Ten Man Inter Miami dig deep to earn a draw

Inter Miami CF 2-2 New York City FC

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL–Inter Miami had to settle for a draw against New York City in their opening game of the new season, with captain Lionel Messi playing a pivotal role.

It only took the home side five minutes to unlock the door and open the scoring after Messi combined brilliantly with Jordi Alba. The two had a telepathic-like understanding last season, regularly creating chances and scoring goals, and the trend continued here.

A clever one-two with Alba on the edge of the area found Messi’s darting run into the box. The captain’s quick feet picked out Tomas Aviles, and the centre-half took his chance well to score the night’s first goal.

Twenty minutes later, the defender’s night changed dramatically when he was shown a red card for a foul on Alonso Martinez. A long ball over the top caused confusion in the Miami back line, and Aviles found himself on the wrong side of the striker, conceding a free kick.

Aviles has had his disciplinary problems before, but this one seemed a little harsh on the young player. He appeared to get a clean tackle to win the ball, but he was penalized for pulling the shirt and deemed to have stopped a goal-scoring opportunity. However, the video evidence was inconclusive.

New York scored a neat goal from the resulting free kick to further compound the home fans’ misery. As everyone waited for the expected shot from the edge of the area, the Inter defense fell asleep and didn’t spot Mitja IIenic in space, and he finished with some aplomb.

It was tough on Miami, who had dominated possession to that point and were creating chances for fun. Robert Taylor went close, and Luis Suarez was in the thick of the action, but they were foiled by the impressive Matt Freese, who made some fine stops.

And despite slicing New York open time and again, they couldn’t take their chances, and it came back to haunt them soon enough.

New York had more of the ball in the second half, and ten minutes in, they got their reward after an uncharacteristic mistake from Alba.

With the ball at his feet, he blindly passed to what he thought was a teammate, but he played in Martinez, and the frontman punished Miami in the worst possible way as he beat Oscar Ustari to give his side the lead for the first time.

Miami responded well by attacking New York as they looked for the equalizer, but they created openings rather than clear-cut chances. A Messi freekick caused Freese some problems, but the Herons couldn’t break down the strong New York defensive line in regular time.

The away side remained an attacking threat, and while ten-man Miami desperately searched for a goal, they had to cope with the pace of Martinez, who looked dangerous whenever he had the ball and was a constant nuisance.

But they finally got the breakthrough in the tenth minute of added time. A late surging run from Ian Fray fed the ball to Messi. The Argentine continued to run at New York before his perfect pass found Telasco Segovia’s run, and the new signing showed his class with a deft flick over the onrushing Freese to level the score.

It was a frustrating night for Mascherano, with Aviles’s red card and new signing Fafa Picault’s early injury causing the new coach some headaches, but he’ll be pleased with how his players battled to get something from the game despite playing for over an hour with ten men.

On the positive side, Segovia looked impressive when he came on and took his goal well. And it was great to see defender Fray return after his injury concerns at the end of last season.