Rodolfo Aloko scored a 90th-minute equalizer after Liel Abada’s second-half brace as visiting Charlotte FC rallied to a 3-3 draw against Lionel Messi and Inter Miami on Saturday in both teams’ regular-season finale.
Abada’s ninth and 10th goals of the season were also his fourth and fifth in his last two matches for Charlotte (15-10-9, 54 points), which narrowly missed an improbable victory that would’ve lifted The Crown above Chicago into fourth in the final Eastern Conference table.
Instead, Chicago will have home-field advantage against Charlotte for their best-of-three opening-round MLS Cup Playoff series later this month.
Luis Suarez scored his 17th goal while Rodrigo De Paul and Ian Fray also scored before halftime for Miami (16-6-12, 60 points), which will face No. 7 seed Columbus in its opening round series. Miami will have home-field advantage until the East final, but it finished the regular season only 6-2-9 in home league matches.
After halftime, Abada needed only 10 minutes to cut the deficit to 3-2.
In the 50th minute, Ashley Westwood’s long diagonal ball found Tyger Smalls at the back post. Smalls volleyed it back across the 6-yard box where Abada arrived to half-volley it into the net.
In the 55th minute, Abada played a slick give-and-go with Pep Biel to reach the right side of the penalty area. On his first touch, he fired the return pass into the bottom left corner.
Aloko’s leveler came from an attack down the left. David Schnegg served in an early outswinging cross that center back Micael only partially cleared.
Smalls reached the loose ball and struck the left post with his effort before Aloko coolly converted the rebound chance to secure a share of the points.
Miami’s first two goals came from poorly defended corner kicks.
In the 14th minute, Luca de la Torre struggled to deal with Messi’s outswinging service. It deflected off the Charlotte player and back into the 6-yard box, where it fell perfectly for Fray to volley past Kristijan Kahlina from close range.
In the 33rd minute, German Berterame reached Messi’s inswinging service at the near post and flicked the header across goal, where Suarez reached it for a simple tap-in at the far post.
Kahlina finished with one save while Miami goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair posted two saves.
–Field Level Media
