Brek Shea’s late-game heroics secure 1-0 Inter Miami road win against FC Cincinnati
It wasn’t pretty. In fact, Inter Miami coach Phil Neville called his team’s 1-0 road win against FC Cincinnati on Saturday night “one of our poorest performances.”
But a win is a win, and it is especially sweet at this point in the season, with 13 games to go and a playoff spot within reach. The fact that the winning goal came in the 90th minute from journeyman Brek Shea made it extra special, Neville said.
Shea, starting in place of injured Kieran Gibbs, left-footed a beautiful diagonal pass from Nico Figal into the far corner of the net to secure the win. Up until that moment, a scoreless tie seemed imminent. It was Shea’s second goal at TQL Stadium this season, as he scored the first-ever goal in that new building in May.
Miami, unbeaten in eight of the past nine games, moved up a spot to 10th place in the Eastern Conference standings with 26 points, four points shy of the playoff line. The top seven make the playoffs. Three of Miami’s next four games are at home.
Neville was hoping his team would play with the cohesion and precision they had shown in recent weeks, but that did not happen. The team struggled to penetrate the final third, often sending errant long passes into the path of Cincinnati defenders.
“This was probably one of our poorest performances in terms of the quality of our passing, which I thought was frustrating,” Neville said. “For large parts of the game we didn’t get any rhythm; but a sign of a good team is when you win and you play poorly. When you score late goals, that’s another good sign. The spirit in the locker room is fantastic.”
Neville said he suspected the players might be a bit rusty because they had three days off after the scoreless tie against Orlando City on Aug. 27. He and his staff knew it was a risk to have such a long break, but felt the players had “hit a brick wall physically” and needed the rest.
“The three days off means you lose a little bit of rhythm…they switch off mentally, but three days off means that in two to three weeks’ time you’re even fitter and fresher,” Neville said. Miami has three games over seven days from Sept. 11 to Sept. 17 against Columbus, Toronto and New York Red Bulls.
Neville was delighted that it was Shea’s late-game heroics that won the game. Although he is not a regular starter, whenever the tall versatile player comes in, he seems to make things happen.
“For players who haven’t had that many games to come in and have a real impact, like Brek Shea did. I’m really, really pleased,” Neville said.
Shea, a man of few words, said of his goal: “It was a great ball, I got a good touch, put it away.”
Shea had Miami’s other best scoring opportunity in the 25th minute after a slick sequence of passes down the right side. Indiana Vassilev fired a perfectly placed low ball to the center of the box, Shea took what appeared to be an easy open shot, but the ball accidentally ricocheted off his teammate Lewis Morgan, who was on the ground after sliding in.
Gonzalo Higuain had a few shots go wide and Gregore fired over the crossbar.
The difference between a win and a tie is huge for a team like Miami, which is trying desperately to make up for early-season struggles.
“I didn’t even celebrate when Brek scored because I was so focused on how massive the three points were and I was thinking about what we needed to do next to close out the game,” Neville said.
“A draw against Orlando, we came away disappointed. If we had drawn (Saturday) we would have been even more disappointed. The three points is another sign, another little notch on our wall that this team never knows when to give up and trying to win.”
Forward Robbie Robinson, having a breakout summer, spent the first 60 minutes on the bench before replacing Kelvin Leerdam. Robinson missed training time with Miami last week as he traveled to Chile on Monday to join the Chilean national team only to change his mind and fly back to South Florida on Wednesday.
Vassilev, the speedy winger who joined the team in July, started in the front line along with Higuain and Morgan.
Midfielder Rodolfo Pizarro missed his second game while on World Cup qualifying duty with the Mexican national team. Seventeen-year-old Edison Azcona, who grew up in Deerfield Beach, returned to the game roster for the first time since early in the season. He spent recent months with the club’s USL Fort Lauderdale CF team.
Thirteenth-place Cincinnati extended its winless streak to 12 games and remains the only MLS team without a home victory. Cincinnati was missing eight players due to injury, illness and national team duty.
Inter Miami returns home Sept. 11 to play the Columbus Crew.
This story was originally published September 4, 2021 at 11:59 PM.