Anders Dreyer Brace and CJ dos Santos Saves Earn San Diego FC a 2-2 Draw at Messi's Inter Miami

Lionel Messi took 10 shots on Sunday night. He scored once, a free kick into the top corner that pushed him into rare MLS company. And for most of the evening, he was not even the most important player on the field. That honor went to the San Diego FC goalkeeper who kept stopping him.

Anders Dreyer scored twice, CJ dos Santos made six saves against his former club, and San Diego FC drew 2-2 with Inter Miami CF at Nu Stadium. Messi and Luis Suárez found the net for the hosts, but Dreyer's 82nd-minute breakaway finish wiped out Miami's lead eight minutes after Suárez had put them in front. Miami had 19 shots to San Diego's eight. Neither side found a winner.

Dreyer Strikes First, Messi Strikes Back

San Diego did not show up to be the backdrop for someone else's highlight reel. In the 12th minute, Jeppe Tverskov slid a through ball to Dreyer, and Dreyer finished left-footed from the center of the box. San Diego led 1-0, and a building that had come for a party went quiet.

Messi took care of the mood 12 minutes later. Awarded a free kick on the right, he curled a left-footed shot into the top left corner in the 24th minute. Per MLSsoccer.com, it was his 20th goal of the season, which made him the second player in MLS history to score at least 20 in three straight seasons, joining LAFC's Denis Bouanga.

From there, Miami controlled most of the half. Suárez had a shot blocked and another sail over in the space of two minutes around the half hour. Dos Santos saved Suárez from the center of the box in the 39th minute, and in the fifth minute of first-half stoppage time he stopped a Messi shot from the center of the box, too. It was 1-1 at the break.

Dos Santos Puts on a Show

The second half was a shooting gallery aimed at one goalkeeper. Germán Berterame missed just wide in the 50th minute. Dos Santos stopped Messi again in the 51st. Messi sent one from distance just past the left post in the 63rd minute and had two more shots blocked. In the 70th, dos Santos kept out a Suárez effort aimed at the bottom right corner.

He could not stop the next one. In the 74th minute, Rodrigo De Paul threaded a ball into space on the right side of the box, and Suárez hit it first time with his right foot into the bottom left corner. According to Miami, it was Suárez's 13th goal of the regular season, and the assist was De Paul's 12th.

That should have been the cue for Miami to see it out. Instead, San Diego went straight back at them. In the 82nd minute, Tverskov played another through ball and Dreyer was gone, finishing left-footed into the bottom right corner for 2-2.

The ending was frantic. De Paul missed narrowly from distance in the 86th minute, and Messi had another shot blocked at the 90-minute mark. Dos Santos then made back-to-back saves on Messi in stoppage time, in the fourth and sixth minutes of stoppage time. On the final play, Dayne St. Clair had to save from San Diego's Kieran Sargeant to make sure Miami left with anything at all.

The Goalkeeper and the Finisher

Start with dos Santos. Six saves, four of them on Messi, several of them, in the league's words, of the jaw-dropping variety. MLS named him to its Team of the Matchday and noted the point came against his old team. That is about as satisfying a reunion as it gets.

Dreyer, also on the Team of the Matchday, needed five shots to score twice. Both goals came from Tverskov through balls, and the second arrived just as Miami thought it had the game in hand. Tverskov finished with two assists and was the quiet architect of the whole night.

Messi was Messi: 10 shots, five on target, one goal. Most nights, that kind of volume produces more than one. Suárez added five shots, three on target, and the go-ahead goal. Yannick Bright, meanwhile, reached 100 appearances for the club, which Miami said made him just the 10th player in club history to do it.

Eight Minutes of Lead

The turning point was the 82nd-minute equalizer. Miami had done the hard part. It had trailed, equalized, out-shot San Diego badly and finally taken a lead it had earned. Then a single through ball found Dreyer running in behind, and the lead was gone. It was Miami's fourth straight league draw, and arguably the one that hurt most.

Numbers That Explain It

• Shots: Miami 19, San Diego 8. On target: Miami 8, San Diego 3.
• Saves: dos Santos 6, St. Clair 1.
• Possession: San Diego 51.4 percent, Miami 48.6 percent.
• Interceptions: San Diego 16, Miami 7.
• Fouls: Miami 20, San Diego 10.

What It Means

Inter Miami moved to 12-10-4 with 46 points, but this was a fourth straight league draw, following 2-2 with Atlanta, 1-1 at Chicago and 2-2 with Nashville. MLS noted Messi leads the league in goals with 20 and assists with 13 for 33 goal contributions, and that the defending MLS Cup champions have eight regular-season games left. Next up is a trip to Columbus on Sept. 27.

San Diego improved to 8-7-11 with 31 points and stopped a three-match losing streak that included a 5-0 home loss to Philadelphia a week earlier. The second-year club, as MLS described it, visits Austin FC next.

The Spoiler

Every great show needs a villain who refuses to read the script. Messi had the free kick, the milestone and the crowd. San Diego had a goalkeeper who would not blink and a forward who made his chances count. Miami fans came for a coronation and left with a 2-2 draw that felt more like a loss, which, if you have watched this team lately, is starting to feel like a recurring episode.

Stats from ESPN's match data. Match notes as reported by Inter Miami CF (intermiamicf.com) and MLSsoccer.com.