There will be no MLS Cup for Lionel Messi and Inter Miami this year. Atlanta United pulled off that upset in a big way, sending home its most decorated player and biggest-spending team sooner than anyone expected.

Jamal Thiaré scored twice, Bartosz Slisz’s 76th-minute header was the winner and Atlanta United defeated Inter Miami 3-2 on Saturday night to win their best-of-three MLS Cup first-round playoff series in three games .

Two Messi free kicks in the final minutes hit the wall of Atlanta’s defenders, and time finally ran out. Messi’s header – yes, header – in the 65th minute tied the match at 2-2, but the hosts never regained the lead and Brad Guzan put almost everything in his path into the Atlanta net to seal the upset.

It was the fifth win for Atlanta United this season – starting with two must-win games to keep their hopes alive at the end of the regular season against the New York Red Bulls and Orlando City, followed by a wild card match. in Montreal, Game 2 of this series at home and then Saturday’s stunner.

And the East is suddenly wide open.

Ninth-seeded Atlanta United will play No. 4 Orlando City in the Eastern Conference semifinals, while sixth-seeded New York City FC will face the seventh-seeded New York Red Bulls in the other Eastern Conference semifinal .

No. 2 Columbus was already gone. Number 3 Cincinnati was ousted on Saturday. And then came the biggest surprise of all: No. 1 Inter Miami’s season is over.

The team with the best record won the MLS Cup four times in the league’s first seven seasons. In the 22 seasons since, the top seed has only won the title four times.

And on paper there has perhaps never been a bigger disappointment than this: a number 9 and number 1, and not only that: a number 1 with Messi in the lineup. Messi’s total compensation of $20,446,667 from Inter Miami this season was about $5 million more than Atlanta’s entire payroll, and Inter Miami spent a record $41.7 million on payroll this season.

It earned Inter Miami the Supporters’ Shield, the best regular-season record in MLS history and an invitation to next year’s Club World Cup, which was no surprise. But it didn’t even get the club into the second round of the play-offs, which will go down in history as a huge flop.

And Atlanta fully believed they could make it happen.

For whatever reason, Atlanta has been a nightmare for Inter Miami this season. It defeated Inter Miami three times, all with Messi in the lineup; every other MLS team combined for three wins over Inter Miami.

A five-minute barrage of three goals in the first half set the tone. Inter Miami opened the scoring and Atlanta United hit twice at right back.

Thiaré was denied by the goalpost fourteen minutes into the match when his deflection of a tap into the penalty area narrowly missed the opening of the scoring. And Inter Miami took a 1-0 lead some two minutes later – Messi was denied by a diving Guzan, but Diego Gómez was there to lift the rebound into the net from a tight angle near the right post.

The lead did not last long. Thiaré took care of that.

He took a pass and was completely unmarked. He shot into the top right corner and beat Inter Miami goalkeeper Drake Callender – who had no chance – to level the match in the 19th minute. And less than two minutes later, Alexey Miranchuk tapped a pass to Thiaré that went over Callender for a 2-1 Atlanta lead.

Just like that, the best team in the history of the MLS regular season – and the best player in the history of the sport – found itself in big, big trouble. Inter Miami thought they would tie the game in the 25th minute, but Gómez was ruled offside. And the hosts argued wildly for a penalty later in the half, arguing there was a handball in the penalty area (replay suggested they had a case), but they still went into half-time trailing 2-1.

Messi equalized, a last hurray of the season. But it ended about half an hour later, leaving the Inter Miami squad in stunned disbelief.