Inter Miami on a roll, eyeing playoff line heading into Friday game at Orlando City
September is around the corner, which means the soccer world is buzzing about upcoming World Cup qualifying matches while MLS teams dig in for the most critical part of the season.
After a woeful early summer, Inter Miami is 4-1-2 during its past seven games and finds itself with a legitimate chance of a playoff push heading into a road game Friday against Orlando City (8:30 p.m., ESPN/ESPN Deportes).
Miami has picked up 14 points in the standings in the past seven games to move into 11th place in the Eastern Conference, five points from the playoff line with two games in hand and 15 games left to play. The top seven teams in each conference make the playoffs
“The clock is ticking now, we’re in the second half of the season,” coach Phil Neville said. “We need to amass as many points as possible. We approach the Orlando game full of confidence, well-rested. The players have got a little look in their eyes about what’s coming ahead of us. But we’ve achieved nothing yet. Our feet are really, really planted on the floor. There’s a long way to go. It’s a marathon this league.”
Neville’s team faces a tall challenge against Orlando, the second-best team in the East. In two previous meetings this season Miami lost at home 2-1 on June 25 and tied 1-1 on the road Aug. 4. Among the Orlando players to watch is Portuguese winger Nani, who has nine goals and six assists.
“Friday gives us an opportunity to put more points on the table against one of the best teams not only in the East but in the league,” Neville said. “They have outstanding qualities both individually and collectively. We played them three weeks ago and had to be at our absolute very best to get a point from that game.
“We’re under no illusions about the difficulty of this fixture and one where we know there’s a lot of pride at stake for our supporters. We have to play at our maximum.”
The Miami offense has been clicking of late with 12 goals through seven games after scoring just one over the previous six games. Three keys have been the return of forward Robbie Robinson from injury, the addition of speedy forward Indiana Vassilev and the improved play of midfielder Rodolfo Pizarro, who had been in a funk.
Robinson, Vassilev and Pizarro combined for seven of Miami’s eight goals over the past four games.
“It was always going to be that one goal would change his life,” Neville said of Pizarro. “He was having good performances, but the goals weren’t there and Rodolfo would measure his performance in goals, assists, match-winning performances. You see it with strikers, forward players, sometimes they can be playing well, but it’s the goals that matter. It’s the goals that get them on the front pages of the newspapers, social media and that’s what they crave and need. He’s on a roll. We’ve got to keep him on that roll.”
Pizarro will return to the team after his MLS All-Star Game appearance on Wednesday night in Los Angeles. He played 15 minutes to help lead MLS to a penalty shootout win over Liga MX. He was scheduled to fly back Thursday, play in Orlando and then is expected to join the Mexican team for next week’s World Cup qualifiers.
Robinson will depart Saturday to join the Chilean national team. He and Pizarro will miss Inter Miami’s Sept. 4 game against Cincinnati and possibly the Sept. 11 home game against Columbus, depending on the league’s COVID quarantine protocol upon their return.
Another reason for Miami’s recent success is Neville’s decision to go from a four-man back line to three men with a pair of wing backs.
“We are more comfortable with this lineup, we have more people to create connections, diamonds and triangles,” said defender Leandro Gonzalez Pirez, who had two assists in the 3-1 win over Toronto. “We have more options to make passes and keep possession. Now we are controlling the game with the ball at our feet. Early in the season we ran more without the ball than with it.”
Missing Friday for Inter Miami will be midfielder/captain Gregore (yellow card accumulation) and injured center backs Ryan Shawcross (back) and Ventura Alvarado (knee).
This story was originally published August 26, 2021 at 12:10 PM.