Lionel Messi’s fifth MLS goal of the season wasn’t enough to prevent his Inter Miami side from being routed 4-1 by Minnesota United in St. Paul on Saturday.
Bongokuhle Hlongwane, Anthony Markanich and Robin Lod each scored goals to hand Inter Miami (6-2-3, 21 points) its most lopsided loss in league play this season..
Minnesota (6-2-4, 22 points), which beat Austin 3-0 last time out to snap a three-game winless skid, has won back-to-back games.
Miami played without forward Luis Suárez, who did not make the trip due to personal reasons, and without left winger Fafà Picault due to illness.
Hlongwane scored his first goal of the season to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead in the 32nd minute. Hlongwane, who scored a career-high 11 goal last season, slipped behind the defense and perfectly timed his run onto a ball played ahead by Carlos Harvey for a one-touch finish inside the back post from the right corner of the 6-yard box.
Markanich made it 2-0 when he scored in first-half stoppage time, his second goal in as many games and the third of his four-year MLS career.
Michael Boxall took a long throw-in to the near post, where Nicolás Romero flicked a header backward to Markanich, who put away a header from point-blank range. It was the first career assist for Romero, a 21-year-old in his first MLS season.
Messi scored in the 48th minute, when he took a cross from Jordi Alba and rolled a shot from the left-center of the area past the outstretched arm of diving goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair inside the back post.
An own goal by Miami’s Marcelo Weigandt made it 3-1 in the 68th and Lod ran onto a pass from Tani Oluwaseyi and put away a one-touch finish — his first goal of the season — to cap the scoring in the 70th minute.
Miami beat the New York Red Bulls 4-1 last time out to rebound from its first loss of the season, 4-3 defeat to Dallas at home on April 27.
Miami beat Minnesota 2-1 at home in June of 2022 in the only other meeting between the clubs.
Information from Field Level Media and The Associated Press was used in this report.
