Nashville

A new rivalry is beginning to boil between Inter Miami and Nashville SC with Thursday night’s 2-2 draw in the Concacaf Champions Cup fueling the hatred between the two sides.

The Round of 16 first leg game saw plenty of scuffles, controversy and an unnecessary cheap shot on Nashville’s Jacob Shaffelburg.

Inter Miami’s Tomás Avilés was caught on camera decking Shaffelburg with his shoulder off the ball. 

Shaffelburg hit vs. Inter Miami

Luis Suarez's header in the fifth minute of second-half stoppage time lifted Inter Miami to a 2-2 draw with host Nashville SC on Thursday in the first leg of CONCACAF Champions Cup round-of-16 series.

Jacob Shaffelburg scored twice for Nashville, while Lionel Messi delivered a goal for Miami.

The two-match, total-goal series will conclude Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The winner will advance to oppose either Monterrey or FC Cincinnati in the quarterfinals.

Major League Soccer has become synonym to having some of the biggest soccer stars in the world and the list of their most valuable players shows just how much the league has grown in value over the past decades.

Lionel Messi did it again Saturday night with a spectacular goal vs. Nashville SC in the Leagues Cup final as Inter Miami won 10-9 on penalty kicks after drawing 1-1 after 90 minutes.

United States men’s national team fans could only watch on in horror as our beautiful defensive prince Walker Zimmerman was torn to shreds along with the rest of the Nashville defense in the 23rd minute.

Up until that point Nashville had nullified the Messi effect. The Argentine had touched the ball only a handful of times and had no impact on the game yet.

Lionel Messi has won just about everything there is to win in soccer but said on Thursday that bringing Inter Miami their first ever trophy would be "incredible" and "a beautiful thing".

Languishing at the bottom of Major League Soccer's Eastern Conference standings there had been nothing pretty about Inter Miami's season until Messi's arrival in South Florida last month.

But now things could not look any brighter.

Nashville SC defeated Club América 2-2 (6-5 on penalty kicks) Wednesday night in the Leagues Cup to advance to the quarterfinals. The result has become highly controversial with América/Mexico fans calling it a robbery.

The biggest talking point came in the penalty shootout when it initially looked like América goalkeeper Luis Malagón had won his side the game when he denied Jack Maher.

League play has come to a halt but watching Matchday 26, you’d never be able to tell. With the All-Star Game around the corner and the highly advertised Leagues Cup set to kick off in less than a week, teams were still in high gear across the league.