After a good showing in defeat at LAFC, it's another road game for Inter against another motivated opponent in DCU. They lost their lead last week, falling at home to Colorado on a late winner. They're missing Paul Arriola to an ACL injury that may see him out all season. Their big acquisition of the offseason is Gressel from Atlanta United, meant to replace some offense and provide some star-power in the wake of Rooney's departure. A quieter addition is Federico Higuain, who signed as a free agent for $100K after several seasons in Columbus -- one of the best talents to ever grace MLS competition in my opinion -- he's now in a player / coach role but could provide some key stability to a club that's seen a ton of turnover in their roster in recent years. They're captained by Steve Birnbaum and Bill Hamid is likely to start in goal. I've seen no reports this week indicating whether Inter will field the same starting 11 or implement changes . . . if anyone has intel or insight please chime in.
Gressel was a decent player for Atlanta, slightly surprised they let him go. Hoping I can actually watch this (im going to try my hardest not to miss this). im assuming the starting 11 would be largely untouched barring Robbie Robinson possibly. But options up front are a bit limited @jimmyodonnell are you a fellow Miamian?
I now live in Deerfield Beach, and before this I was in Miami for 7 years. I lived several years in LA and had Galaxy season tix for 10 years, and I lived in DC 3 years and had a half-season for United. I even got to see Valdarrama back in the early days (!) MLS has come a long way and the games now have much better atmosphere than in the early days. I hope the home crowd for Inter games continues the trend . . .
OK -- GOOD START . . . 3rd minute goal for Pizarro, DCU 0 - 1 Inter (this midfield camera position might as well be shot from the blimp, this looks like an angle from a college football game in 1985)
That's a pretty good first half, both teams playing aggressively forward, this game has a positive pace due to Inter's early goal. Torres looks good in defense and Pizarro is very involved -- if he keeps playing like this, I take back my comments about him from last week (!). I generally like when the ref lets the teams play, but he will have his hands full in the second half as everybody's starting to get a little chippy
very impressed by Miami's showing so far, dynamic, quick counter attacks. Roman Torres and Figal look quality, impressive. That kid Nealis has done okish but has fallen on his own about 2/3 times despite DC barely doing much in attack. Pizarro playing basically as an inverted playmaker has been key. Have to say im happy so far, we suffered a bit towards the end after Robbie got injured and were essentially down a man until Agudelo came on but I have no complaints after the first half. I was watching New England and Chicago right before this and the difference in play is night and day. Watching Chicago lump the ball forward to their wingers and fail like 90 million times made me want to rip my hairs out.
PK now, smh. Complete meltdown in the span of 2 minutes. 1-1 now, crazy considering DC have done close to nothing in this game
the dangers of playing a high line with defenders that aren't comfortable with the ball at their feet (ahem Roman Torres). this team went almost full Bielsa yesterday
Sorry I disappeared from the discussion I was able to see the game but been busy since. The handball call changed it all . . . it was definitely the correct call, but I'm unclear on what's reviewable these days, and it seems to me like VAR is now applied to more situations than it was last year. Are more things reviewable by the rules or are refs just using VAR more? And, was that a straight red card or did Torres already have a yellow? Although that call changed everything for Inter, I don't like that decision by Torres to handle the ball there -- a bad decision as pointed out above, and it cost dearly.