Messi and Miami denied in front of record Chicago crowd

WASHINGTON :Inter Miami failed to score for the first time this season in Major League Soccer as they were held to a goalless draw by the Chicago Fire on Sunday.

A club-record crowd of 62,358 packed into Soldier Field for the visit of Lionel Messi and his Inter team to witness a gutsy display from the home side. Chicago, coached by former USA boss Gregg Berhalter, limited Messi and his former Barcelona strike partner Luis Suarez to just a handful of opportunities.

The best effort from Messi, who played the full game, came in the third minute when he unleashed a snap shot from outside the box which was denied by a fine, diving save from Fire keeper Chris Brady.

There was no sense of Chicago being overawed by the big crowd at the stadium they share with the NFL´s Bears and they went close twice in the opening half with Mauricio Pineda forcing Oscar Ustari into a full stretch save and then Philip Zinckernagel striking the outside of the post from a narrow angle. Suarez had a great chance to put Miami ahead just before the break when Noah Allen floated a ball in but the Uruguayan puts his shot over the bar.

After the break, Chicago enjoyed plenty of pressure with much of the creativity coming from former Lille winger Jonathan Bamba. The Fire should have grabbed all three points in the 88th minute when Bamba´s shot was parried out by Ustari but Maren Haile-Selassie put the follow-up shot wide.

Bamba was denied again by Ustari moments later but in a frantic finale, Miami also could have stolen a win but, from a promising position, Tadeo Allende dragged his shot wide. Miami had looked tired after their midweek exertions in their CONCACAF Champions Cup win over Los Angeles FC on Wednesday and coach Javier Mascherano appeared relieved they had picked up a point.

"We came with a very, very big load not only physically, but also mentally. So not losing is always important, too," he said. "I´ll take the positives, which is that we didn´t concede a goal. We´d been conceding goals for three games, and today we kept a clean sheet. ... Now, luckily, we have a long week of work, which is a bit of a break for us, after the start of the season we´ve had," he said.

Former Miami coach Phil Neville saw his improving Portland Timbers team enjoy a 4-2 win at Sporting Kansas City with Venezuelan forward Kevin Kelsy scoring twice. Portland are unbeaten in five games and move up to fourth in the Western Conference.

The Columbus Crew fought back from a goal down to enjoy a 2-1 win at St.Louis City. Brazilian Joao Klauss opened the scoring for the home side before Crew defender Steven Moreira levelled with a side-footed volley. Uruguayan Diego Rossi secured the win with a low drive from outside the box in the 55th minute.