A beautiful half volley from Baltasar Rodriguez helped a much changed inter miami-hijrally from a goal behind to pull 1-1 with DC United on Saturday.
Rodriguez was introduced early in the second half alongside Sergio Busquets and Rodrigo de Paul, with Miami having chased after Javier Mascherano chose to rest players prior to their midweek competitions Cup semi -final against Orlando City.
And he marked the opportunity with his first MLS target in the 64th minute, so that a sensational first strike turned in the far corner of the edge of the area.
Miami, who was still without the wounded Lionel Messi, had started slowly and was behind when DC captain Jackson Hopkins shot home in the 13th minute.
Aaron Herrera also sent a header wide, while Hosei Kijima pulled a one-on-one save from Miami's stand-in-goalkeeper Rocco Rios Novo, while the hosts were not out of sight.
And the triple replacement of Mascherano 10 minutes in the second half changed the game, where Rodriguez saw a shot shaving on the base of the post just after the turnout.
His second shot eight minutes later, Luis Barraza did not give a chance, with the Argentinian that cuts the ball with the outside of his right -hand boots to find the right -right corner.
65 '| Que golazoooo the baltasar #dcvmia [1-1] @Mls pic.twitter.com/wbjraxqp7g
– Inter Miami CF (@intermiamicf) 24 August 2025
Jacob Murrell went twice near a winner for DC and hit the outside of the post and then saw a cultivated finish for the outside, while Miami held a point.
Miami is fifth in the rankings of the Eastern Conference, 12 points of the Philadelphia Union in the first place with three games in hand, while DC is now officially out of the Playoff yacht.
Data Debrief: Miami Dig Dep Dep without Messi
Miami had won seven of their last eight games in MLS when Messi appeared (one loss), but he was not available on Saturday after a repeat of a muscle injury.
However, they showed a good character to gather for a draw after they had made five changes to their starting setup.
And their record without Messi remains strong. Since the eight times Ballon d'Or winner made his MLS debut in August 2023, Miami has won 56.4% of the MLS competitions in which he appeared (22/39), and that figure drops only to 54.8% without him (17/31).
Miami does on average only 1.9 goals per match without Messi compared to 2.4 with him, but their point-per-game figure only drops slightly without him, from 2.0 to 1.8.