Lionel Messi scored his second career MLS hat trick, propelling Inter Miami to a 5-2 win over Nashville SC on Saturday night.
Messi leads the MLS in scoring with 29 goals this season. The last time he scored a hat trick was last Oct. 19 in Inter Miami's 6-2 win over the New England Revolution.
“It's so obvious that he (Messi) gives us an advantage every night," Inter Miami defender Ian Fray said. “There aren’t enough words to say about him.”
He opened the scoring in the 35th minute, netting his 27th goal of the season off a shot outside the center of the box for a 1-0 Inter Miami lead. Nashville SC responded with a header from Sam Surridge in the 43rd minute to tie the game 1-1.
After outshooting Inter Miami 11-4 in the first half, Nashville SC’s effort paid off in the sixth minute of first-half stoppage time when Jacob Shaffelburg scored off Hany Mukhtar's rebound off the left post for a 2-1 lead.
Miami was awarded a penalty following a hand ball on Andy Nájar in the 62nd minute. Messi scored his second of the game for a 2-2 tie. Four minutes later, Baltasar Rodríguez gave Inter Miami a 3-2 lead with a shot from the center of the box.
“Towards the end of the game, our quality took over and we won the game,” The Associated Press quoted Fray as saying. "We have some of the greatest players to ever play the game here. Whoever we’re going to play, we have the same mindset.”
Messi scored his third of the night on a left-footed shot from the center of the box in the 81st minute to extend the lead to 4-2. Telasco Segovia added a fifth Inter Miami goal a minute into stoppage to cement the win.
“We didn’t do a good enough job (defending Messi), especially in the final 24, 25 yards. I think he was able to find spaces in the combinations,” Nashville coach B.J. Callaghan said. “If you give him chances on the top of the box, he's going to take them.”
The hat trick by Messi gave him the Golden Boot as the league's top goal scorer and makes him a leader for Most Valuable Player. He is five goals ahead of the league's second-leading scorers, Surridge and Los Angeles FC's Denis Bouanga.
Inter Miami finishes the regular season with a 19-7-8 record and as the third seed in the Eastern Conference faces Nashville in the first round of the MLS Playoffs, which is the sixth seed with a 16-12-6 record.
“That was a playoff game and we've earned our way into the playoffs,” Callaghan said. “We look forward to playing Miami again. Overall, on the game, it was a tale of two halves, and there are going to be some learning lessons we take from the second half.”
