NEW YORK (Wednesday, October 2, 2024) – For the first time in club history, Inter Miami CF has won the Supporters’ Shield, an award given to the MLS team with the best overall record of fans during the regular season. Miami took the trophy tonight by defeating the Columbus Crew 3-2 thanks to two goals from Lionel Messi and a goal from Luis Suárez. Messi scored with a light touch past the goalkeeper in the 45th minute (watch here), before scoring his second goal with a sensational free-kick in first-half stoppage time (watch here). After Columbus scored a quick goal after halftime, Suárez restored the two-goal lead in the 48th minute (watch here), while Miami held on for a 3-2 win thanks to a penalty save from Drake Callender with six minutes left ( view here).

• Photo and video materials of Inter Miami’s season and today’s game can be found **HERE**.

With this award, the Herons secured first place in the Eastern Conference and home-field advantage in the Audi 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs. As winners of the Supporters’ Shield, Inter Miami will take part in the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup, marking their second consecutive appearance in the competition.

Miami will host a playoff game for the first time in club history when they face the winner of the Audi 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs Eastern Conference Wild Card game between seeds 8 and 9 in the best-of-3 first-round series . Miami will host the first game of the series and the third if necessary at Chase Stadium, and their opponent will host the second game of the series. The full schedule for the Audi 2024 MLS Cup Playoffs will be announced at a later date.

With its MLS debut in 2020, Inter Miami now becomes the 17th different club in the league’s 29 seasons to win the Supporters’ Shield and only the sixth active club to win it in its first five seasons in the MLS won. Since expanding the regular season to 34 games in 2011, Miami became only the third team to win the Supporters’ Shield after missing the playoffs the previous season, joining LAFC in 2022 and the San Jose Earthquakes in 2012 .

In his second year at the helm, head coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino has led Inter Miami to a 20-4-8 record with a plus-25 goal difference. The Supporters’ Shield marks Martino’s ninth trophy as a manager in club soccer and fourth as an MLS head coach. After today’s games, Martino holds a .655 winning percentage (60-25-28 record) in the regular season, which is the highest winning percentage by a coach in MLS history (minimum 20 games coached).

Over the course of the season, Miami excelled when behind or in close games. In the 16 games in which Miami conceded the first goal, they managed to achieve a winning percentage of 0.625 (8-4-4 record), which is the best mark in the league. Only one other club has won five such games this season, and no other team has a winning percentage better than .500. Miami also became the second team in MLS history to win at least eight games while conceding the first goal of the game (excluding the shootout era). In one-goal games, the Herons have compiled a record of 9-1-0, which is the best winning percentage (.900) in MLS this season.

Miami’s attack in 2024 was led by their superstar forward duo Lionel Messi (17 goals, 15 assists) and Luis Suarez (18 goals, six assists). Among the leaders in goals per 90 minutes this season (minimum five goals), Messi is first with 1.01 goals per 90 minutes and Suárez is third with 0.89. The duo provided several standout individual moments en route to the Supporters’ Shield, becoming the first pair of teammates in MLS history to each win the MLS Player of the Matchday award at least three times in a season. The Supporters’ Shield marks Messi’s 46th major career trophy and third since joining Inter Miami CF last summer (2023 Leagues Cup and 2024 Copa América).

The club also featured consistent performances from standout players throughout the regular season, including MLS All-Stars Jordi Alba (four goals, 12 assists) and Sergio Busquets (seven assists), two-time MLS Cup champion Julian Gressel (12 assists) and young rising stars Tomas Aviles, Benjamin Cremaschi, Diego GomezAnd Federico Redondo. To date, 30 Herons players have appeared in the regular season, 15 of whom ended up on the scoresheet. In net, Drake Callender started 31 of the 32 regular season games, making 98 saves and adding five shutouts.

Miami can tie the MLS single-season points record (73 in 2021, New England Revolution) with wins in its remaining two games:

• Saturday, October 5 at Toronto FC (4 p.m. ET, MLS Season Pass on Apple TV)

• Saturday, October 19 vs. New England Revolution (6:00 p.m. ET, MLS Season Pass on Apple TV)

Below is the list of all-time Supporters’ Shield winners, sorted in reverse chronological order.