Union fall in high-scoring affair with Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami

Despite the Union’s best offensive output of the Major League Soccer season, Inter Miami beat the Union, 6-4, Sunday night at Nu Stadium.

The Union (1-10-4, 7 points) scored four goals in the first half, including a hat trick from Milan Iloski.

But Miami (9-2-4, 31 points) scored just as many as the Union in the first half and added two more in the second. Luis Suárez netted the winning goal in the 81st minute, and Rodrigo De Paul scored in the 93rd minute.

Iloski’s first goal came in the fourth minute. Cavan Sullivan played a ball into the 18-yard box that Frankie Westfield nodded on to Iloski, who beat Dayne St. Clair with a crafty shot.

It was Iloski’s fifth goal in league play, and Sullivan was credited with a secondary assist.

Iloski added a second from the penalty spot in the 10th minute. The striker earned the spot kick by pressuring St. Clair, who collided with Iloski while chasing a loose ball inside the penalty area. St. Clair was shown yellow, and Iloski scored his sixth league goal from the spot.

Germán Berterame pulled one back for Miami in the 13th, finishing a chance set up by a Ben Bender gaffe. Lionel Messi pounced on a wayward deflection inside the 18-yard box and sent it across the face of goal to Berterame, who beat Andre Blake to cut the Union’s lead to one.

Bruno Damiani scored his first goal of the season to put the Union up, 3-1, in the 20th minute. Sullivan started the play, which eventually leaked out to Westfield. Westfield launched a shot from outside the 18-yard box that St. Clair parried away, but Damiani pounced on the rebound.

Suárez cut the Union’s lead back to one with a goal in the 29th minute. An unmarked Suárez collected a lofted ball with his chest and launched a right-footed volley from near the top of the six-yard box to push the score line to 3-2 before the half-hour mark.

Messi linked up with Berterame again in the 42nd minute to tie the match at three goals apiece.

Miami took a 4-3 lead in the 44th minute, with Suárez putting away a rebound.

Iloski completed a first-half hat trick in the eighth minute of first-half stoppage time from the penalty spot. Sullivan earned the penalty for the Union, drawing a handball on a cross into the penalty area. Iloski buried the kick, his seventh league goal of the season, to even the match at four.

The two teams combined for eight goals in the first half, making it the highest-scoring first half in league history.

A South Florida deluge of rain slowed the match down somewhat in the second half. Union manager Bradley Carnell brought on Ezekiel Alladoh for Agustín Anello in the 57th minute.

Carnell made a pair of changes in the 67th, bringing on Alejandro Bedoya and Jeremy Rafanello for Sullivan and Geiner Martínez.

Messi asked out of the match after taking a free kick in the 73rd minute. The Argentine legend exited to the locker room, grabbing at the back of his leg as he walked down the tunnel.

Suárez scored the winner for Miami in the 81st, completing his hat trick.

Sunday night’s match was the second match in league history to feature two hat tricks.

De Paul added a sixth goal for Miami in the 93rd, ensuring that the Herons would extend their winning streak to four matches.

The Union and Miami combined for 10 goals, which leaves Sunday night’s match tied for the second-highest scoring match in MLS history. Only six league matches have featured 10 or more combined goals, with the record set at 11.

The MLS schedule will go on a seven-week long break to accommodate the 2026 World Cup, which will run from June 11 to July 19.

The Union will return to Subaru Park to face Red Bull New York on July 22 (7:30 p.m., Apple TV).