Lionel Messi stuns Orlando, Timo Werner delivers & more from Matchday 2

Antagonism, bitterness, chaos, even a dash of desperation.

It usually takes months to build up to the sort of angst we saw all over MLS on Matchday 2, with a couple of nasty rivalry clashes and some tangible urgency to book results.

And nowhere was that more the case than in the Florida Derby, as Orlando City and Inter Miami CF treated us to an instant classic on Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental Tire.

Keen observers of Lionel Messi’s storied FC Barcelona era will recall that the GOAT produced some of his most iconic Barça moments in El Clásico, their showdowns with their eternal rivals Real Madrid. The Argentine genius knows what these sorts of fixtures mean, and he’s done more than his part to torment IMCF’s cross-state antagonists up the Turnpike.

Having scored six goals in four previous games against the Lions, he upped the ante again here, bagging a second-half brace as Miami reeled off four unanswered goals to snatch a 4-2 win after Orlando’s tremendous first-half performance left the Herons in a 2-0 hole that clearly delighted the tenacious home fans.

The coup de grâce: A trademark late free kick past Maxime Crépeau to punctuate the comeback, a goal made more painful by the fact that it was scored right in front of The Wall, the noisy home of Orlando’s supporters’ groups. Messi rubbed salt in the wounds as only he can, raising his arms to strut before the Lions’ most passionate faithful before trolling OCSC’s bench with a ‘here’s my autograph’ gesture.

A breathless derby, one Messi refused to allow his team to lose.

“You can’t win anything with kids.” Originally uttered by Scottish defender-turned pundit Alan Hansen decades ago, it’s become an infamous shorthand for the perceived impossibility of contending for hardware with young players. Yet some of MLS’s fastest starters are thumbing their noses at the very idea over the first two weeks of the 2026 season.

Only five teams are a perfect 2W-0L-0D after two matchdays, and arguably the most surprising of that bunch are Red Bull New York, who’ve fielded the league’s youngest and second-youngest starting XIs in their wins over Orlando and New England.

After thriving in Matchday 1 with three starters age 17 or under, new head coach Michael Bradley ran it back in the Red Bulls’ home opener. And why not?

Julian Hall and Adri Mehmeti were yet again the game’s standouts, combining to create the only goal in RBNY’s 1-0 win. And Matthew Dos Santos – the left back Bradley promoted from their MLS NEXT Pro side in preseason – again surpassed expectations, as did his 21-year-old teammate on the opposite corner, Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty, who’s looking like a very savvy pickup from CF Montréal.

“As we moved through preseason,” said Bradley of Hall and Mehmeti postgame, “it was more and more clear every day that both of these guys needed to be on the field.

“They’ve shown how good they are.”

This weekend’s action also underlined how impressive RBNY’s Matchday 1 road win at Orlando really was: It’s one of only four away wins IN TOTAL across the season’s first two weeks.

Also, did you pick Hall as a Golden Boot presented by Audi contender? If so, go buy a lottery ticket, Nostradamus, because you’re one of the only people on earth who could’ve guessed the teenage homegrown would be the league’s early scoring co-leader with three goals in two matches.

It wasn’t just the Red Bulls playing the kids to good effect. The Colorado Rapids shook off a rough opening loss at Seattle Sounders FC with a deserved 2-0 home win over the Portland Timbers, in which 18-year-old center back Lucas Herrington grabbed the spotlight.

The Australian bagged a game-clinching goal to open his MLS account and was clean with the ball (96% completion rate on his 70 passes) and tidy in his defensive work, on a day when a heavily deflected early goal from Hamzat Ojediran provided the hosts with a useful leg up and veteran goalkeeper Zack Steffen added a couple of huge saves.

The theme continued one state over in Utah, where shorthanded Real Salt Lake had to field three teenagers in their starting XI for a visit from the battle-tested Sounders – and emerged victorious because of, not despite, their young’uns.

Aiden Hezarkhani, 18, scored his first career goal after good work from fellow homegrowns Zavier Gozo and Luca Moisa. Then Gozo teed up 21-year-old Australian Ariath Piol for what stood up as the game-winner in a 2–1 victory despite a large push from Cristian Roldan & Co.

It was the best-case scenario for a Claret-and-Cobalt squad waiting on USMNT midfielder Diego Luna to return from a knee issue. They also got a boost as new Designated Player Morgan Guilavogui made his club debut off the bench, looking quite lively in an 18-minute cameo: 18 touches, 11/12 passes completed, two chances created, 3/3 accurate long balls, 4/5 duels won and two fouls drawn.

Speaking of DP debuts, another marquee signing made their bow out in San Jose.

Timo Werner, who stepped off a plane from Germany a matter of days ago, played super-sub in the Earthquakes’ confident 2-0 defeat of Atlanta United at PayPal Park, entering the match to hit the assist that clinched the victory.

Right pass, right weight, right moment, even with a limited introduction to his new teammates. That’s what clubs make big investments like this for.

The Quakes are now 2W-0L-0D, tied with LAFC for second in the Supporters’ Shield table, have a plus-5 goal differential, own a league-best 6.72 expected goals over their first two matches, and have nary a goal conceded.

Sure, they’ve benefited from a very friendly schedule. But this looks like a well-functioning team on which Werner can slot in as an elite difference-maker rather than a hero asked to ride to the rescue, as many of us suspected he might have to.

The South Korean icon’s movement instigated two red-card challenges from Dynamo defenders to greatly simplify the visitors’ task, and central midfielders Mark Delgado and Stephen Eustáquio reminded everyone of the Black & Gold’s sterling supporting cast by banging home long-range goals keyed by clever set-piece plays. LAFC are a fearsome proposition, and we expect them to remain tops in the next edition of our MLS Power Rankings.

“He really is a horse … We spend a lot of time looking at the physical data that the guys have. In terms of output, he works, he presses, by all accounts a great teammate, a guy who can combine.”

Those were LA Galaxy general manager Will Kuntz’s words to this correspondent during preseason, explaining why the Gs made the rather unorthodox move of responding to star playmaker Riqui Puig’s season-ending knee troubles by acquiring a completely different sort of attacker, Brazilian No. 9 João Klauss, from St. Louis CITY SC this winter.

It all makes more sense now, with Klauss tied with Hall atop the Golden Boot standings with three strikes in his first two games with LA, including a brace in Saturday night’s 3-0 nightcap win over Charlotte FC.​

It’s not just the goals: The gangly target man has been a handful for defenders and is quickly striking up dangerous chemistry with his countryman Gabriel Pec, who assisted on Klauss’ first and brutalized Charlotte’s back line again and again, and LA’s other star winger Joseph Paintsil.

Are the Galaxy back? Let’s see how they handle next Saturday’s trip to the thin mountain air of Colorado (9:30 pm ET | Apple TV).