Lionel Messi held scoreless at Coliseum in loss to…
On Saturday evening, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was buzzing with anticipation. An MLS Opening Day-record 75,673 believers who all got here to witness greatness. For just the third time in three years, the City of Angels gathered to watch the best participant of his technology, Lionel Messi, step onto the venue’s sacred grass.
They got here for magic.
They left with disappointment.
Because once again, Messi was held scoreless in Los Angeles.
It wasn’t supposed to go like this.
Los Angeles gathered to watch the G.O.A.T., Lionel Messi, step onto the Coliseum’s sacred grass. Getty Images
When Inter Miami rolled into city as the reigning MLS Cup Champions, there was an electrical energy in the air that crackled like summer season lightning. You may see it in the pink jerseys sprinkled across the Coliseum seats, in the Argentine flags that hung with satisfaction, in the youngsters perched atop their father’s shoulders, ready to inform all their associates they noticed the G.O.A.T. with their own eyes.
But soccer is merciless when chemistry is absent.
And chemistry, more than ever, is what Messi is lacking the most.
In earlier visits to Los Angeles, the storyline was always “Messi and friends.” The associates mattered. They had been more than nostalgic footnotes from FC Barcelona glory days. They had been the invisible threads stitching together his brilliance.
Jordi Alba working down the left flag like a trusted shadow that may end in the ultimate third.
Sergio Busquets, the maestro, orchestrating tempo with the calm of a chess grandmaster.
Luis Suárez, the Uruguayan, who can read Messi’s eyes like a traditional novel.
L–R: Lionel Messi, Antonela Roccuzzo, Romarey Ventura, Jordi Alba, Luis Suárez, Sofia Balbi, Elena Galera and Sergio Busquets of Inter Miami CF rejoice with the trophy after successful the Audi 2025 MLS Cup Final match. Getty Images
That quartet didn’t just play together. They breathed together. They moved as if sharing a single nervous system.
On Saturday evening, two of those pillars had been gone. Alba and Busquets have retired. Suárez, now a tremendous sub, didn’t seem until the ultimate 10 minutes. What remained was Messi — still good, still harmful — but remoted, pressured to manufacture moments himself moderately than glide into them.
And LAFC knew it.
Every time Messi touched the ball, three black shirts swarmed him. It was organized suffocation. The defensive form was aggressive and relentless. They understood that you don’t stop Messi with one defender. You erase his passing lanes. You close his angles. You deny him any kind of rhythm.
The first half ended with Messi visibly pissed off, gesturing sharply toward teammates who misinterpret his runs or delivered passes a half-second too late. That half-second is every part. That’s the distinction between a curling shot into the higher nook and a blocked attempt swallowed by a heart back.
“Many of the players on this team are new and playing together for the first time,” said Inter Miami head coach Javier Mascherano in Spanish after the sport. “The chemistry and team construction is an ongoing process. Despite the loss, I saw a lot of positive things.”
Miami’s Messi strikes the ball against Los Angeles FC midfielder Mathieu Choinière at the Coliseum in LA. IMAGN IMAGES via GWN Connect
One of those optimistic issues was Tadeo Allende, who entered the sport in the second half and injected power and urgency. Miami discovered pockets. There had been flashes of Messi’s brilliance. A darting run right here. A shot that just missed curling inside the web. A free kick that just barely missed its mark. The crowd rose instinctively every time Messi formed his physique to shoot, as if collectively inhaling before a fireworks show.
But the fireworks never got here.
And that’s the largest takeaway from Inter Miami’s Opening Day match as reigning champions. Messi is still the G.O.A.T., but the infrastructure around him might have mattered more than we ever needed to admit.
We underestimated Alba’s timing. We undervalued Busquets’ spatial intelligence. We assumed that changing them with gifted gamers from the same nation, or upgrading the goalkeeper, or even shifting the spectacle to a grander venue just like the Coliseum, would protect the alchemy.
It doesn’t work that method. Soccer isn’t a video recreation where scores switch seamlessly.
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Inside the Coliseum, that disconnect was palpable. The stadium itself appeared to lean ahead each time Messi drifted into space, as if historical past was keen him toward one of those moments that bend time — the sort that make strangers hug and silence critics in a single swing of his left foot.
Instead, LAFC bent the evening in their favor.
And yet, even in frustration, Messi stays mesmerizing.
Los Angeles participant Son Heung-Min with Messi during the MLS match in LA on Feb. 21. Getty Images
A flip at midfield that leaves two defenders greedy air. A disguised through-ball that splits a line of defense by millimeters. The Coliseum roared throughout the match, not because he scored, but because he exists — because even contained, he alters the temperature of a match.
That’s the paradox of watching Messi in 2026. The awe is still there. The inevitability just isn’t.
Los Angeles hasn’t seen true Messi magic yet. But perhaps that second is coming. Maybe a World Cup break on home soil will help chemistry bloom by autumn, and perhaps the next time LAFC sees Inter Miami it will likely be under the brilliant lights of an MLS Cup Final that is perhaps preordained.
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