Match Report: Inter Miami beat the points record in absolute style

On Saturday evening, Inter Miami took to the field for the final time in the 2024 regular season, as they hosted New England Revolution.

There was plenty of narrative to this game, with Inter Miami needing three points to secure the record for most points in an MLS regular season. They had 71 points going into the game, with 73 being the record, held by… New England Revolution.

For the task of doing exactly that, Martino opted for a line up of; Callender; Weigandt, Aviles, Martinez, Alba; Bright, Busquets, Cremaschi; Gressel, Suarez, Taylor. Messi was among the subs, with load management in place, having played 90 mins for Argentina on Tuesday night.

Despite the game being a dead rubber for the Revolution, there was still plenty of incentive to keep their record. They showed that in the first two minutes, taking the lead through Luca Langoni to shock Inter Miami.

After 34 minutes, their lead was doubled, after Dylan Borrero made it 2-0, and Inter Miami were up against it if they wanted to break that record.

However, just six minutes later, a Martinez cutback found Suarez in the box, who feigned to shoot with his right foot before opening up on his left foot to fire into the bottom corner from close range, and Inter Miami were back in the game.

Then, only three minutes after that – it was two for Suarez, and two for Inter Miami. Picking the ball up around 25 yards out, the Uruguayan striker feigned to cut inside on his left, before pulling the ball back to his right and fizzing the ball into the bottom corner. Pretty much the opposite to his first goal. The teams would go into the break at 2-2.

After a laboured start to the second half, Martino introduced Messi and Gomez for Gressel and Taylor after 57 minutes. Within a minute, Inter Miami had the lead. An absolutely sumptuous ball over the top from Messi to Alba played the left-back in behind, and he had to composure to square for Cremaschi who could not miss from a couple of yards out.

After 72 minutes, Bobby Wood thought he had the ball in the back of the net, but was adjudged to have been offside. With the game becoming tense, Inter Miami were looking for that fourth goal to put a bit of daylight between them and the Revolution.

With twelve minutes left, they would get just that. Messi picked up a slightly loose pass from Suarez, body feinting past his immediate marker. After that, he drove towards goal before unleashing a powerful strike from just over 20 yards into the bottom corner to give Inter Miami a two goal advantage.

Only three minutes after that, the GOAT would score again. Alba played another one of his world class passes in behind the defence to Messi, who had the composure to slot past Aljaz Ivacic and make it 5-2 to Inter Miami.

There would be time for the king to score his first club hat-trick since February 2020. Leandro Campana, who had come on with Noah Allen as part of a double sub just before, played a scooped through ball to Suarez, who acrobatically managed to get to the ball, sliding it across for Messi to put the ball into the back of the net, securing his second hat-trick in two games, and making sure Inter Miami would break the record in style.

There was plenty of adversity early on, but when you have the greatest player of all time, as well as the best striker and best left-back of their generation, you will always have a chance no matter what. An incredible night, an incredible team.