Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez Braces Thrill MLS Fans as Inter Miami Crush Orlando City

Florida belongs to Inter Miami.

Led by Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez braces, Inter Miami annihilated Orlando City, 5-0 on Saturday.

It was quite a night for Suárez, who opened his MLS account and added two assists on the evening, while Messi was up to his usual tricks:

When the club brought Messi’s former Barcelona teammate to South Beach, this was the type of performance it was surely envisioning, and the duo didn’t disappoint.

That had MLS fans and pundits alike more than a little impressed on social media:

The duo will face far tougher competition in league play this year, certainly, but one of the fears regarding Suárez was that the 37-year-old may have understandably lost a step or two.

That’s likely the case, but it sure didn’t matter on Saturday, and even if he doesn’t have the legs of yesteryear, he’s still a dangerous finisher. Blowout wins also allow Inter Miami to cut his evening short, as they did after 67 minutes.

Messi, meanwhile, went the full 90. Not too shabby for the 36-year-old.

In all, this was a dismantling of epic proportions. Inter Miami actually conceded the majority of possession, holding 47.4 percent, but was devastating on the counter-attack. That led to an 11-9 advantage on shots (6-3 advantage on shots and goals), though Orlando City did scrounge together five corners to just one for Miami.

None of that particularly mattered, because the moment Suárez and Messi found any pocket of space—and Orlando City provided plenty of them—they pounced. Make it two wins, a draw and seven points for Inter Miami out of three games, while Orlando City remains without a point after two contests.