LOS ANGELES — Following LAFC‘s third goal on Saturday night, which sent most of the 75,600-plus in attendance into a frenzy at the L.A. Coliseum, a fan with an Argentina jersey rushed on to the field and immediately sprinted toward Inter Miami superstar Lionel Messi.

The scene is a common one for any event involving the 2022 World Cup winner, but this time the celebratory music blasting out was not for him, as Miami was losing 3-0. Indeed, in Messi’s first official game of 2026 with the defending MLS Cup champions, the initial pages of the Hollywood script being written for him in another World Cup year didn’t exactly go to plan.

Ahead of Saturday’s marquee MLS opening-weekend match against Son Heung-min‘s LAFC, there had been doubts that Messi would participate after he suffered a hamstring injury during Miami’s preseason friendly in February.

At 38 years old, it was fair to not only worry about his start to the MLS season but also wonder if this could point to issues in this summer’s World Cup. After all, Messi has yet to 100% commit to this summer’s tournament with Argentina and has been honest about his fitness being a factor.

“I would like to be there. To feel well and to be an important part of helping my national team, if I am there,” Messi said, back in October. “I am going to assess that on a day-to-day basis when I start preseason next year with Inter [Miami] and see if I can really be 100%. I’m really eager because it’s the World Cup.”

Although Miami head coach Javier Mascherano said Friday that the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner was “training at the same level as the rest of the team all week,” Miami’s No. 10 looked off his game against LAFC.

During the first 10 minutes, Messi’s touch looked unexpectedly imprecise, as did the timing of his passes. His distribution did eventually improve and he was fairly unlucky to not have an assist, but the same could not be said for his shooting as he was unable to hit the target once.

Messi wasn’t alone either. Whether it was down to adjusting to having new striker Germán Berterame up top, or its captain having a less-than-perfect game, Miami wasn’t able to gain much momentum until after LAFC took a 1-0 lead through a goal from David Martínez that was assisted by Son.

The 33-year-old South Korea international has his own aspirations ahead of the World Cup after leaving Tottenham Hotspur last year, and what was eye-catching for a match featuring Messi was just how many LAFC supporters — with plenty sporting jerseys with Son’s name — heavily outnumbered those donning the pink kit of arguably the greatest soccer player of all time.

Messi didn’t receive overwhelming cheers when he had the ball at his feet. In fact, at one point when hit the ground late in the game and didn’t earn a foul, a chorus of boos emerged from countless supporters in the L.A. Coliseum.

“No, no, no I didn’t see anything,” Mascherano said postmatch on whether his captain seemed angry about the refereeing decisions, or the result in general. “The truth is that the match finished and then I went into the locker room.”

Following goals from Denis Bouanga and Nathan Ordaz that solidified a 3-0 loss for Miami, Messi quickly exchanged jerseys with Bouanga after the final whistle, and then swiftly exited the field first.

So, after one loss, is it too early to panic about Messi’s Miami?

“The reality is that they beat us fair and square, that’s the truth,” Mascherano said afterward. “I think it’s often difficult to explain when you lose 3-0, but my initial analysis gives me the feeling that the result was somewhat misleading. The game, as it unfolded, there wasn’t that much of a difference.

“As coaching staff, we have to analyze the game, not just the result, because if we only focus on the result, we’re only making decisions based on whether we win or lose. I think that in the game, we saw aspects of the style of play we want, which we need to improve.”

Messi will need to improve but, to be fair to him, we shouldn’t take this inch and run a mile after his first game of the year. Mascherano recently stated that Messi was healthy enough to return to full-team training, but the forward was only recently recovering from a hamstring injury, so it’s no major shock that he was off the pace a bit.

Doubting Messi is a fool’s errand, and he didn’t have an entirely poor showing on Saturday. Indeed, he made a handful of dangerous passes that should have led to at least one goal for Miami, and also did well to carry the ball forward occasionally.

It was a decent game, but decent isn’t what you expect from Messi, especially during a World Cup year. It’s premature to make any long-term judgments, but if the script doesn’t change in the next month or so then questions will start to be asked.

“He will decide, and we will support whatever he decides,” Argentina boss Lionel Scaloni said in December about whether Messi will be at the World Cup. “In principle, everything is going well, but six months is a long time. There is still time.”

With four months to go, the clock is ticking.

Strasbourg beat Lyon 3-1 to end the visitors’ seven-match winning streak in Ligue 1 on Sunday, a result that dampens their outside shot at the title.

Lyon had won 13 consecutive games in all competitions but failed to equal the club record set in 2006.

Paulo Fonseca’s side remain third on 45 points and nine back of league leaders and European champions Paris Saint-Germain. Lens are two points off the pace.

Lyon had early chances to take the lead but home side Strasbourg struck first when Martial Godo fired in his seventh goal of the season late in the first half.

They doubled that lead on 52 minutes with a long-range strike from Diego Moreira that took a wicked deflection.

Corentin Tolisso pulled one back for Lyon on the hour, but Strasbourg put the match to bed with Joaquin Panichelli’s penalty seven minutes from time — the Argentine forward’s 13th league goal this term.

“It’s a shame. We knew we had a huge opportunity tonight if we won. But we can’t afford to play like that if we want to win games, especially here,” Tolisso told broadcaster Ligue 1+.

Veteran striker Olivier Giroud’s penalty gave Lille a 1-0 win at Angers which put them fifth and snapped a six-match winless streak in Ligue 1.

The 39-year-old former Arsenal and Chelsea forward fired a spot-kick into the bottom corner before the break to score his fifth league goal of the season.

A first win of 2026 sent Lille to within three points of Marseille and eight behind Lyon in the third and final direct Champions League qualifying spot.

“Above all it’s three points but that will do us all a lot of good mentally,” Lille captain Benjamin Andre said.

Fellow European hopefuls Rennes followed their 3-1 defeat of leaders Paris Saint-Germain last week with a 3-0 victory at Auxerre to stay level on points with Lille.

Nantes eased their relegation fears with a 2-0 home win over Le Havre, and Nice drew 3-3 with Lorient.