Without Messi, Inter Miami Prove They Don't Need Him to Beat Chicago 3-2
The question with Inter Miami used to be simple: can you stop Lionel Messi. Wednesday night answered a different one entirely. Messi wasn't even on the bench, resting after Argentina's run to the World Cup final alongside Rodrigo De Paul, and Miami still beat Chicago Fire 3-2 at Nu Stadium to extend their winning streak to five.
The game had a strange opening. An own goal put Chicago ahead inside 20 minutes, before Luis Suárez leveled from the penalty spot in the 27th and put Miami in front early in the second half off a give-and-go with Germán Berterame, according to ESPN's match analysis. Chicago, making Robert Lewandowski's Fire debut a genuine occasion, tied it again through substitute Puso Dithejane's first MLS goal in the 67th minute. It took a stoppage-time strike from Preston Plambeck, his first career MLS goal, to finally settle it in Miami's favor.
The balance that matters more than the star
This is the part of the Miami story that gets buried under the Messi headlines. Suárez scored twice. Berterame set up the go-ahead goal. Plambeck, a fringe player, delivered the winner. Miami manager Guillermo Hoyos was blunt about the absences afterward: "I believe, and I've said this several times, that rest is vital," he said, adding there's no fixed timeline for Messi and De Paul's return, per ESPN.
Chicago will take real encouragement from this despite the loss. Lewandowski played 63 minutes on debut, and a Fire side missing their new signing's first goal by inches pushed a five-in-a-row Miami team to the final minute, according to the Chicago Fire FC match recap. But the bigger takeaway belongs to Miami. A team that wins comfortably without its two best players isn't riding one man anymore. It's just a good team that happens to also have Messi.
