The Houston Dynamo defeated Inter Miami 2-1 to win the U.S. Open Cup on Wednesday with an injured Lionel Messi watching from the stands at DRV PNK Stadium.

Without Messi and his former Barcelona team-mate Jordi Alba, Miami struggled to compete with an enterprising Houston and went in 2-0 down at the break.

Houston grabbed the lead in the 24th minute with a perfect counter-attack ending with Brazilian Artur feeding the overlapping Griffin Dorsey who blasted in at the near post.

French forward Amine Bassi doubled the lead from the penalty spot nine minutes later after DeAndre Yedlin had brought down Nelson Quinones.

Houston thought that they had scored a third after the break but Quinones’ effort was ruled out for offside after a VAR review.

Substitute Josef Martinez gave Miami some late hope with a left-foot strike in stoppage time after latching on to a ball from Argentine Facundo Farias.

But despite some late pressure, it was too little, too late from Miami and Houston deservedly won their second U.S. Open Cup to add to their triumph in 2018.

Miami had won the Leagues Cup last month with Messi prominently involved but they must now battle to make the Major League Soccer play-offs with uncertainty over their Argentine star’s fitness.

-AFP

Inter Miami will wait until the “last moment” to see if Lionel Messi is fit to play in Wednesday’s U.S. Open Cup final against Houston Dynamo, coach Gerardo Martino said.

Messi was substituted in Inter’s league match against Toronto FC before halftime with an unspecified injury, and missed Sunday’s clash against rivals Orlando City.

The Argentina captain is a doubt for the U.S. Open Cup final when his team will aim to claim their second title after winning the Leagues Cup last month.

“We are going to wait for Leo until tomorrow, until the last moment,” Martino told a news conference on Tuesday. “I’m going to sit down with him, see what his feelings are (…) We’ll probably come to an agreement tomorrow.

“There are three issues here: there is the player, then the final, and then what comes next. We have to try to make the decision, there are always risks, but we have to reduce them.”

The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner has scored 11 goals and provided five assists in 12 games for Inter Miami since his arrival from Paris St Germain in July.

The Miami side are yet to lose with Messi on the pitch and Martino said he would not consider playing the 36-year-old if it were not a cup final.

“It’s 90 or 120 minutes that stand between you and a title,” said the Argentine boss. “It’s logical. If it was any other kind of game we wouldn’t take any risks.”

-Reuters