Lionel Messi found the back of the net, but Inter Miami were forced to settle for a 1-1 draw against struggling Toronto FC in Major League Soccer on Sunday.
Toronto, still without a win this season, earned their point with a strong performance, creating enough opportunities to have potentially claimed all three.
The Canadian side, sitting 14th out of 15 teams in the Eastern Conference, caused plenty of problems for Miami’s vulnerable defense and came close to scoring on multiple occasions.
They hit the woodwork twice early in the match, with Theo Corbeanu rattling the post with a left-foot shot in the 17th minute, followed by another close miss two minutes later after a goalmouth scramble.
Miami thought they had broken the deadlock in the 39th minute when Messi found space to fire a trademark low drive into the corner from outside the box.
However, a VAR review ruled that Messi had fouled French defender Nicksoen Gomis while creating space for the shot, and the goal was disallowed.
Just seven minutes later, Toronto took the lead with Federico Bernardeschi, the Italian forward, weaving through Miami defenders and poking the ball past goalkeeper Drake Callender.
The lead was short-lived, however, as Messi was given too much space on the edge of the box, and with a perfect low drive, he leveled the score, leaving Toronto keeper Sean Johnson helpless.
Toronto came out strong in the second half, almost retaking the lead early when Bernardeschi fired wide from a promising position. Miami, lacking fluidity and structure in their play, showed occasional danger on the counter-attack.
They had a chance to regain the lead when Fafa Picault delivered a cross to Luis Suarez at the back post, but the veteran forward lost his footing and shot off-target from close range.
Messi, who played the full match, was often isolated as he attempted to create by himself, frequently surrounded by Toronto defenders. He did manage to test Johnson with a low shot in the 77th minute after creating some space for himself.
Bernardeschi threatened again in the latter stages of the match but was denied by a timely block from Miami’s Tomas Aviles.
Miami’s next challenge comes on Wednesday in the Concacaf Champions Cup quarter-final second-leg against Los Angeles FC, trailing 1-0 from the first leg.
Coach Javier Mascherano expressed frustration with his team’s performance but assured that they would be ready for the upcoming match.
He said, “In the first half, for 10-15 minutes, we disconnected from the game and they scored. Then we started again and in the second half we tried to do something with the substitutes. It was a difficult game, people thought that maybe Toronto is not in a good position in the table but they have good quality up front and they played really, really well. We need to think about Wednesday.”
In other MLS action on Sunday, former Inter Miami striker Josef Martinez scored a hat-trick as the San Jose Earthquakes thrashed DC United 6-1.
Meanwhile, New York City FC suffered a 2-1 defeat at home to a resurgent Minnesota United, who moved up to third place in the Western Conference with the victory.
