Inter Miami "rewarded" for comeback habit in Champions Cup debut

Surely they can’t keep getting away with this?!

Inter Miami CF played with fire yet again Thursday night as they began their Concacaf Champions Cup campaign with a Round-of-16 first-leg visit to Nashville SC, falling behind 2-0 on two sumptuous goals early in each half from Jacob Shaffelburg at GEODIS Park.

Yet again the Herons’ defense looked rickety for long stretches as their hosts carved out several more big chances that could’ve tipped the series decisively in NSC’s direction. And yet again Miami’s adversaries failed to adequately seize on those moments, leaving the door open for Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez & Co. to show everyone what ‘clinical’ and ‘clutch’ really mean.

First Messi curled a trademark left-footed strike around Joe Willis to halve the deficit in the 52nd minute. Then, deep into injury time, Sergio Busquets delivered a delicate cross for Suárez to nod home and draw the series level at 2-2 on the night and on aggregate. Yet again, a useful result had been snatched from the jaws of defeat, much like Messi did at the LA Galaxy in IMCF’s second MLS match of the season.

“We were rewarded for our insistence,” said head coach Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino after an enthralling rematch of last year’s memorable Leagues Cup final at the same venue.

“It leaves us in a good position for the second leg. These games against Nashville have always been tough and even, and we expect the same [in leg two at Chase Stadium next Wednesday], but with the peace of mind that our search [for a comeback] was correct. It was not a disorderly search.”

Weathering the storm

It was a night of bullet-dodging. Miami avoided the burden of a multi-goal deficit to make up in their home leg, sighed with relief after Messi escaped serious harm when Lukas MacNaughton’s studs landed on the GOAT’s calf on the follow-through from a clearance, and rode their luck when prized new signing Federico Redondo received only a yellow card for landing a high elbow to Shaffelburg’s neck/face.

This was a slugfest in every sense, a clash of styles, bodies and antagonism with plenty of bad blood, and perhaps some actual blood spilled, too. Shaffelburg was a constant menace with his speed and hard running both on and off the ball, which earned him some brutally physical treatment, first from Redondo and later via an off-ball body check from Tomás Avilés. In retrospect, perhaps that was a facet of IMCF’s response to the Coyotes’ impressive levels of vigor and aggression.

“I think we put the game at risk in the two starts: at the beginning of the first half and at the beginning of the second half. There were 10 or 15 minutes in each half that could have cost us in the game,” said Martino.

“They came in more determined than us,” he noted. “We understood that from the beginning we were going to be able to control the game, circulated the ball well, but maybe we didn't do it with the intensity that the game deserved, with the intensity that the opponent deserved.”

Tactical shift

The unevenness of Miami’s performance was both a credit to Nashville’s discipline and spirit, and a reflection of the ongoing squad renovations Martino and sporting director Chris Henderson are overseeing, even with the season now well underway.

With Jordi Alba out sick, DeAndre Yedlin just traded to FC Cincinnati this week and Redondo making his debut, the Argentine coach elected to shift into a 5-3-2 shape intended to compensate for the Herons’ lack of first-choice specialists on the flanks while also elevating Redondo’s box-to-box qualities. Though Martino was largely complimentary of his side’s performance, he also acknowledged that Shaffelburg’s “unbalancing” directness disrupted his best-laid plans.

“We were going to improvise with a right back, be it a center back or a midfielder, and it seemed to us that it was imprudent to establish a one-on-one with a very unbalancing player against another who is naturally not a right back,” explained the coach. “So we decided on the line of five [defenders], because I believe that in this type of match the search has to be intelligent from inside and outside, and there was not much room for, nor much need, to take risks.”

Lesson learned

Just like with the Galaxy and Miami’s opening-night victims Real Salt Lake, the Herons found themselves disorganized and pinned back by NSC. Yet a couple of Alex Muyl misses and a disallowed Shaq Moore goal kept the margin manageable, and that was all the invitation Miami’s crack attackers needed.

The lesson, yet again, for the rest of MLS and CCC? Allow these Floridians to hang around, and you’ll likely get punished by their skill, relentlessness and sense for the moment.

“I am also left with the fact that both in Los Angeles and tonight, the team in injury time achieves the result,” noted Martino. “They do not decline. The search continues.”