Inter Miami CF captain Lionel Messi’s stellar performances against New England Revolution and Nashville SC has last week earned him Major League Soccer (MLS) Player of the Matchday presented by Michelob Ultra honors for Matchdays 23 and 24.
Our Club captain continued a historic hot streak last week, bagging braces to boost Inter Miami to a 1-2 win at New England Revolution on Wednesday night and a 2-1 triumph vs. Nashville SC on Saturday). The pair of two-goal performances marked Messi’s fourth and fifth consecutive league games with braces and the Argentine legend has now netted 11 goals over his last six games, tied with forward Josef Martínez for the most-ever across a six-game stretch in league history. He’s the first player in MLS history with multiple goals in five-straight games.
With his four goals last week, the reigning Landon Donovan MLS MVP has also surged into a tie at the top of the race for the Golden Boot presented by Audi with 16 goals on the season. He has 36 goals and 23 assists in his last 35 MLS matches, averaging more than one goal and 1.68 goal contributions per game.
On Wednesday, Messi opened the scoring in the 27th minute, taking advantage of a defensive mistake from New England and slotting the ball into the back of the net with a left-footed finish from the center of the box.
Messi secured his brace on the night in the 38th to extend Inter Miami’s lead, capitalizing on an inch-perfect line-splitting ball from Busquets with a left-footed grounded shot from the top of the box to the bottom right corner.
Against Nashville, Messi kicked things off with an impressive free kick in the 17th minute. Lining up just beyond the top of the arc, Messi swung a ball through the Nashville defensive wall and bounced it to the left post past the outstretched Nashville goalkeeper to give Miami an early lead.
Messi sealed his fifth brace in consecutive regular season games to restore Inter Miami’s lead in the 62nd minute, intercepting a pass from Nashville’s goalkeeper and scoring with a left-footed finish from the center of the box.
The honor is Messi’s fourth Player of the Matchday award this season and 10th overall. Messi is the sixth player in league history to have won the award at least 10 times and now leads active players in the weekly honor, surpassing Josef Martínez’s nine Player of the Matchday awards.
The MLS Player of the Matchday presented by Michelob Ultra is selected each matchday of the regular season through both media and fan voting in a process conducted by MLS Communications. A panel of journalists from the North American Soccer Reporters (NASR) comprises 75 percent of the vote, while an Instagram fan vote represents the remaining 25 percent of voting. NASR consists of members of print, television, radio, and online media.
