Inter Miami’s new $1 billion stadium, inaugurated last month with such promise, became the stage for one of the most bewildering collapses in Major League Soccer history on Saturday. Lionel Messi, celebrating his 100th appearance for the club, scored a magnificent left-footed strike from outside the area to put his team 3-0 ahead inside 34 minutes. By full time, the scoreboard read 3-4, and Orlando City’s Martín Ojeda had completed a hat-trick that will be remembered as the defining moment of this Florida derby. The defeat extended Inter Miami’s winless run at their new home to four matches, a statistic that already weighs heavily on a squad built around the world’s most celebrated footballer.

The implosion was as sudden as it was complete. Inter Miami had controlled the first half with goals from Ian Fray and Telasco Segovia either side of Messi’s strike. Then, just before the interval, Ojeda pulled one back with a speculative long-range effort that seemed routine. In the second half, the home side’s defensive organisation unravelled entirely. Orlando City, languishing second from bottom in the Eastern Conference before kick-off, scored three more times to complete a comeback that analysts in Buenos Aires described as “inexplicable” for a team with such attacking talent. Messi, for his part, departed the pitch with the hollow milestone of a century of appearances and a single goal that felt like small consolation.

Viewed from Frankfurt, the intercontinental parallels were hard to ignore. On the same evening, German NBA stars Franz and Moritz Wagner suffered their own historic collapse at the hands of the Detroit Pistons. The Wagner brothers’ Orlando Magic led by 22 points at halftime only to score a staggering 19 points in the entire second half, losing 93-79. German commentators branded the performance a “Jahrhundert-Debakel” — a debacle of the century — and noted that such a dramatic second-half offensive meltdown had never been seen in league history. For a nation that prides itself on efficiency and mental fortitude, the twin humiliations of two Orlando-based teams within hours offered an uncomfortable snapshot of vulnerability at the highest level of sport.

Yet not every spectator left the stadium feeling short-changed. One Argentine fan who flew to Miami for the match spent nearly $1,700 on tickets for her family, and told this correspondent that watching Messi up close was worth every dollar despite the result. That sentiment captures the peculiar allure of the Messi phenomenon: even when his team loses, his presence transforms the occasion into something transcendent for his compatriots. But for Inter Miami as a collective, the arithmetic is unkind. They have now failed to win at their gleaming new home, and their defensive fragility — exposed repeatedly in the second half — offers a clear target for opposition scouts. As the season progresses, the question from London and elsewhere is whether Messi’s individual brilliance can paper over the structural cracks in a side that, on this evidence, remains as brittle as it is glamorous. The answer will define not just Inter Miami’s season, but the credibility of the league’s ambitious expansion narrative.