Messi, Inter Miami win MLS Supporters Shield

Lionel Messi and Inter Miami have another trophy, along with home-field advantage throughout the Major League Soccer playoffs.

Messi scored twice in the final minutes of the first half, goalie Drake Callender stopped a penalty kick in the 84th minute and Inter Miami beat the defending MLS Cup champion Columbus Crew 3-2 on Wednesday, wrapping up the Supporters Shield given annually to the team with the best regular-season record.

It was Messi’s 46th major trophy won for club or country, extending his record for the most by any men’s soccer player in history. And it is the second he has won with Inter Miami, this Supporters Shield being added to the Leagues Cup trophy the Herons claimed shortly after Messi joined the club in 2023.

“We knew this was a group that could fight for this,” Messi said.

Luis Suarez also scored for Inter Miami, which will open a best-of-three first-round playoff series in the final weekend of October. If the team wins that series, it would have the right to host every match it plays the rest of the season — an Eastern Conference semifinal (scheduled for Nov. 23 or 24), the East final (Nov. 30 or Dec. 1) and the MLS Cup final on Dec. 7.

“We have a nice opportunity to go down in history … and now we think about what is coming,” Messi told Apple TV after the match. “We have a great advantage in that we play all the games at home, which was what we were looking for. I think that we are very, very strong at home.”

Also still within reach for Inter Miami: the best MLS regular-season mark ever. Wednesday’s win pushed Inter Miami’s record to 20-4-8 this season, giving it 68 points. If the club wins its final two matches — Saturday at Toronto and Oct. 19 at home against New England — it would finish with 74 points.

New England has the single-season points record, finishing with 73 in 2021.

Messi opened the scoring in the 45th minute, taking a long pass from Jordi Alba — his longtime teammate at Barcelona, the club with which Messi