Lionel Messi had a goal and an assist as Inter Miami CF beat Seattle Sounders 3-1 on Tuesday night just over two weeks after losing to the Sounders in the Leagues Cup final.
The Sounders beat Inter Miami 3-0 in the Leagues Cup on Aug. 31, but Messi assisted a wide open Jordi Alba with an outside-of-the-foot pass in the 12th minute to give the Herons early command.
Messi nearly doubled the score in the 28th minute when he received a ball over the top and once again tried to execute using the outside of his left foot, but the shot hit off the post.
Alba returned the favor in the 41st minute, assisting a darting Messi who got just enough of a touch to make it 2-0. Ian Fray headed home Rodrigo De Paul's corner in the opening minutes of the second half to extended the Herons' lead to 3-0.
"I'm always looking for him (Messi), he's always looking for me. We've created a lot of goals and we hope it's like that until the end of our careers," Alba said.
Obed Vargas found the back of the net for Seattle's goal in the 69th minute, as the Mexican international scored on his country's independence day.
Miami coach Javier Mascherano said the win helped take the sting out the Leagues Cup loss.
"It's clearly an important and necessary victory, because the other day we came from losing a match that, in my opinion, we didn't deserve such a heavy result, and we'd done some good things, especially in the first half," Mascherano said after the game. "Well, it was important, beyond giving it our all after that defeat, to try to get back into a good mood, to find a winning streak, against a great rival who took away our chance of winning a competition a couple of weeks ago."
He also said he tried to reframe the two-match slide.
"Well, the streak. I understand that we've lost two games in a row, and sometimes it feels like a disaster, and you see all the bad things, and it seems like everything needs to be changed," he said. "I understand that. I think on the one hand it's good because it raises expectations for us and because it encourages us to be competitive, to always be on our guard, to never relax. But, well, we can't go crazy either.
"Today we won one, we have seven more to go, as I said before. We have seven finals left; our goal is to win all seven to finish first in our conference. That's the goal, and well, we'll take it game by game knowing that it's three points more and one game less."
Inter Miami was again without Luis Suárez who served the second game of his three-match MLS ban for spitting on a member of the Sounders' coaching staff in the Leagues Cup Final.
Mascherano said that he has been doing a lot of juggling to determine when to play which players.
"Nowadays, with the players we have out, putting on playoff mode, if you're talking about a way to refresh players, we don't have that," he said. "Today we had 17 players, including a goalkeeper. Whereas today, if I want to put [Daniel] Pinter on, I can't use him in the next game, since a second-team player can only play two games.
"Even strategically, we have to think about that. It's what we have to do; we've hit a streak between suspensions and injuries. We have five or six players out. Important games, and well, we'll see how they recover. As of today, we'll make do with what we have and welcome whoever recovers.
"During the FIFA window we'll probably lose five or six players. So, I don't think we're in a position to consider that, but obviously it's worrying. We are concerned and well, we will try to handle it in the best possible way."
Messi had a chance to complete a brace in the 76th minute, but was denied by Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei. New Inter Miami signing Mateo Silvetti made his debut after arriving from Messi's boyhood club, Newell's Old Boys in Argentina.
MLS action continues for both teams when Inter Miami hosts D.C. United on Saturday, while the Sounders travel to face Austin FC on Sunday.
Information from Lizzy Becherano and The Associated Press was used in this report.