Martin Ojeda scored his second career MLS hat trick, Tyrese Spicer pounced for a winner in second-half stoppage time and visiting Orlando City rallied from three goals down to a historic 4-3 victory over Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami on Saturday night.
Orlando (3-7-1, 10 points) became only the third team in MLS history to win a regular season match after going three goals behind, the first since the LA Galaxy in 2018. The unlikely comeback extended Miami’s wait for a first win in its recently opened Nu Stadium to at least a fifth match, after drawing the first three and losing to its Florida Derby rivals.
Messi had a goal and two assists for Miami (5-2-4, 19 points), which saw its 12-match unbeaten run in all competitions snapped. Telasco Segovia also scored and had two assists, Ian Fray scored the early goal and Luis Suarez also had two assists for the Herons.
But Ojeda outdueled his more famous Argentine countryman, leveling his third goal in the 79th minute from the penalty spot after referee Guido Gonzalez ruled Maximiliano Falcon had pushed down Iago Teodoro during an Orlando corner-kick sequence.
Ojeda hesitated to get Dayne St. Clair to lunge to the right, then finished to the left for a stunning equalizer that came 46 minutes after Messi had given Miami a three-goal lead.
Then in second-half stoppage time, Ojeda was present in a dummy capacity as Braian Ojeda played a throughball from deep in his own half for Spicer.
The halftime substitute finished hard and low through the legs of St. Clair to complete one of the most unlikely victories in MLS history.
Martin Ojeda’s first goal came in the 39th minute. Justin Ellis provided the final pass, but it was mostly Ojeda creating the shot himself, spinning to elude a defender and then unleashing a ferocious left-footed strike that beat Clair to the bottom-left corner.
The second came in the 68th after Adrian Marin’s impressive slaloming run up the left. The result was similar, this time Ojeda hitting the inside of the right post with a perfectly placed shot that left St. Clair rooted to the ground.
Miami harassed Orlando throughout the opening hour and quickly built a three-goal lead.
In the fourth minute, after the Herons failed to put away one dangerous chance, Messi recycled the ball on the left and laid it off for Segovia, whose cross picked out Fray’s head at the 6-yard box.
A Messi give-and-go with Suarez set up a tap-in for Sevogia in the 25th minute. And then Messi found the bottom-left corner from the edge of the penalty area in the 33rd.
–Field Level Media
