After the political and media storm caused by his appearance at the White House with Donald Trump, Lionel Messi will return tomorrow strictly to football: Inter Miami will face D.C. United this Saturday, March 7, for the third round of the MLS. The match will be played at the M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore starting at 4:30 PM ET (6:30 PM in Argentina), as the capital club is temporarily using that venue instead of its usual Audi Field, according to the Argentine News Agency. Messi and the team's visit to Washington took place on Thursday, when Trump received the MLS Cup 2025 champions at the White House.
The formal reason for the meeting was precisely that: institutional recognition for the champion team, in line with the protocolary visits that sports champions usually make in the United States. The political context, however, inevitably made the image more sensitive. Not because Inter Miami participated in a political act, but because Messi has historically avoided getting publicly involved in politics, so his presence surprised a portion of the Argentine public. Javier Mascherano himself tried to downplay the episode, explaining that the team followed a protocol that is "practically a tradition" for champion teams, and clarifying that the contact with Trump was no more than what was seen on television.
With this fresh noise still in the air, Inter Miami will try to quickly turn the page and focus on an important match to get settled in the early stages of the season. The club, driven by the project led by David Beckham together with the Mas family, stopped being an exotic franchise long ago to become one of the main showcases for the MLS, a leap that was consolidated with Messi's arrival in 2023 and the conquest of the MLS Cup 2025. On the field, Mascherano's team arrives with an irregular start to the championship but with signs of a reaction: they debuted with a tough 3-0 loss to LAFC and then bounced back with a 4-2 comeback against Orlando City, in a classic where Messi scored a brace and was named Player of the Week.
For this Saturday, Inter Miami will also seek to extend their six-match unbeaten streak against D.C. United. The team is also going through a transitional phase. Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba announced their retirement at the end of the 2025 season, so the new Inter already relies on another structure, without losing hierarchy: Messi remains the beacon, Rodrigo De Paul has consolidated as a central piece, and heavyweights like Luis Suárez and Germán Berterame have appeared at the front, along with the growth of players like Telasco Segovia and Tadeo Allende.
If there are no last-minute surprises, the base of the eleven that just beat Orlando City looks like the strongest reference to visit D.C. United: Dayne St. Clair; Facundo Mura, Maximiliano Falcón, Micael, Noah Allen; Rodrigo De Paul, Yannick Bright; Tadeo Allende, Messi, Telasco Segovia; Germán Berterame. It is, in definitive, the best material available for an Inter Miami that wants the conversation to return to its football and not to a high-voltage political photo.
