Lionel Messi and Inter Miami get 2-2 tie with Red Bulls, after 17-year-old Mehmeti scores late

MIAMI — Seventeen years after Lionel Messi scored twice for Barcelona on the day Adri Mehmeti was born, the two teenagers—now separated by a generation—collided on an MLS stage and produced a dramatic 2-2 draw Saturday night at Inter Miami’s new stadium.

Messi, 37, did not find the net himself but twice altered the match’s momentum. In the 55th minute he drew four New York Red Bulls defenders before the ball squirted loose to Germán Berterame, whose one-time strike gave the hosts their first lead in their new building. It ended a 150-minute scoring drought for Miami on home soil and sent the sold-out crowd into delirium, the Argentine immediately wrapping Berterame in a headlock beside the signage boards.

The advantage lasted only 22 minutes. In the 77th minute, 17-year-old Red Bulls academy product Adri Mehmeti—born two days after Messi’s famous Champions League double against Bayern in 2009—slammed home his first MLS goal. Fellow teenager Julian Hall, 18, created the chance, driving to the end-line and cutting the ball back for Mehmeti’s confident finish that preserved a point for New York.

Earlier, Jorge Ruvalcaba had capitalized on an uncertain Miami clearance to open scoring in the 18th minute, while Mateo Silvetti’s close-range finish in first-half stoppage time pulled the hosts level at 1-1.

Both sides thought they had gone ahead again, only for offside flags—and a video review in New York’s case—to erase second-half goals. Messi came within inches of a stoppage-time winner when his 25-yard free kick in the 94th minute forced Ethan Horvath into a full-stretch parry.

The result extends Inter Miami’s unbeaten streak to six league matches (3-1-3), while the Red Bulls (3-2-2) have just one victory in their last five outings yet escaped South Florida with a morale-boosting point after surrendering an early lead.