‘Amazing’ strike from Lionel Messi lifts Inter Miami FC over Sporting KC 3-2

In front of the third-largest crowd in Major League Soccer history, Inter Miami CF upset Sporting Kansas City 3-2 on Saturday night. Lionel Messi scored his fifth goal and added an assist, and Luis Suárez scored the game’s winning goal in the 71st minute.

Suárez scored the goal from Diego Gómez’s crossing pass inside the 6-yard box following a Sporting KC defensive blunder. Suárez scored his sixth goal of the year. A large portion of the 72,610 spectators at Arrowhead Stadium were satisfied with Messi’s skillful passes that set up scoring opportunities.

In the eighteenth minute, with Inter Miami CF (4-2-3) behind 1-0, Messi set up Gomez for a first-touch right-footed goal in the center of the box to equal the score. In the fifty-first minute, Messi gave Miami the lead 2-1 with a left-footed shot from the top of the penalty arc. He had scored in four consecutive MLS games.

In the 27th minute, Messi had a great opportunity to score with a left-footed shot from 12 yards, but Tim Melia of Kansas City stopped it. In the 41st minute, Messi’s 25-yard free shot just went wide right. Erik Thommy’s 16-yard goal in the sixth minute gave Sporting KC (2-2-4) the lead.

In the 58th minute, he tied the score at two with a second goal after a rebound from Daniel Salloi’s corner kick. Tommy scored his first goals since opening day, his second and third of the season.

The attendance exceeded the previous Sporting KC record by twenty thousand spectators during a friendly match against Manchester United in 2010.