Inter Miami faces another road challenge at D.C. United. Here’s what you need to know.
The opening-day hype and jitters are now behind them. Inter Miami players say they learned from their mistakes and are determined to earn the franchise’s first victory on the road Saturday against D.C. United at Audi Field.
The defenders on the back line say they will communicate better. The midfielders vow to link up more efficiently and get everyone involved in the attack. And look for rookie forward Robbie Robinson, who was thrown into the fire against Los Angeles FC, to shoot more against D.C. (3:30 p.m., Univision/TUDN). He spent much of this week dissecting the 1-0 loss on video.
“You can see your movements off the ball, what you could’ve done better, what more you could’ve done defensively. You see the little things that you can improve on,” Robinson said.
His biggest mistake, he said, was not pulling the trigger enough when he had looks at the goal.
“Some players were telling me that maybe I should have shot more, even if it was at a bad angle,” Robinson said. “They trust that my shot is good enough to shoot from outside or near the corner of the box, so that’s something I can improve on, just taking those opportunities and going for goal. The shots they’re telling me to take are hard shots to take, but they believe in me, and I believe in myself to take those shots, so next time I’m going to do it.”
D.C. United lost its season-opening game 2-1 last weekend on a goal in the 92nd minute by the Colorado Rapids, so United players will be as hungry and motivated as Inter Miami. The temperature at game time is expected to be in the 40s, a big change from the 85-degree days Inter Miami trained in all week.
D.C. has a new look this season after the departures of last season’s top four scorers – Wayne Rooney, Luciano Acosta, Lucas Rodriguez and Paul Arriola.
Rooney chose to go back to England to be a player/assistant coach with second division Derby County. Acosta, the Argentine midfielder, left for Atlas in Mexico’s Liga MX. Rodriguez returned home to Argentina to play for Estudiantes. And Arriola tore his ACL during preseason.
Replacing them are Julian Gressel, who starred at Atlanta United the past three seasons, Ola Kamara, Yamil Asad and Edison Flores, a Peruvian national team player for whom D.C. United paid a club-record $5 million transfer fee.
Inter Miami coach Diego Alonso and midfielder Rodolfo Pizarro — who came from the Mexican league — are familiar with Flores, as he played for Morelia in LigaMX.
Another familiar face on the D.C. United roster is Federico “Pipa” Higuain, the 35-year-old Argentine midfielder who joined the team this week after eight years with the Columbus Crew. Higuain tore an ACL in May 2019, and is coming off knee surgery. He was signed as a player/assistant coach, and it remains to be seen how much playing time he gets.
Higuain, whose brother Gonzalo plays for Juventus in Italy, scored 53 goals and had 63 assists in 193 games with Columbus. He is known for his creativity on the ball, and his set pieces.
“Another away match, so they’re going to be in front of their home crowd, so I expect a super-physical, intense game,” Miami defender Ben Sweat said. “We need to show up, bring the same energy and intensity we had at LA in front of their home crowd and finish. Score goals this time. That’s the only thing we were missing the last game.”
D.C. does not typically play the possession, short-passing style that Inter Miami and LAFC prefer, so the game will present different challenges. D.C. uses a more direct attack with more long balls to their forwards.
“With us being more of a technical team, we’ll be the team that wants to control the game and have the ball more,” said Sweat. “They’ll use a little more long-ball with who they have up top. It might be a really good game for us to slow the game down, play combined and create chances.”
Inter Miami coaches scouted D.C. United in person for two preseason matches in central Florida, and watched video of their opening day match.
“We are very familiar with them,” said Inter Miami coach Diego Alonso. “They played 4-4-2 [formation], and now 4-3-3. They have variety, good players, and they lost in a similar way to how we did last week, so we expect to find a team that wants to win at home. We’ll be ready.”
This story was originally published March 6, 2020 at 12:38 PM.