MLS rewind: Lionel Messi not essential, a new king in Charlotte, and the goal of the season?

By the end of it all, the Dynamo had to put out a statement. Messi was not going to travel to Texas from Miami. His legs needed a rest. That was a big blow to Houston's ticketing department, who were certainly relying on Messi strutting his stuff to pack their stands.

Their response was to give away a free ticket to every fan who had bought one for the game. In effect, those fans are getting another soccer match for free.

Not that it mattered. Turns out there are other pretty good footballers in Miami. Luis Suarez is one of them. Without Messi, he played orchestrator-in-chief. The stats jump off the page. Miami scored four. He assisted the first three and buried the last one himself.

Everything ran through him. He connected the play between the midfield and forward lines. And even when he wasn't touching the ball, his smart movement opened spaces for others - not least Telasco Segovia - who was excellent value for his brace on the night. This ended with a 4-1 win, but showed, more importantly, that Leo-Depencia might not plague Miami.

Where should Cavan Sullivan be this season? What are the most productive minutes for a 15-year-old? Is he better off dominating MLS Next Pro, or coming off the bench for the final 10 minutes of MLS matches, like a freshman training for a high school varsity squad? It turns out that the Philadelphia Union have opted to go for the latter - at least for one game - as Sullivan made his 2025 debut Saturday night.

It wasn't the most mind-blowing of cameos. The Union were winning comfortably at the time. Although Cincinnati were still pushing for a goal, the sting had largely been taken out of the game. The conditions were perfect for a 10-minute run out.

His stats were forgettable: seven touches, 4/6 passes completed. He was dribbled past a couple of times. But there were flashes of quality. A wonderfully weighted pass into the final third, an instinctive swivel to open up the pitch.

For Sullivan, this is all about adjusting to the pace of the game - learning how to adjust to players that are bigger, stronger and faster than him. And if he can look this composed in a tidy eight minutes, then there is plenty of scope for him to take further steps as the season goes on. Job done.

If there were any concerns that Wilfried Zaha could perform in MLS, they were done away with in his first showing. He wasn't exactly electric in the first half of Charlotte's 2-0 win over Atlanta. The visitors set up smartly. Charlotte had the ball forlong periods, and Zaha found himself tightly marked. But this is a signing who can deliver in moments - money spent on a player who might change a game in a flash.

And so it proved. Zaha took advantage of his first real chance, a neat touch and deft poke into the bottom corner after 54 minutes. He will score more exciting goals in MLS. He will certainly have better games. But this was exactly the kind of showing that proved why Charlotte signed him.

Zaha was bad at times, and he still, in effect, won them the match. Now it might be worth considering what he looks like when given some room to operate.

Soccer announcers say these things all the time.

"That's an early contender for goal of the season"

"You won't see a better goal this year"

"Goals don't get much better than that"

The reality of football - sports in general, in fact - is that there is always a better highlight. Moments get more memorable, someone else eclipses the quality of something that has happened before. So will someone, somewhere score a goal better than Jacob Murrell's bicycle kick for D.C. United at some point this season? Perhaps.

But this was a stunning start. It had been a rough few minutes for D.C. They looked on the verge of getting a scrappy point on the road when Christian Benteke stepped up to take a penalty late in normal time. They were down 2-1, here was the 2024 golden boot winner. Easy, right? Instead, Benteke blasted it over.

A youngster showed him exactly how it's done, in the 96th minute. Murrell had to run away from goal to meet what was, in truth, a fairly poor cross. He then had to judge the flight, time his jump, contort his body, and get the right amount of contact in order to loop the ball over the goalkeeper and into the far corner.

It was one of those goals where a perfect sequence of events needed to occur in order, and without a single misstep. And it worked a charm. D.C. rescued a point. Murrell, a local product, got his big moment. A word, too, for the excellent call from Washington, D.C.'s local radio station.

+ Injury concerns in San Diego as Chucky Lozano had to be removed in the first half of their fixture with St. Louis after what seemed like a leg injury. They will hope it's not too serious

+ LAFC made it two in two with a nervy win over NYCFC. They will need to improve their quality, though, to look like true title contenders.

+ A thriller between Colorado and Dallas, as Rafael Navarro grabbed a 72nd minute equalizer in a 3-3 draw. Lucho Acosta got on the scoreboard for the Texas side, though, and is starting to look scary in his new digs.

+ It might be a case of staying afloat for LA Galaxy until their big names come back. The reigning champs conceded in the 87th minute to lose against Vancouver - and never really threatened to win.