Cesar HernandezFeb 22, 2026, 03:52 AM ET
LOS ANGELES -- Following LAFC's third goal on Saturday night, which sent most of the 75,600+ in attendance into a frenzy at the LA Coliseum, a fan with an Argentina jersey rushed on to the field and immediately sprinted towards Inter Miami superstar Lionel Messi.
The scene is a common one for any event involving the 2022 World Cup winner, but this time the celebratory music blasting out was not for him, as Miami was losing 3-0. Indeed, in Messi's first official game of 2026 with defending MLS Cup champions, the initial pages of the Hollywood script being written for him in another World Cup year didn't exactly go to plan.
Ahead of Saturday's marquee MLS opening-weekend match against Son Heung-min's LAFC, there had been doubts that Messi would participate after he suffered a hamstring injury during Miami's preseason friendly in February.
At 38 years old, it was fair to not only worry about his start to the MLS season, but also wonder if this could point to issues this summer's World Cup. After all, Messi has yet to 100% commit to this summer's tournament with Argentina and has been honest about his fitness being a factor.
"I would like to be there. To feel well and to be an important part of helping my national team, if I am there," Messi said, back in October. "I am going to assess that on a day-to-day basis when I start preseason next year with Inter [Miami] and see if I can really be 100%. I'm really eager because it's the World Cup."
But, although Miami head coach Javier Mascherano confirmed on Friday that the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner was "training at the same level as the rest of the team all week," Miami's No. 10 looked off his game against LAFC.
During the first 10 minutes, Messi's touch looked unexpectedly imprecise, as did the timing of his passes. His distribution did eventually improve and he was fairly unlucky to not have an assist, but the same could not be said for his shooting as he wasg unable to hit the target once.
Messi wasn't alone either. Whether it was down to adjusting to having new striker Germán Berterame up top, or its captain having a less-than-perfect game, Miami wasn't able to gain much momentum until after LAFC took a 1-0 lead through a goal from David Martínez that was assisted by Son.
The 33-year-old South Korea international has his own aspirations ahead of the World Cup after leaving Tottenham Hotspur last year, and what was eye-catching for a match featuring Messi was just how many LAFC supporters --- with plenty sporting jerseys with Son's name --- heavily outnumbered those donning the pink kit of arguably the greatest soccer player of all time.
Messi didn't receive overwhelming cheers when he had the ball at his feet. In fact, at one point when hit the ground late in the game and didn't earn a foul, a chorus of boos emerged from countless supporters in the LA Coliseum.
"No, no, no I didn't see anything," Mascherano said postmatch on whether his captain seemed angry about the refereeing decisions, or the result in general. "The truth is that the match finished and then I went into the locker room."
Following goals from Denis Bouanga and Nathan Ordaz that solidified a 3-0 loss for Miami, Messi quickly exchanged jerseys with Bouanga after the final whistle, and then swiftly exited the field first.
So, after one loss, is it too early to panic about Messi's Miami?
"The reality is that they beat us fair and square, that's the truth," Mascherano said afterwards. "I think it's often difficult to explain when you lose 3-0, but my initial analysis gives me the feeling that the result was somewhat misleading. The game, as it unfolded, there wasn't that much of a difference.
"As coaching staff, we have to analyze the game, not just the result, because if we only focus on the result, we're only making decisions based on whether we win or lose. I think that in the game, we saw aspects of the style of play we want, which we need to improve."
Messi will need to improve but, to be fair to him, we shouldn't take this inch and run a mile after his first game of the year. Mascherano recently stated that the 38-year-old was healthy enough to return to full-team training, but the forward was only recently recovering from a hamstring injury, so it's no major shock that he was off the pace a bit.
Doubting Messi is a fool's errand, and he didn't have an entirely poor showing on Saturday. Indeed, he made a handful of dangerous passes that should have led to at least one goal for Miami, and also did well to carry the ball forward occasionally.
It was a decent game, but decent isn't what you expect from Messi, especially during a World Cup year. It's too premature to make any long-term judgments, but if the script doesn't change in the next month or so then questions will start to be asked.
"He will decide, and we will support whatever he decides," Argentina boss Lionel Scaloni said in December about whether Messi will be at the World Cup or not. "In principle, everything is going well, but six months is a long time. There is still time."
With four months to go, the clock is ticking.
