Messi takes over Toronto, Gil has Revs soaring & more from Matchday 12 | OneFootball

By Charles Boehm

The 2026 FIFA World Cup looms closer with every passing hour, and boy, could you ever tell around MLS Matchday 12.

From established superstars honing their expertise to up-and-comers making a final push for a spot on their country’s roster, the palpable urgency around this summer’s massive tournament added to the ongoing hunt for points and momentum to make an explosive mix.

We’ll start with Exhibit A, a Saturday matinee on the shores of Lake Ontario.

Inter Miami CF

A GOAT hits The 6ix

“When they express themselves, they open any defense, any game situation. We’re talking about people who are cracks, cracks, cracks.”

Those were the words of Inter Miami interim head coach Guillermo Hoyos – using one of the highest compliments a footballer can receive in the Spanish language – after Argentine pals Lionel Messi and Rodrigo De Paul each nabbed one goal and two assists to wow a BMO Field-record crowd of 44,828 in the Herons’ 4-2 thumping of Toronto FC on Saturday afternoon.

Miami’s successful journey north of the border was also marked by yet another record for Messi, who became the fastest player in MLS history – by far – to reach 100 regular-season goal contributions. Now on 59g/41a, the GOAT did so in a mere 64 matches. And while it might be painful for TFC fans to hear, there’s something poetic about the fact that the previous mark was held by Reds legend Sebastian Giovinco (95 matches).

WATCH: Messi masterpiece leads Inter Miami to bounceback win

Portland Timbers

A Rose City romp

Speaking of 6ix… 

The scoring has not been particularly plentiful for the Portland Timbers in 2026. The Green & Gold rank near the bottom of MLS in terms of expected goals and have only scored more than three goals once all season, a 3-2 opening-day win over Columbus.

So yeah, of course we, uhh, all saw it coming when they absolutely destroyed Sporting Kansas City, 6-0, at Providence Park, racing out to a 4-0 lead before half an hour had elapsed, their mercurial young Venezuelan striker Kevin Kelsy leading the way with 2g/2a. 

It’s Portland’s largest-ever margin of victory, their first clean sheet of the season and, rather remarkably, they recorded a 100% conversion rate with six goals from six shots on target.

“We're nowhere near the level that I believe we can be at. I think we saw a team that dropped their ego and played as a team,” said head coach Phil Neville, who then upped the ante quite a bit by calling his side’s performance in last week’s loss at Real Salt Lake “a disgrace,” and adding that he was “super proud of the performance, and I've told them I want a nine-point week and nothing less than that.”

That’s no small ask, considering the Timbers must now make a cross-continent trip to Québec to face CF Montréal on Wednesday, then make another long flight down to Miami to face Lionel Messi and the defending MLS Cup presented by Audi champs next weekend.

As for SKC… what can we say? The rebuilding Midwesterners sit dead last in the overall table with a league-worst -24 goal differential and have still won only one game across all competitions.

WATCH: Portland Timbers erupt in record-breaking rout

New England Revolution

Revs rocking and rolling

It’s time for us to talk about the New England Revolution.

With Saturday’s dramatic 2-1 comeback win – their third such result in their last five games – over luckless Philadelphia, the Revs are now a perfect 6W-0L-0D at Gillette Stadium, which sets a new club record for best-ever home start.

Like so many others over the past several years, this was an occasion illuminated by star Spanish playmaker Carles Gil, who scored one goal and assisted on the other. Afterwards, head coach Marko Mitrović understandably sang his praises, remarking that “a player who has his quality can change the game at any given moment, any given game.”

We’ll admit, New England have flown under the radar, and haven’t quite earned the shine they deserve in previous editions of this column, due in no small part to their relatively modest strength of schedule so far. But they’re now all the way up to second in the East, which makes Wednesday’s visit from Nashville SC a top-of-the-table clash.

Mark your calendars.

WATCH: Red-hot Carles Gil leads record-setting Revs

New York City Football Club

Wolf trick in the Bronx

Hannes Wolf had himself quite a Sunday afternoon at sunny Yankee Stadium. The Austrian winger grabbed his first career hat trick to pace New York City FC past the Columbus Crew, 3-0, and surge past them in the standings, all the way up to seventh place in the Eastern Conference.

This was a much-needed win, snapping the Pigeons’ seven-game league winless skid and assuaging concerns after the goals dried up over the past few weeks. In this case, the goals originated mainly in the so-called ‘Man City zones,’ the key channels along either side of the opponents’ penalty box where NYCFC’s sibling club in England have done so much damage over the past decade under manager Pep Guardiola.

Wolf and the Pigeons simply murdered the Crew with cutbacks from those areas.

“It was one of these days where you just are in the right positions, and sometimes you come into a flow,” said Wolf afterwards. “When you don't win, obviously it's getting tougher and tougher, so it was important to get our heads together and now to start this new stretch well.

The Crew only have to wait 10 days for a chance at revenge, when these two will face off again in the US Open Cup quarterfinals on May 20, this time at ScottsMiracle-Gro Field in Columbus.

WATCH: Hat trick hero! Hannes Wolf gets NYCFC back to winning ways

Sunday Night stunners

The weekend concluded with a Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental doubleheader, and both Minnesota-Austin and LAFC-Houston treated us to some surprises, and a splash of star power.

Minnesota United FC

Up at Allianz Field, Austin FC were closing in on their first away win of the season via a Myrto Uzuni penalty kick. Then James Rodríguez happened.

The Colombian icon came off the bench to serve up two gorgeous deliveries for the first and second assists of his Loons stint – which may or may not prove to be a brief one, based on his postgame interview with Apple TV sideline reporter Antonella González, where he said he’ll depart to join the Colombia national team for pre-World Cup prep on May 17 – and, by the way, poured cold water all over rumors that he’ll retire after this summer’s big tournament.

“The only person who will truly know how long I want to keep playing is me,” he said in Spanish. “And when the time comes, I believe I will announce it well in advance. However, I think I still have a couple more years left in me.”

James’ short-term deal with MNUFC runs out soon, though there is an option to extend it through season’s end. Could he have played more, and contributed more, for the Twin Cities side? Perhaps we’ll never know for sure. In any case, the 2-1 advantage he carved out for the home side turned into a 2-2 final thanks to a late equalizer from a ghost of Loons past: Christian Ramírez, who declined to celebrate against the club whose fans still adore him.

HIGHLIGHTS: Minnesota United vs. Austin FC | May 10, 2026

Houston Dynamo FC

Out in Los Angeles, Houston Dynamo livewire Maty Bogusz followed suit when he, too, scored against his former team, LAFC, in a 4-1 thrashing highlighted by two trademark bangers from US men’s national team World Cup hopeful Jack McGlynn.

We’ll cut LAFC some slack, considering the distance and intensity of their midweek trip to Toluca for an unhappy Concacaf Champions Cup semifinal second leg. Still, history shows the CCC hangover is a very real thing, and as it is, the Black & Gold have won just two of their eight matches over the past month.

HIGHLIGHTS: Los Angeles Football Club vs. Houston Dynamo FC | May 10, 2026

Around the grounds

Red Bull New York’s youngsters snapped a lengthy league winless skid of their own with an impressive 3-1 smash-and-grab win at Chicago, a result that raises some troubling questions about the Fire. For the moment, however, let’s focus on the upside, which in this case was undoubtedly this postage-stamp strike from Jorge Ruvalcaba:

Exes doing damage to their former homes was a theme this weekend. Surging D.C. United thought they were cruising to a head-turner of an away win over Nashville, only for a Silvan Hefti red card to open the door for the Coyotes to snatch a last-ditch 2-2 draw via two late goals from substitute Warren Madrigal, both of them engineered in part by D.C. alum Andy Najar.

A 1-0 win in Colorado was sweet relief for St. Louis CITY SC, who finally earned their first league win since March via Sang Bin Jeong’s breakaway. And given how much scrutiny STL striker Simon Becher has been under amid some… let’s just say spotty output in front of goal, it was nice to see him apply the key touch to set his teammate loose.