Inter Miami 3, Charlotte FC 3 at Nu Stadium — Miami led 3-0 at half-time, then Liel Abada scored twice and substitute Rodolfo Aloko volleyed the 90th-minute equaliser.
Inter Miami drew 3-3 with Charlotte FC at Nu Stadium on Saturday, November 7, 2026 — the final day of the MLS regular season, Decision Day — after leading by three goals at half-time. Miami's own club site had framed the fixture before kickoff as the club concluding the 2026 MLS regular season, hosting Charlotte in a Decision Day matchup at Nu Stadium. For 45 minutes, the hosts played like a team closing the season out in style. By the end, they were hanging on to a draw they had no business needing.
Miami's three came in the first half. Ian Fray opened it at 14' — USA TODAY's live account describes a failed clearance after a Lionel Messi corner falling for Fray to smash home. Luis Suárez made it two at 33', finishing at the back post from a Messi corner sequence. Rodrigo De Paul added the third at 42', and Miami went in 3-0 up, the game apparently settled before the break. Two of the three goals had come from Messi corner sequences, the third had arrived three minutes before half-time, and Charlotte had spent the half chasing a game that kept moving further away from them.
Charlotte's answer was three straight goals after the break. Liel Abada pulled one back at 50' and scored again at 55' — USA TODAY describes Abada starting the move and finishing from the edge of the area for his second. The equaliser came at 90': substitute Rodolfo Aloko volleyed in after a poor Micael clearance led to a shot off the post. From the restart, per USA TODAY, Messi himself hit the post at the other end as Miami tried to avoid the draw. Sportradar's match record confirms the final: 3-3. The scoring lines tell the shape of it — Suárez one goal for Miami, Abada two for Charlotte, and Aloko one as a substitute, in the last minute of the ninety.
How the Game Turned
The first half ran through Messi's corners. The opener at 14' came when a failed clearance after his corner dropped for Fray to smash home; the second at 33' came from another Messi corner sequence, Suárez finishing at the back post. De Paul's third at 42' arrived three minutes before the break, and the two score bugs in Charlotte's own match composite tell the half in one glance: at 41:57, MIA 3-0 CLT, the visitors shielding the ball and chasing shadows in a game that looked gone.
The turn took five minutes. Abada scored at 50' to give Charlotte a foothold, then again at 55' — starting the move himself and finishing from the edge of the area — and a game Miami had controlled was suddenly 3-2 with more than half an hour to play. The equaliser still needed the last minute of the ninety. A poor Micael clearance led to a shot off the post, and substitute Aloko volleyed in the rebound at 90' to complete the comeback. The second score bug in the composite, at 89:46, reads MIA 3-3 CLT with Charlotte's players mobbing the scorer. Miami had one last word from the restart — Messi hit the post — but the post was as close as the win came.
Decision Day is the final day of the regular season for both clubs, and this was a closing statement in two halves. Miami's first half was built on set pieces and star power: Messi central to the first two goals, Suárez on the scoresheet, De Paul adding the third. Charlotte's second half was built on refusal: Abada twice in five minutes to drag the game back, then a substitute's volley at 90' to finish the job. A marquee club led 3-0 at home at half-time and still did not win — three straight Charlotte goals, the last of them in the final minute, on the day the regular season ended. The 3-3 draw is how both clubs closed their regular season at Nu Stadium.
It is also the kind of game that explains the captain's picture at the top of this page. Charlotte's travelling support had watched their team go three down inside 42 minutes; by the final whistle, the captain was in front of them with a fist raised, his team-mates applauding beside him. Nothing about the first half promised that ending. Everything about the second half — two goals in five minutes from Abada, a 90th-minute volley from a substitute, and even Messi's post denying Miami the last word — delivered it.
Sources · 4 sources
- USA TODAY — MLS Decision Day LIVE 2026
- Sportradar — Inter Miami CF vs Charlotte FC, MLS 2026, Nov 7, 2026
- Inter Miami CF — Starting XI: Inter Miami CF vs. Charlotte FC
- FotMob — Inter Miami CF vs Charlotte FC match page
Every goal from Nu Stadium lives on the match's Game Center page for Inter Miami vs Charlotte, and the full MLS slate is on the MLS hub.
