Gonzalo Higuain scores in 1-0 win over Columbus, Inter Miami climbs toward MLS playoffs
Gonzalo Higuain’s three-year-old daughter Alma predicted before Inter Miami’s Saturday night home game against the Columbus Crew that Miami would win, and he would score a goal.
“Children don’t lie,” said a smiling Higuain, who scored the lone goal as Miami continued its late-season surge with a 1-0 home win over the defending MLS champion Crew. He celebrated the goal by blowing kisses to his daughter and his wife, Lara, and by making his hands into the shape of a chocolate ice cream cup, Alma’s favorite dessert.
He made a pact with his daughter before the game that if he scored, he would make that gesture. “I am so happy she was there. Scoring a goal and having your wife and daughter there to see it means more to me than anything, more than any championship.”
A spot in the playoffs is looking more and more like a realistic goal for an Inter Miami team that had a woeful start and had dropped to the bottom of the table in mid-July.
With the win Saturday Miami leapfrogged Columbus into ninth place in the Eastern Conference standings with 29 points and 12 games left to play. Miami is two points and two spots shy of the final playoff spot. Montreal currently holds that last spot with 31 points.
Inter Miami has lost just once in the past 10 games and has won five in a row at home. Only first-place New England has racked up more points over the past 10 games (25) than Miami with 21.
“The players are beginning to smell something is happening,” Neville said. “We’ve got tremendous momentum. We have to go to Toronto (Tuesday) with the same attitude. This is a big week for Inter Miami football.”
The Crew, meanwhile, continues to slide. It was the eighth loss in the past nine games for Columbus, including five in a row on the road. Coach Caleb Porter, clearly frustrated, had a heated exchange with Neville after the game.
“There’s a code of conduct between managers but I thought he broke the code of conduct; he accused every referee in the league of having Phil Neville shirts on and I’m like, `Well, go watch the first 10 games of the season,” Neville said.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for him. He’s a serial winner in this league. His team is fantastic. Before the game we had a good conversation. You get emotional and sometimes us managers act as absolute clowns at times and maybe we both did after the game, but ultimately, I’ve got tremendous respect for the man and I wish him all the best. These things happen in football.”
Miami’s first goal came in the 16th minute from Gonzalo Higuain, whose surname is quite familiar to Crew fans as his older brother Federico, now with Inter Miami, played seven years for Columbus, scored over 50 goals for the club and was beloved. Federico missed Saturday’s game with a thigh injury.
The younger Higuain leads Miami in goals (9) and assists (4). He intercepted a misplayed Columbus back pass and chipped a right-footed shot from the center of box over goalkeeper Eloy Room into the top right corner.
After some early season struggles, Higuain said he is in a good place physically and emotionally since his family joined him in early August after more than eight months apart. Having his wife and daughter around has been especially important following the April death of his mother.
“My family is everything for me, and to have them here is wonderful,” he said. “To have a hug from my family before I go on the field gives me strength that makes me play extra hard, and after what happened with my mother I need to be calm, surrounded by love and I have that. When the planets are aligned, your head is free and you’re better.”
Columbus had opportunities to score, but Miami’s defense stood its ground and recorded its third straight clean sheet. Goalkeeper Nick Marsman made a few huge saves. Defenders Leandro Gonzalez Pirez, Nico Figal and Christian Makoun clamped down on the Crew’s attackers, as did wing backs Lewis Morgan and Brek Shea.
Neville said of his back five “that block of five are like a brick wall” and the team’s fighting spirit and unity made him especially proud.
“We showed and are showing qualities that people outside the club didn’t think this team had, and probably two months ago the players and I didn’t know we had them either,” Neville said. “The players are showing an incredible fight. We have three clean sheets over the past three games. Have we played our best? No. But these victories almost seem better because of the way we’re playing – throwing bodies on the line, blocking shots, people doing not just their job but the job of the person next to them.”
It was the first meeting between the Crew and Inter Miami.
The last time the Crew played in South Florida was June 30, 2021, and they lost 4-3 to the Miami Fusion at Lockhart Stadium, on the same site where DRV PNK Stadium now sits. Preki scored a goal and had three assists in that game. The other goals were scored by Jim Rooney, Diego Serna, Alex Pineda Chacon.
Saturday’s game began with a moment of silence in memory of the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack. Both teams wore jersey patches that said “9/11 Never Forget.”
Inter Miami plays on the road at Toronto FC on Tuesday and is back home Friday against the New York Red Bulls.
This story was originally published September 12, 2021 at 12:08 AM.