Hit for six without Lionel Messi! Humbling MLS loss for Inter Miami as Tata Martino airs 'full roster' improvement hope after seeing Copa America & injuries catch up with Herons

A Messi-less Miami were on the receiving end of their joint biggest defeat, having been beaten 5-0 by Orlando City earlier this year. It wasn't initially disastrous, with Serhiy Kryvtsov cancelling out Cincinnati's first goal midway through the first half. But the hosts ramped it up after that, with Miami's misery compounded when Sergio Busquets was sent off after 62 minutes. Coach Tata Martino expressed hope that his team will improve once a "full roster" is available, while Cincinnati captain Luciano Costa acknowledged it wasn't a full strength team.

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Messi hasn't played for Miami since June 2 due to being called up by Argentina for the Copa America. Despite the tournament being held in the United States, domestic MLS action hasn't paused while it is ongoing. Luis Suarez is also at the Copa with Uruguay, as was Matias Rojas until Paraguay's group stage exit. Jordi Alba was missing against Cincannti, while Facundo Farias and Nicolas Freire are both out with long-term injury. The result moved Cincinnati, who have a game in hand, one point ahead of Miami into first place at the top of the Eastern Conference standings.

Martino reflected after the game: "We had a period early in the season where we were vulnerable in back, we started to fix that, the previous five or six games we had done a solid job defending, but this game we reverted defensively to how we played early in the season. Our opponent was better than us. We must take note of this. Cincinnati is one of the top three teams in the league. We are still not there despite our good results and performances. We have to keep working and hoping in the final part of the season we can improve with our full roster."

The Cincinnati captain told MLS Season Pass: "They were missing some key pieces tonight, everyone should know that. The best in the world [Messi], Luis up top, and Jordi wasn't available for selection. But, we came to play our game, they played theirs. No message or anything like that. We're just us."

With Argentina into the semi-finals of the Copa America, facing Canada on July 9 and therefore guaranteed to be playing either the third place play-off on July 13 or the final on July 14, Messi isn't likely to be back in time for the MLS match against Toronto FC on July 18. But the 37-year-old left mid-season and so may not be in need of a long break once Argentina's Copa is done. Miami are due to face Chicago Fire in MLS on July 21.