Messi, Miami held by New York City in MLS opener

Lionel Messi and Inter Miami stumbled out of the blocks with a 2-2 home draw against New York City FC in the opening round of the new Major League Soccer season on Saturday.

Miami, who broke the regular season points record last year before crashing out in the first round of the playoffs, played the bulk of the match with 10 men after Argentine defender Tomas Aviles was sent off.

Messi provided the assists for both Miami’s goals including the leveler which came in the 10th minute of stoppage time.

With new head coach Javier Mascherano in charge for the first time in MLS, having replaced fellow Argentine Gerardo Martino, Miami featured several new faces but looked disjointed for most of the encounter

The night began perfectly for Miami who took the lead in the fifth minute, Messi slipping a pass to Aviles who slotted home.

But then things started to go wrong for the MLS Cup favourites.

One of the off-season arrivals, forward Fafa Picault, had to go off in the 10th minute after going down with what appeared to be a muscle injury.

Then, 13 minutes later, the momentum of the game shifted significantly towards New York when Aviles brought down Alonso Martinez on the edge of the box to earn a straight red card.

From the free-kick Maxi Moralez took advantage of the disorganisation in the Miami defence — feeding the unmarked Slovenian Mitja Ilenic who fired into the bottom corner.

– Makeshift defence –

Miami with a makeshift, inexperienced central defensive pairing of Noah Allen and Ian Fray, struggled to get a grip on the game although substitute Robert Taylor forced City keeper Matt Freese into a fine save at the end of the half.

New York could sense there was the chance for an upset but they could barely believe their luck when they