Lionel Messi‘s fifth MLS goal of the season wasn’t enough to prevent his Inter Miami side from being routed 4-1 by Minnesota United in St. Paul on Saturday.
Bongokuhle Hlongwane, Anthony Markanich and Robin Lod each scored goals to hand Inter Miami (6-2-3, 21 points) its heaviest loss in any game where Messi has played.
Minnesota (6-2-4, 22 points), which beat Austin 3-0 last time out to snap a three-game winless skid, has won back-to-back games.
Miami played without forward Luis Suárez, who did not make the trip due to personal reasons, and without left winger Fafà Picault due to illness.
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Hlongwane scored his first goal of the season to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead in the 32nd minute. Hlongwane, who scored a career-high 11 goal last season, slipped behind the defense and perfectly timed his run onto a ball played ahead by Carlos Harvey for a one-touch finish inside the back post from the right corner of the 6-yard box.
Markanich made it 2-0 when he scored in first-half stoppage time, his second goal in as many games and the third of his four-year MLS career.
Michael Boxall took a long throw-in to the near post, where Nicolás Romero flicked a header backward to Markanich, who put away a header from point-blank range. It was the first career assist for Romero, a 21-year-old in his first MLS season.
Messi scored in the 48th minute, when he took a cross from Jordi Alba and rolled a shot from the left-center of the area past the outstretched arm of diving goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair inside the back post.
An own goal by Miami’s Marcelo Weigandt made it 3-1 in the 68th and Lod ran onto a pass from Tani Oluwaseyi and put away a one-touch finish — his first goal of the season — to cap the scoring in the 70th minute.
Miami beat the New York Red Bulls 4-1 last time out to rebound from its first loss of the season, 4-3 defeat to Dallas at home on April 27.
Miami beat Minnesota 2-1 at home in June of 2022 in the only other meeting between the clubs.
Information from Field Level Media and The Associated Press was used in this report.
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