{"id":869786,"date":"2026-04-19T09:25:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T09:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/869786\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T09:25:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T09:25:42","slug":"lionel-messi-scores-twice-as-inter-miami-defeat-rapids-in-mls-football-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/869786\/","title":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi scores twice as Inter Miami defeat Rapids in MLS | Football News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Argentine forward\u2019s brace included the match winner against Colorado Rapids in front of over 75,000 fans in Denver.<\/p>\n

Published On 19 Apr 202619 Apr 2026<\/p>\n

Lionel Messi scored a brace and \u200cGerman Berterame headed another as Inter Miami earned a \u20603-2 win over \u2060the Colorado Rapids in Major League Soccer (MLS) on Saturday in Denver.<\/p>\n

Messi scored the go-ahead goal in the 79th minute. He started a run just inside midfield and went \u2060unchallenged until the box, where he blasted into the upper left corner for a 3-2 lead.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

Rafael Navarro and Darren Yapi each scored for Colorado (4-4-0, 12 points) in front of 75,824 at Empower Field, the second-largest crowd in MLS history.<\/p>\n

Miami (4-1-3, 15 points) took a 1-0 lead in the 18th minute after Colorado goalkeeper Zack Steffen\u2019s pass was intercepted by Yannick Bright. Josh Atencio offered a hard challenge \u200cand was shown a yellow card after video review.<\/p>\n

Messi took the resulting penalty and rolled his shot straight down the middle as Miami took a 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n

Colorado had a solid look at the goal when midfielder Wayne Frederick attempted a one-touch lob. Miami goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair was out of position and well beyond the penalty arc after heading away a loose ball, but Frederick\u2019s attempt sailed \u2060over the open net.<\/p>\n

In the fifth minute of first-half stoppage \u2060time, Miami extended their lead to 2-0, connecting on a series of passes deep in their attacking third. Messi got the run of play started with a tight touch pass to Rodrigo De \u2060Paul.<\/p>\n

De Paul sent Mateo Silvetti on a run to the boundary line. His inward-spinning cross floated to the front of \u2060goal, where Berterame rose above the Colorado defence and \u2060tucked a header under the bar.<\/p>\n

Navarro\u2019s goal cut Miami\u2019s lead to 2-1. He started a run in midfield and used a step-over move to get an open shot a few steps into the \u200cbox that tucked inside the left post past a diving St. Clair in the 58th minute.<\/p>\n

In the 62nd minute, second-half substitute Yapi settled on a direct pass from Lucas \u200cHerrington \u200cand sizzled a shot past St. Clair for the equaliser.<\/p>\n

Miami closed the win playing a man down as Yannick Bright was sent off with a red card in the 87th minute.<\/p>\n

\"LionelInter Miami forward Lionel Messi scores his 13th-minute penalty against the Colorado Rapids [Geneva Heffernan\/AP]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Argentine forward\u2019s brace included the match winner against Colorado Rapids in front of over 75,000 fans in Denver.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[7,88,817,686,28022],"class_list":{"0":"post-869786","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-sport","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-us-canada"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116430657191902602","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}