Messi opened the scoring with a diving header in the first half, then capped the scoring in the 96th minute as Inter Miami opened the Major League Soccer playoffs with a 3-1 win over Nashville SC in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference best-of-three first-round series on Friday night.

Messi and Ian Fray had the assists on Tadeo Allende’s second-half tally for Inter Miami, which now gets two chances to advance out of the first round for the first time in Messi’s 2 1/2-year tenure with the team. Game 2 is at Nashville on Nov. 1. Game 3, if necessary, would in Fort Lauderdale on Nov. 8.

Hany Mukhtar got Nashville’s goal off a free kick in the 101st minute. It was the final play of the match.

The win capped a big couple of days for Inter Miami, which announced Messi’s three-year contract extension on Thursday.

“I don’t think we ever could have imagined that Leo would have been able to deliver for this club, for this city and for this league the way he has,” said MLS Commissioner Don Garber, who presented Messi with the Golden Boot — the trophy presented to the league’s top goal scorer — in a pregame ceremony.

“You know, he has reset the trajectory for Major League Soccer and we were already doing pretty well,” Garber added. “And I think having three more years is just going to be another gift. Hopefully it’s the gift that keeps on giving.”

Messi ducked behind a line of defenders for the header that opened the scoring in the 19th minute. Allende scored off a header as well in the 62nd minute, with Messi starting that play with a pass to Fray on the right wing. Fray chipped the ball into the middle of the box and Allende made the rest look easy.

The capper came in stoppage time, when the ball deflected to an unmarked Messi in the goal mouth. He tapped it home for a 3-0 lead.

Messi was the league’s MVP last season and is the overwhelming choice to win the award again this year, which would make him only the second two-time winner in league history and the first to win it in back-to-back years. Preki won the MVP award in 1997 and 2003.

Messi scored 29 goals in the regular season, five more than LAFC’s Denis Bouanga and Nashville’s Sam Surridge. He also had 19 assists, and his 48 total goal contributions was one shy of matching the MLS record of 49 set by Carlos Vela in 2019.

“You have to lean into this unique and special historic moment that I know I’ll look back on and say, Boy, I can’t believe I was running a league that had the best player in the history of the game playing in it,'” Garber said. “Sometimes I find when things are happening … you’re just moving on to the next thing. I think we all need to take a step back and appreciate Leo Messi is playing in Major League Soccer.”

The new contract means Messi could remain with Inter Miami into his early 40s. He is still the biggest name in soccer; ticket revenue for MLS set a record this year, Inter Miami’s value has doubled by some estimates to about $1.2 billion since he arrived and he has led the league in jersey sales annually since his arrival midway through 2023.

“I think he’s the unicorn of unicorns,” Garber said. “You know, there’s something about the way he’s wired. He’s thinking about the game like nobody else ever has. His intensity and desire to win is what makes him the greatest of all time. There are a lot of really competitive players, but he has this special sauce, this dynamic that has him so focused on doing what he needs to do to win games.”

Garber also lauded Inter Miami for how it made the announcement of Messi’s signing. The team revealed it on social media with a video of Messi signing his contract, then the camera pulls out to show that he’s actually sitting where the field will be inside the team’s new stadium near Miami International Airport. The stadium is scheduled to open next year.

“It just shows how classy and smart they are,” Garber said.