MIAMI (AP) — Lionel Messi and Inter Miami are still waiting for their first win in their new home.
Germán Berterame scored off a rebound in the 76th minute and Inter Miami finished in a 1-1 tie with the New England Revolution on Saturday night, keeping the defending MLS Cup champions winless in three matches at their new Miami stadium.
The Herons are 0-0-3 in the new building — compared with 5-1-1 in MLS road matches this season. Inter Miami is now
unbeaten (5-0-4) in its last nine MLS matches following a season-opening loss at LAFC, and unbeaten in its last 11 matches (5-0-6) across all competitions.
Former MLS MVP Carles Gil scored in the 56th minute for New England, which had lost each of its last four meetings with Inter Miami.
Gil's goal started when Will Sands’ long throw-in into the box was settled by Dor Turgeman — who basically just left the ball where the charging Gil could get it. Gil chipped the ball past Inter Miami goalie Dayne St. Clair, opening the scoring.
That goal came just a couple minutes after Inter Miami thought it had struck first, but Tadeo Allende's right-footed blast was waved off by an offside call.
About 20 minutes later, Inter Miami knotted the match. Luis Suárez spun around and tried a shot from near the goal mouth, the low roller getting saved by New England goalkeeper Matt Turner. The ball deflected off Turner's hand and went right to Berterame, who scored with ease to make it 1-1.
Until then, it looked like the Revolution would get their first win in the series since June 10, 2023 — a couple days after Messi stunned many in the soccer world by saying he was coming to MLS and joining Inter Miami. Messi didn't begin actual play for Inter Miami for several more weeks.
Inter Miami had outscored New England 16-5 in the four matches since that 2023 contest, winning all four handily.
Messi had a few good chances, including in the 38th minute when he — with two defenders at his back — ran down a ball that had been flicked into the box.
Messi seemed to stumble the tiniest bit while pushing the ball to his left foot. He sent a weak shot wide, looking skyward and smiling in disbelief after the play.
He tried swinging a corner kick into the net midway through the first half and had a decent chance again from about 12 yards during first half stoppage time. Both of those shots were easily corralled by Turner, and the teams went to the break tied 0-0.
Inter Miami has five matches left before MLS' seven-week stoppage for the FIFA World Cup begins. None of those five looming opponents — Orlando, Toronto, Cincinnati, Portland and Philadelphia — have a winning record at this point.
Toronto (3-3-4) is at .500 while none of the other four clubs opened play Saturday better than 12th in their conference standings.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
