Inter Miami saw the Columbus Crew 1-0 in MLS on Saturday thanks to a spectacular header from Benjamin Cremaschi.
Fans flowed to Huntington Bank Field – the home base of the Cleveland Browns – to witness Lionel Messi and his former colleague Barcelona stars Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba in action for Miami.
But it was a less light in Cremaschi that was decided, because he converted with a brilliant diving head by Marcelo Weigandt's right -wing cross in the 30th minute.
Messi saw a target -related attempt blocking and then curled wide, but despite leading Miami for shots, with four, the superstar Argentinian cut a relatively frustrated figure.
Instead, Columbus largely dominated, but did not succeed in storing their chances when their undefeated start of the season ended.
Daniel Gazdag, who started his first competition since he joined the crew of the Philadelphia Union, was very wasting.
He was left with the first clear opening of the competition, although his big misses arrived.
After he had gone up close, Gazdag did not succeed in going home twice from the six-year box in stopping time.
Miami also had goalkeeper Oscar Ustari to thank, because he made four saves to keep their clean slate and extend their undefeated run to eight MLS matches.
The herons are now unbeaten in 19 games in the regular season that extend to the last term, equal to the longest such unbeaten run in the history of MLS, previously set by FC Dallas in 2010-11 and Columbus in 2004-05.
Take all 3 points pic.twitter.com/hvrq9imzndd
– Inter Miami CF (@intermiamicf) April 19, 2025
Miami moved above the crew first in the Eastern Conference, but reigned MLS Cup champions De La Galaxy continues to struggle.
The Galaxy lost 1-0 to Austin FC and is planted on the bottom of the West after Brandon Vazquez had made up for a penalty miss by scoring in the 81st minute.
Data debrief: Gazdag's big day falls flat
Gazdag was only taken over by the crew earlier this month, after he had already scored twice in six MLS for Philadelphia this season.
But his full debut did not go according to plan, because he was unable to get one of his four attempts on goal. Gazdag was even good for 1.19 out of 3.14 expected goals of the crew.
It was then something of a smash and handle to Miami, who had only seven shots and opportunities were built up 0.86 xg, although the team of Javier Mascherano was more clinical and got two shots on goal, while Columbus only hit the target with three of their 16 attempts.
Miami is now unbeaten in six consecutive regular seasonal meetings with the crew.