The Union battle Miami and Lionel Messi to a wild draw in front of a sold-out Subaru Park

The Union still can’t solve Lionel Messi, but this time it was a heck of a game.

It was a 2-2 tie, played before a standing-room-only crowd at Subaru Park with thousands of pink-clad fans rooting for Messi’s Inter Miami. They got what they came for, but the home team was the better side for much of the night.

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Indiana Vassilev scored the opener (5-10-5, 20 points) just 11 minutes in off a terrific team play. Cavan Sullivan sprung Frankie Westfield down the right wing, and he hit a cross that had Vassilev and Bruno Damiani charging toward Miami’s net. The ball soared over Damiani’s head, but Vassilev was right there to stick it in against a team he used to play for.

But just two minutes after Damiani failed to finish on a breakaway, Messi helped Miami (11-3-6, 39 points) tie the score in the 21st. He chipped a pass to Luis Suárez, who nodded a header down for one of Inter’s top young players, Dániel Pintér, to finish near the goal line.

Messi then struck for the lead in the 26th, cutting left on Kai Wagner with a classic move and curling a shot around a frozen Nathan Harriel. That was the Argentine legend’s sixth goal in six career games against the Union. (Perhaps surprisingly, the only one of the contests where he didn’t score was the Union’s 6-4 loss in Miami in May. He had two assists instead.)

For as much attention as was on Sullivan all night — and he justified a lot of it with a dazzling run that drew a yellow-card foul from ex-Real Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur defender Sergio Reguilón — another young Union sensation scored the equalizer.

It was Neil Pierre in the 58th, heading in Milan Iloski’s free kick with a dive on the goal line at the near post. As narratives go, an 18-year-old American centerback prospect beating Suárez to a ball is a pretty good one.

Iloski then put the ball in the net in the 61st off another free kick sequence, and the crowd erupted. But the goal was taken off via a video review that caught Pierre offside when Kai Wagner hit the initial service. (The reversal was correct, as frustrating as it was, with Pierre’s position clearly shown on the broadcast.)

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Union interim coach Ryan Richter made his first substitution in the 68th, a withdrawal of Vassilev for Quinn Sullivan.

The Union failed at another breakaway attempt in the 71st, this time with Iloski and Cavan Sullivan combining on a pretty give-and-go. But Iloski couldn’t get his shot past Dayne St. Clair, and Damiani couldn’t stick the rebound past a sliding Reguilón.

It genuinely could have been 4-2 Union at that point — 5-2, even, had Pierre stayed onside on that free kick. But as has so often been the case over the years, the Union didn’t have Miami’s quality of talent up front.

So it felt inevitable when Wagner tripped Messi just outside the 18-yard box for the second time on the night. But stunningly, Messi shot low into the Union’s wall both times.

Ezekiel Alladoh and Alejandro Bedoya entered in the 82nd for Damiani and Jesús Bueno, then had to help their teammates endure minutes of stoppage time.

The game was capped off with a melee after Quinn Sullivan went down in the box in what was officially the 101st minute. He got into a wrestling-esque scrum with Ian Fray, which led to a scuffle among the teams.

Within that, Cavan Sullivan and Yannick Bright got in a shoving match that included both players putting hands on each other. At one point, it looked like Bright aimed and landed a punch. They were both red-carded, and the Apple TV broadcast showed security restraining Bright from going toward the Union’s locker room in the tunnel.

Sullivan will now miss Saturday’s game at Austin FC. It remains to be seen too if the league’s disciplinary committee will levy fines or further suspensions for the fracas after its review of the match on Thursday.

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