SOCCER: Lionel Messi, Inter Miami christen Nu Stadium with visit from Austin FC

Inter Miami will open the home Lionel Messi helped build when they host Austin FC on Saturday night.

The match will be the first at the Herons' permanent home, the 26,700-seat Nu Stadium, constructed slightly northwest of downtown Miami.

While approval for construction came before Messi joined Miami (3-1-1, 10 points) and MLS in the summer of 2023, it was always billed as a project meant to attract the game's biggest stars. And now the man considered the game's greatest living player will lead his team there.

"Honestly, it's spectacular getting to see the new home," Messi said this week in Spanish. "The new stadium turned out incredible, and it's really special to be able to experience it. We'd been eager to play there, to make our debut, to finally be competing there. And now the moment has arrived."

While the team's temporary, modular venue in nearby Fort Lauderdale was available, Miami played its first five matches on the road to ensure it could play its entire home MLS schedule at its permanent facility.

Despite that early disadvantage, the Herons currently sit third in the Eastern Conference and ninth in the Supporters Shield standings. Messi has scored a team-leading four goals, and Telasco Segovia has three assists.

But the Herons have also conceded eight times, the most of any team in the top 10 Supporters' Shield places.

Austin manager Nico Estevez says that should inform the approach of the visiting Verde (1-2-2, 5 points), who have at times struggled for goals.

"We are playing against the champions, the actual champions of MLS, and we know it's going to be difficult," Estevez said this week. "We also know that it's a team that scores goals but also concedes goals. And this has to be our mentality; we can't go there thinking that just defending well is going to be enough, because they have tools to score goals. We need to have the mentality to attack them."

Austin is still waiting for its first multi-goal scorer of the season. Last year's scoring leader, Owen Wolff, has returned to full training from a sports hernia surgery, but is unlikely to play this week, Estevez said. Striker Brandon Vazquez is still rehabbing from a torn ACL suffered last summer.

-Field Level Media/Reuters