Inter Miami continue Champions Cup dream: "We fulfilled the objective"

Lionel Messi departed after just 50 minutes as a precaution against injury. Nashville SC had the better of the play for most of the second half, and Inter Miami CF directed just one shot on target in the final half-hour.

None of it had much effect on the final result of Wednesday night’s Concacaf Champions Cup Round-of-16 second leg match at Chase Stadium. That’s because the home side’s devastatingly effective start to the game had already long since pushed it beyond Nashville’s reach, with Messi feeding Luis Suárez for a cold-blooded opener just eight minutes in before netting his own clinical tally in the 23rd minute.

This made for a comfortable 3-1 Herons win on the night and a 5-3 victory on aggregate as IMCF ran their overall record to 3W-1L-2D across all competitions this season.

“You have to improve always, every time, win or lose, we have things to fix when we're starting the season, of course,” said Gerardo 'Tata' Martino in Spanish postgame. “But obviously, the efficiency of the team, or the performance of the team, you could see it in the Orlando game, against Salt Lake. We got an early goal and it calmed us down for the rest of the game.”

While concerns about the backline linger, Miami’s midfield looks both rugged and cultured, with Diego Gómez performing at a high level in a box-to-box role, while Sergio Busquets and new signing Federico Redondo have crafted a rapid understanding behind him.

Martino credited the latter to “simply because of the category and the quality the two have. There was no training, but it seems like they've always played together, and played together for all their lives.”

Game of inches

While up for the fight, Nashville were again imprecise in front of Miami’s goal and clearly missed defensive talisman Walker Zimmerman, who US men’s national team coach Gregg Berhalter had revealed earlier in the day just underwent a surgical procedure for a knee issue picked up in Leg 1 last week. Smith confirmed as much, estimating the commanding center back – who is just back from months on the sidelines due to an Achilles problem – will miss another three to four weeks of action.

“We had the chances. We weren't clinical enough, but we have to work on that,” said star attacker Hany Mukhtar in a fieldside Concacaf interview. “We have to defend better.”

The Coyotes have hung tough against IMCF in their four meetings since Messi’s Stateside arrival, including an epic duel in the 2023 Leagues Cup final and a road draw in MLS play last fall, as well as last week’s riveting 2-2 first-leg deadlock at GEODIS Park. But that’s only made them that much more aware that when Messi and the Herons are in sync and on song, even if only for fleeting segments of a match, they are very difficult to keep pace with.

“Have we ever seen Miami conservative?” pondered a philosophical Gary Smith when asked if he was surprised by the Herons’ aggressive outlook. “I don't think that's in their DNA. They have some exceptional players, as we've all seen. I fully expected the guys involved in their group to want to force home their advantage.

“They started very, very brightly and with all honesty, we were unable to contain that first 15 minutes, and as we now know, it won them the game,” he added. “Lionel Messi himself was very, very sharp in the first 15 minutes.”

Adapt and advance

Messi’s 50th-minute exit due to concerns about a muscular issue in his right leg gave NSC some hope, though his replacement, Robert Taylor, almost immediately scored to run the score to 3-0 on the night and 5-2 on aggregate. Which meant that the visitors’ ensuing superiority was a moral victory at best, with Miami content to manage the contest towards its conclusion.

“I honestly thought that their performance dipped [after Messi was substituted], and it gave us a little bit of an incentive. You could see a bit of energy, couple of challenges won, chances coming out wide all of a sudden,” said Smith. “If we score in that 15-minute spell in the first period of the second half, it could’ve changed the dynamic of the game. When we don't, we opened up an opportunity, and they didn't need many tonight to seal the deal.”

Martino seemed to agree.

“In the second half we suffered a little bit because they came down the flanks, on the left side mostly, but I think we did very well,” said the Argentine. “Then when we got two or three passes building out from the defense, and interrupted Nashville’s attack, and we have a player up front with time to think like with the third goal, we are very efficient in that moment as a team. And with the third goal, the game was over.”

His team now move on to the CCC quarterfinals, where they will meet the winner of the FC Cincinnati-CF Monterrey series, which concludes at Estadio BBVA on Thursday night – and the coach cautioned reporters not to assume Rayados will defeat FCC, alluding specifically to the quality of his former Atlanta United pupil Miles Robinson, Cincy’s biggest winter signing.