Inter Miami share the spoils with DC

DC United 1 – 1 Inter Miami CF

WASHINGTON, DC–Miami needed a wonderful strike from Baltasar Rodriguez to get on level terms in the capital, but failed to go on and win the game against a disciplined Washington DC.

Miami started the game without their star names. Lionel Messi and Jordi Alba were out injured whilst Luis Saurez, Sergio Busquets and recent addition Rodrigo DePaul started on the bench.

Washington were missing their own star in Christian Benteke who was suspended after an accumulation of yellow cards, but it was a midfielder that opened the scoring, and with some style.

It was a quick start from the first whistle as both sides set about finding an early opening, and Jackson Hopkins collected a lofted ball sent into the Miami penalty area.

His first touch was fabulous and his second was better. He appeared to pluck the ball out of the air with his first touch and then fired an unstoppable shot into the far corner for a fabulous goal.

The game continued at a frenetic pace but Miami couldn’t get into their normal stride as they were being out muscled and outrun in the midfield

And they could have been further behind but for a fine save from reserve keeper Rocco Rios Novo.

United attacked quickly and the ball was fed to Hosei Kijima on the left hand side, he struck it well and would have been waiting to see it hit the net until the keeper stepped in to keep his side from going further behind.

Miami were being opened up with ease and it was that man Kijima again who almost created a second goal when he outpaced the Miami defense to cut the ball across the face of goal, but nobody could convert the chance.

Miami looked ragged and were clearly showing the signs of missing their captain, amongst others. Even before the half time break, it started to beg the question, when would coach Javier Mascherano make some changes.

Benjamin Cremaschi, Tadeo Allende and Telasco Segovia found it hard to make an impact and seemed disconnected from the team as The Herons struggled to have any influence over the flow of the game.

It took until close to the hour mark until we saw DePaul and Busquets join the action, and Suarez followed a few minutes later. The game clearly changed at that point and DC no longer had the upper hand as Busquets started to take charge and drag back some influence on the game.

And the impact was almost  immediate when Miami found the equalizer after Rodriguez picked up a Miami corner on the edge of the area.

He swung his right foot at it and connected perfectly as the ball sailed into the top right hand corner of the net in spectacular style. The young Argentine had a sighter earlier in the game when his fierce shot hit the side netting and he looked a threat as soon as he was introduced into the game.

The combination of the confidence from the goal and the introduction of the substitutes, Miami had their tales up and started to look more like themselves.

However, DC had more chances to win the match and kept Miami on their toes. They had the ball in the net late on but much to the relief of the traveling supporters, it was called offside and disallowed.

This was a game that Miami would be expected to win, but without their talisman and captain, it was a struggle, and they ultimately had to settle for a draw.

It was however another great game to watch and Mascherano will be pleased with many aspects of the performance, but he will know his side need to win games like this if they want to replicate their previous success.

Miami will be back in action midweek when they take on Orlando in the Leagues Cup semi-final.

Follow us on bluesky

Follow us on Twitter