DTRM INC Arrives At Cannes Film Festival

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Lionel Messi and Inter Miami have put together the best regular season in Major League Soccer history.

Messi had three goals and an assist in the second half alone, Luis Suarez had a pair of first-half goals and Inter Miami beat the New England Revolution 6-2 on Saturday night, finishing the season with an MLS-record 74 points — one more than the Revolution had in 2021.

It was Messi’s first hat trick for Inter Miami, the team the Argentine superstar joined midway through the 2023 season in a huge victory for Major League Soccer.

At 22-4-8 in league play, Inter Miami finished the season with a .765 winning percentage for another MLS record. There were four teams — D.C. United (24-8) and the LA Galaxy (24-8) in 1998, LAFC (21-4-9) in 2019 and New England (22-5-7) in 2021 — that finished an MLS season with a .750 winning percentage, which was the top spot until Saturday night.

Now, the top spot is Inter Miami’s by any measure, both in terms of points and best won-lost-tied mark. Inter Miami also became the eighth team in MLS history to get through a regular season with only four losses, tying another record.

Messi — who played about 35 minutes and still scored three times Saturday — finished the regular season with 20 goals and 16 assists in 19 matches.

Suarez got to 20 goals in his first MLS season, his strikes — coming about three minutes apart — helping Inter Miami erase an early 2-0 deficit. Luca Langoni and Dylan Borrero had the goals for New England.

The rest of the match was all Miami. The team had a stage pulled onto the field after the match to recognize the Supporters Shield win, which the team claimed on the road earlier this month, and fired pink confetti into the air when time expired.

Suarez’s brace pulled the hosts into a tie by halftime and Benja Cremaschi scored the go-ahead goal in the 58th minute. Messi had an assist on Cremaschi’s goal, one that came just seconds after the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner subbed into the match.

There had been some question about whether Messi would play at all, especially since Inter Miami had already wrapped up the Supporters’ Shield and No. 1 seed in the MLS Cup playoffs. All that was at stake for Inter Miami on Saturday was the record.

And there was a scare in the 74th minute when Messi was fouled, yelled in pain and grabbed at his right ankle as he was on the ground. He’s missed 15 of Inter Miami’s MLS matches in 2024, either because of commitments to Argentina’s national team or the two-month absence that he needed to recover from a badly injured ankle — an injury that happened during his nation’s run to the Copa America title in July.

It was just a scare.

Messi scored about two minutes apart in the second half, turning a 3-2 lead into a 5-2 rout and it was only a matter of time before the record would belong to Inter Miami. And the capper came in the 89th minute, Suarez flipping the ball to Messi for an easy score that finished off the hat trick.

Next up for Inter Miami: Game 1 of a best-of-three first-round series, at home Friday night. It will be the first home playoff match in club history.

___

AP soccer:

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

MONTREAL – CF Montreal is heading to the Major League Soccer playoffs after an impressive late-season turnaround.

Caden Clark scored a goal and set up another as Montreal defeated New York City FC 2-0 on Saturday, clinching a post-season berth on the final matchday of the regular season.

Josef Martinez also scored with Montreal (11-13-10) needing at least a draw in the Decision Day matchup to guarantee its spot in front of 19,619 at Saputo Stadium.

Montreal climbed to eighth in the Eastern Conference and will host Atlanta United in the wild-card matchup on Tuesday. The winner will take on Lionel Messi and first-place Inter Miami CF in the first round.

NYCFC (14-12-8) dropped to sixth in the East and will kick off its playoff campaign on the road against FC Cincinnati.

Montreal’s playoff berth completes a late-season U-turn under first-year head coach Laurent Courtois. The tumultuous season has featured a nine-game winless run, the reported trade demand of since-departed MVP Mathieu Choinière and the exit of sporting officer Olivier Renard.

Courtois’s squad was one point from the Eastern Conference basement in early September before a five-game unbeaten run — including four wins — propelled it back into the post-season picture. Montreal could have clinched a playoff spot last game, but fell 2-0 at Charlotte FC on Oct. 5.

A year ago, Montreal fell 2-1 to the Columbus Crew on Decision Day. The team gathered on the touchline around an iPad to watch the New York Red Bulls beat Nashville SC 1-0 with a stoppage-time penalty that crushed Montreal’s post-season hopes.

On Saturday, Montreal jumped out to a 2-0 first-half lead despite a shaky start to the match.

Centre back Joel Waterman, who moved up into central midfield with Nathan Saliba out for yellow card accumulation, gifted the ball to NYCFC’s Keaton Parks at the top of the box in the 13th minute. Parks, however, shot the ball wide.

Minutes later, NYCFC continued to press for a goal and Montreal goalkeeper Jonathan Sirois leapt for a huge save on Tayvon Gray’s volley.

Clark opened the scoring in the 18th when Bryce Duke sent a ball into the box for Martinez, who played decoy and let the ball roll to his trailing teammate for a beautiful goal.

Montreal almost made it 2-0 four minutes later as Clark connected with Martinez, but NYCFC ‘keeper Matt Freese challenged the attempt successfully.

Clark and Martinez — two players in great form — linked up again in first-half stoppage time to make it 2-0.

With NYCFC appearing to wait for the halftime whistle, Clark chased the ball down the left flank and fought off a defender for a relentless individual effort. He then delivered a pass into the six-yard box for Martinez to cleanly tip home.

Martinez, a league MVP in 2018, has six goals in his last five matches. Clark, a midseason acquisition, has four goals and four assists in seven.

In the second half, defender George Campbell joined the offence with a strong run into New York’s box and nearly set up Clark for a brace.

Montreal otherwise parked the bus and let the time wind down with the comfortable lead.

New York held 57 per cent of possession, led the shot attempts 15-5 (4-3 for Montreal on target) and earned 10 corners to one for Montreal, but failed to beat Sirois.

Montreal exorcised some demons in the process, winning its third game against NYCFC in 21 meetings and the first since July 7, 2021.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 19, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

LATROBE, Pa. (AP) — Donald Trump’s campaign suggested he would begin previewing his closing argument Saturday night with Election Day barely two weeks away. But the former president kicked off his rally with a detailed story about Arnold Palmer, at one point even praising the late, legendary golfer’s genitalia.

Trump was campaigning in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, where Palmer was born in 1929 and learned to golf from his father, who suffered from polio and was head pro and greenskeeper at the local country club.

Politicians saluting Palmer in his hometown is nothing new. But Trump spent 12 full minutes doing so at the top of his speech and even suggested how much more fun the night would be if Palmer, who died in 2016, could join him on stage.

“Arnold Palmer was all man, and I say that in all due respect to women,” Trump said. “This is a guy that was all man.”

Then he went even further.

“When he took the showers with other pros, they came out of there. They said, ‘Oh my God. That’s unbelievable,’” Trump said with a laugh. “I had to say. We have women that are highly sophisticated here, but they used to look at Arnold as a man.”

Trump senior adviser Jason Miller told reporters before the speech that Trump planned to preview his closing argument against Vice President Kamala Harris and “start to get into that framing.” Candidates have traditionally used their final days on the campaign trail to sum up for the electorate why they deserve to win the White House.

Trump eventually hit many of his favorite campaign themes but didn’t offer much in the way of new framing of the race or why he should win it. He instead boasted of creating strong tax policies and a strong military during his first term in office.

He slammed Harris as “crazy” and added a profanity.

“You have to tell Kamala Harris that you’ve had enough, that you just can’t take it anymore, we can’t stand you anymore, you’re a s— vice president,” Trump said to roars of the crowd. “The worst. You’re the worst vice president. Kamala, you’re fired. Get the hell out of here.”

He also criticized Harris for suggesting during her unsuccessful run for president in 2020 that she’d support a ban on hydraulic fracking, which is important to Pennsylvania’s economy and a position Harris’ campaign says she no longer supports.

Trump invited on stage members of a local steelworkers union that endorsed him. He donned a construction hat with his name on it.

He also said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called him amid Israeli’s ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza.

“He said, ‘It’s incredible what’s happened,’” Trump said of the Netanyahu call before moving to a criticism of President Joe Biden, saying that the Israeli prime minister “wouldn’t listen to Biden.”

Trump praised the raucous crowd, which was outside and at an airport, but also made a point of suggesting that there was more conspicuous security around him following two assassination attempts, saying, “They give you a little extra security nowadays, you notice?”

“I got more machine guns than I’ve ever seen — look at these guys,” he said referring to security. He was interrupted by cries from the crowd of “USA! USA!” before continuing, “We’ve got more guys, and every one of them is like central casting too, holy s—.”

Then he tied it back to Latrobe’s native son, adding, “They look like Arnold. Can’t look better than Arnold.”

___

Weissert reported from Washington.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.