A debut, a foul, a penalty
Breel Embolo had been on the pitch for 87 minutes of his first MLS match when a defender caught him inside the box. Fourteen minutes earlier his new teammate Miguel Almiron had missed from the same spot. Embolo took the ball anyway, placed it, and rolled a shot inside the right post past Dayne St. Clair.
Atlanta United drew 2-2 at Inter Miami overnight, and the Swiss forward turned a night that had been drifting away into a point on the road against the best team in the Eastern Conference.
He nearly took all three. In stoppage time Embolo got another sight of goal and put it over the bar. Atlanta will settle for what they got.
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Messi assisted, then ran out of angles
Lionel Messi provided the opening goal without scoring one. His outswinging corner in the 32nd minute found Casemiro, whose header climbed above Lucas Hoyos and dropped into the far corner. Three minutes later Atlanta broke through Cooper Sanchez and Alexey Miranchuk, and Tomas Jacob’s cross ricocheted off a defender and off St. Clair before Almiron tapped in.
Telasco Segovia then slid a pass through for Luis Suarez, who beat a sliding challenge and finished low for his 12th of the season and a 2-1 lead at the break.
Almiron won a penalty in the 73rd and struck it low to his right. St. Clair went the same way and pushed it clear. Messi had two attempts in the seventh minute of second-half stoppage time, one saved and one turned behind by Junior Alonso. It came one game after his first four-goal haul in MLS, so the silence at the final whistle said plenty about the standard he has set.
Two clubs going in opposite directions
Miami sit on 43 points from 23 matches at 12-4-7 and dropped two here. Atlanta move to 22 from 23 at 6-13-4, a season already beyond repair, though the form line reads 3-1-1 across their last five.
Kickoff was pushed back from 7:30 pm to 9:05 pm local time after heavy rain. Embolo, signed from Rennes in late August, made the wait worth it for the away end.
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