Lionel Messi has been tearing Major League Soccer to pieces, and with every passing game, his exploits become more magnificent, more comical, and, in a way, more ... mundane.
He is racking up goals and assists week after week, at silly rates, so silly that each successive game feels increasingly unfair and decreasingly notable.
But Messi's latest, Saturday in South Florida against the New York Red Bulls, was unlike any he or MLS had ever produced before.
Inter Miami trailed 1-0 at halftime. By the 81-minute mark, Messi had scored a goal and assisted five others.