Lionel Messi, who came from the bench to the field, scored his second hat-trick of the week.
Finnish national team soccer player Robin Lod opened the scoring taps for Minnesota United as the team finished the MLS regular season with a commanding 4-1 home victory over St. Louis City. Lod scored the opening goal of the match in the 21st minute as an attacker To Kelvin Yeboah input.
In connection with Lodi’s hit, Minnesota beamed on his X account that the Finn should win the MLS Comeback Player of the Year award this season. Lod is a candidate for the award, and the grounds are good: the Finn, who played an intact season, scored seven goals and 15 assists for his team in the regular season. Last season, Lod was sidelined for a long time due to a knee injury and only played ten MLS matches.
Minnesota finished sixth in MLS’s western division, so the team got a place in the opening round of the playoffs, i.e. in the quarterfinals of the division. There, Minnesota’s opponent will be third-ranked Real Salt Lake. The games of the two-part match pair are played between October and November.
Finnish striker Teemu Pukki was on the bench in the game against St. Louis.
Responsibility for Taylor
Lionel Messi’s and of Luis Suarez starred Inter Miami took a 6-2 crushing victory over the New England Revolution in the final round and set the MLS regular season points record at the same time. Suarez completed two goals in the match, and Messi, who entered the field from the bench, scored his second hat-trick of the week. Messi also scored three goals in Argentina’s World Cup qualifier against Bolivia.
Miami rose to 74 Series points and grabbed the points record just from New England. The Revolution reached 73 points in the 2021 season.
Suarez and Messi increased their number of goals in the season to 20. Messi reached 20 goals in 19 matches, Suarez in 27 matches.
Finnish player Robert Taylor was in Miami’s starting line-up to set up Suarez’s opening goal. Taylor was substituted at the start of the second half.
Miami will meet in the quarterfinals Lassi Lappalainen represented by Montreal or Atlanta United, who meet in the wild card round. In the Eastern bloc, Charlotte will also bring Finnish color to the playoffs Jere Uronen. Charlotte, who took the fifth place in the group, will face Orlando City in the playoffs.