MLS REVIEW 29 Aug 2026: Messi's hat-trick in a seven-goal night, and a debutant scores twice in Seattle

Inter Miami beat CF Montreal 7-1, and the scoreline is the club's largest winning margin in its history. Casemiro headed the first on 20 minutes, his first goal for the club; Herbers levelled for Montreal on 37 and Miami were 2-1 up three minutes later. From there it was Messi's evening: he scored on 52, again on 83 and once more on 90, with Suarez adding the fourth on 80 and Shaw the seventh on 89. Two of the three were direct free kicks. Miami had gone five matches without a win and were led on the night by an assistant, Perez, with the head coach suspended and his replacement not yet cleared to work.

Seattle Sounders 2-2 Chicago Fire was the story of a debut. Joveljic, signed from Sporting Kansas City four days earlier for a reported six million dollars, scored on 12 minutes and again on 48 — the fastest brace on debut in the club's history, and the first by a Sounders striker since Fredy Montero in 2009. Seattle led twice and held neither. Haile-Selassie equalised on 38 and Lewandowski headed the second on 82, his fifth goal since joining Chicago. "It seems like we lost control of the game because of the way the 10-minute period was before giving up those goals," said Brian Schmetzer. Joveljic: "I'm happy because I scored in my first game two goals, but I'm not fully happy because we didn't take all three points."

Philadelphia Union won 3-1 at Red Bull New York with a teenager and a centre-back among the scorers. Iloski put them ahead on 21, Cavan Sullivan — sixteen years old, and expected at Manchester City when he turns eighteen — made it two on 50, and Pierre added the third on 65. Choupo-Moting pulled one back on 74. New York had the majority of the ball and Philadelphia had the shots, which is the whole account of the evening.

Charlotte won 2-0 at Atlanta United and did it on the counter. Toklomati scored on 22 and Abada on 48, both created by Saint-Maximin, whose first two assists in the league came in the same match. Atlanta held nearly three-fifths of the possession and lost it in the wrong places; their goalkeeper, Hoyos, had already kept the margin to one before the interval. It ended a three-match winning run, Atlanta's first since 2021, and it is the fourth time in a row Charlotte have won in Atlanta.

Toronto FC and New York City FC drew 1-1 at BMO Field. Mercau put the visitors ahead on 29 and Salloi levelled on 70 — fifteen minutes after coming off the bench, having been dropped for the first time in a run of twenty starts in twenty-one matches, and finishing a cross from the man picked ahead of him. Zimmerman, back from a one-match suspension, had headed at Freese on 59; the goalkeeper made five saves in all. The draw extends Toronto's unbeaten run to five.

D.C. United 0-0 LAFC was the one match that produced nothing, and nearly did not. Lloris kept the clean sheet with four saves and the best of the chances came at the very end — Peglow at 90+4, Boyd at 90+6, Hollingshead at 90+7, none of them taken. Ordaz played against the club he left earlier in the year. Six matches, sixteen goals, and thirteen of them in two of them.