Miami still searching for a win on their new home turf

Inter Miami 1 – 1 New England

MIAMI, FL–Inter Miami were left frustrated at home again after they were held to a draw by New England as they wait for their first win in the Nu Stadium.

They started well and Lois Suarez drew a good stop from Matt Turner with a well struck volley. And the keeper was at his best soon after when Lionel Messi got his first sight of goal and his long-range effort was going in but for a big hand to deflect it wide.

New England were in good form after a run of four straight wins, but they could hardly get the ball in the opening fifteen minutes. But at the moment they had their first decent attack, but Carles Gil got his shot wrong and the chance was wasted.

Miami continued to dominate the ball and were dictating the tempo as New England slowly tried to force their way into the game and try to maintain some meaningful possession. Neither side were creating enough in the final third and the game was locked in the middle of the park as both teams passed their way around without posing much of a threat.

Griffin Yow had a couple of shots that he blazed way over the cross bar, which summed up much of the first half as both sets of players struggled. German Berterame and Suarez were full of running but Messi wasn’t at his usual best and some missed placed passes led to some soft turn overs. And it was Suarez who found his captain with a deft flick, but Messi was at full stretch and couldn’t guide the ball in.

Miami started to turn up the heat in the second half, but they were unable to unlock the New England defence to open the scoring. The second half saw a change to the New England formation, and they looked to press higher. Tadeo Allende had the ball in the net but was fractionally offside and it was disallowed.

Eventually, it was New England that made the breakthrough. A long throw into the area was allowed to get through and Gil ran onto the loose ball and lifted it beautifully over Dayne St. Clare. This was another example of Miami’s poor defending. Maxi Falcon was too busy wrestling with Dor Turgeman to attack the ball, and David Ruiz inexplicably failed to track Gil’s run, leaving him free to pounce.

Second half substitute Ian Fray should have levelled the scoring when he headed a Rodrigo De Paul cross wide when he should have done better. But they didn’t have to wait much longer when De Paul played in Suarez, whose shot was parried in the path of Berterame to get his third goal of the season from a yard out.

Miami then started to apply more pressure as they had their tails up and were searching for a winner, but the visitors were in some good recent form, and it showed as they made Miami work hard and were disciplined throughout.

Both sides had late chances, but the game petered out in the final minutes and both side had to settle for a point each in a tactical game that often saw them cancelling each other out.

Next up for Miami is the visit of Orlando next weekend for the big derby showdown.

Photos by Edwin Gomez