Derby day delight for Inter Miami as they down Orlando City

Orlando City 2 – 4 Inter Miami

ORLANDO, FL–Inter Miami staged an amazing fightback to beat Orlando City on the road after conceding two early goals in a lackluster first half.

Having been outplayed on the opening day of the season last time out, the Herons would have been keen to make a strong start and a big impact.

And they made the stronger start, looking positive in the early stages as they searched for an opening and creating some half chances. But things didn’t go to plan when Angula picked up a lose pass from Rodrigo De Paul.He ran down the left before his clever reverse pass to Marco Pasalic who beat Dane St. Clair to open the scoring.Miami’s keeper won’t be happy with his attempt to keep the ball out, but he was unsighted and the bouncing ball made it difficult.

Lionel Messi tried to inspire his teammates, but it was another disjointed display from Miami and they couldn’t find a way passed Orlando’s disciplined defense. And as they tried to find a way back to parity, they fell for the sucker punch when Martin Ojeda played a neat one-two with Griffin Dorsey, and the strikers quick feet found the corner of the net to give his side a two-goal advantage.

Miami responded with some sharper attacking play, but keeper Maxime Crepeau was in fine form and repelled everything thrown at him. Messi was being closed down and given no room to create his magic, and new striker German Berterame was being starved of any service.

In a bid to change things up, Javier Mascherano brought on attacker Silvetti in the second half, and he made an immediate impact with a great goal from distance to give his side a lifeline. The goal obviously gave Miami a lift and they started to click as the swagger returned to their game. they were starting to dominate and dictate the pace of the game, with Messi at the heart of everything.

And it was the captain that drew the team’s level when he picked up the ball on the edge of the penalty area, and his shot finally beat Crepeau. At that point, the game slowed down as both sides tried to get the upper hand. Miami were trying to play their possession game as they looked to make the comeback complete.

But they still had defending to do, and St. Clair had to be at his best to keep the Orlando attack from taking the lead again. Maxi Falcon and Micael were solid in the middle of the defense as Miami improved on last week’s performance.

With the clock ticking down a draw was looking like a fair result, but Miami had other ideas. A strong run by Berterame saw his cross to Messi flicked on to Telasco Segovia who made no mistake to give his side the lead.

Moments later,Messi won a soft free kick that saw Colin Guske shown a second yellow card and was sent from the field in controversial circumstances. I thought a free kick was harsh, but a booking was very tough on the young defender.

And to add salt to the wound the Miami captain stepped up and scored the free kick to secure the win.

Orlando deserved more from the game, but this was as strong second half performance from Miami that will please head coach Mascherano as the Herons get the season under way with their first goals and points of the competition.

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