The dramatic turn around for Inter Miami with Lionel Messi continues as the club won the first Leagues Cup championship on Saturday.
Messi scored Miami's only goal in the 23rd minute. The ball landed at Messi’s feet after a pass from teammate Robert Taylor was blocked. Messi dribbled past Nashville defender Walker Zimmerman and unleashed a bending shot from just outside the penalty box into the top left corner of the goal. Diving goalkeeper Elliot Panicco had no chance at playing the ball.
The goal was also Messi's 10th in seven games with the club.
After Nashville's Fafà Picault scored the game-tying goal in the 57th minute, the first Leagues Cup final ended in a nail-biter.
Messi had a shot from the area he had scored from earlier in the 71st minute, but hit the post as the teams played to a 1-1 draw in regulation.
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Then, Miami's Leonardo Campana narrowly missed a game-winning goal in the final seconds, sending the match into penalty kicks.
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Messi led the way, scoring in the first round. But the two clubs would be tied 4-4 after the mandatory five rounds of penalty kicks, causing rounds of sudden death.
Miami would finally be crowned champions after goalkeeper Drake Callender kicked one in over the head of his opposing goalkeeper, Elliot Panicco.
Callender would then block Panicco's own goal attempt, delivering the championship to Miami.
"I just had to stay focused, breathe through it. Stay as calm as possible, I mean this atmosphere here tonight is electric, so I just embraced the moment and, you know, I just believed in the work that I put in and the repetitions I put in leading up to that moment, and it just set it up going our way," Callender said after the game.
Now, Messi, Callender and the rest of Inter Miami turn their focus to the MLS regular season, where the club sits in last place in the Eastern Conference. But, of course, that was all before Messi joined the squad.
It is now impossible to call Inter Miami anything other than MLS title contenders.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
