When Inter Miami CF needed its star most, he turned up. Lionel Messi scored a spectacular free kick and assisted on Miami’s final goal to salvage a 3-3 draw with the Philadelphia Union on Saturday night.
Tai Baribo scored twice to add to his MLS league-leading tally, but a late Telasco Segovia goal — with an assist from Messi — gave Miami a much-needed point after losing five or its last seven games.
Inter Miami (6-3-5, 23 points) scored twice in a span of seven minutes to erase a 3-1 deficit and avoid what looked like certain defeat, while Philadelphia (9-3-3, 30 points) had a three-game winning streak snapped. The Union still have not lost a game in their last nine matches.
With Inter Miami putting pressure on goal, Segovia controlled the ball just outside the box and fired it through traffic and past Philadelphia goalkeeper Andrew Rick in the fifth minute of second-half stoppage time.
The comeback began with Messi delivering one of his signature free kick strikes, which got past Rick in the 87th minute.
The late-match flurry cost Philadelphia what had been a mostly brilliant performance to that point, which it hoped would pad its lead in the Supporters’ Shield standings.
Baribo scored his 12th and 13th goals and his first came in the 44th minute. Indiana Vassilev headed a ball into the box, which bounced toward the front of the goal. Mikael Uhre touched it away from a Miami defender and to Baribo, who delivered a quick shot past Inter Miami keeper Oscar Ustari to put the Union ahead 2-0.
Quinn Sullivan delivered Philadelphia’s first goal in the seventh minute of the match set up by a corner kick feed from Kai Wagner.
Inter Miami scored its first goal in the 60th minute when Tadeo Allende delivered a precise header off a well-placed cross by Noah Allen. But Baribo countered at the other end two minutes later when he controlled a ball in front of goal and fired it into the bottom left corner for his second goal to push Philadelphia’s lead to 3-1.
Inter Miami’s Yannick Bright exited the game in the 39th minute and was seen favoring his right hamstring.
Last year’s Supporters’ Shield winners host Montreal on Wednesday night in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
