and Mirra Andreeva 6-7
The San Francisco Giants signed 18-year-old Taiwanese pitcher Yang Nien-hsi (陽念希) to a contract worth a total of US$500,000 (NT $16.39 million). At a press event in Taipei on Wednesday, Jan. 22, the Giants’ Pacific Rim Area scout Evan Hsueh (薛奕煌) presented Yang with a Giants jersey to celebrate the signing. The deal consisted of a contract worth US$450,000 plus a US$50,000 scholarship bonus. Yang, who stands at 188 centimeters tall and weighs 85 kilograms, is of Indigenous Amis descent. With his fastest pitch clocking in at 150 kilometers per hour, Yang had been on Hsueh’s radar since playing in the HuaNan Cup
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Coco Gauff’s dreams of a first women’s singles title in Melbourne were crushed in the quarter-finals by Paula Badosa. World No. 2 Alexander Zverev was ruffled by a stray feather in his men’s singles quarter-final, but he refocused to beat 12th seed Tommy Paul and reach the semi-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in 2 hours, 20 minutes to advance the semi-finals. Hsieh and Ostapenko converted eight of 14 break
FINAL WEEK LOOMS: PSG rose to 22nd place to set up another tense challenge against 24th-placed Stuttgart, while Man City require victory against Club Brugge Manchester City are on the brink of a humiliating UEFA Champions League exit after a stunning loss to Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday, while Real Madrid is no longer at risk after routing Salzburg. Man City blew a two-goal lead in a high-stakes clash of super-wealthy underachievers that PSG won 4-2 in Paris, who could still be eliminated alongside the English champions after the final round of games next week. Only the top 24 in the 36-team standings are to advance. Man City, the 2023 champions, are in 25th place, but could squeeze into the knockout playoffs round by beating Club Brugge. “We will
RSS