Inter Miami resumes season after 17-week hiatus. Here’s what it will look, sound like.
It will not look the same. It will not sound the same.
But finally, after a four-month hiatus, aggressive COVID-19 testing, and endless debates about the safety of the Major League Soccer bubble in Orlando, the games will go on.
Inter Miami will resume its inaugural season Wednesday by kicking off the MLS is Back Tournament with an 8 p.m. ESPN game against Orlando City. It will mark the first major U.S. men’s sports competition since the coronavirus shut down the sports world in mid-March. The National Women’s Soccer League returned to action last week.
The five-week, World Cup-style tournament will go on without FC Dallas, which was sent home after 10 players and one staff member tested positive for the coronavirus since arriving in Orlando. Nashville SC had five players test positive and four others have been re-tested after inconclusive results, so their late-Wednesday night game against Chicago Fire was postponed. MLS is evaluating Nashville’s participation in the event, pending the results.
Of the 557 players tested on-site as of Sunday, 13 had confirmed positive — 10 from Dallas, two from Nashville and one from another team.
All the games will be played without spectators at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, a massive venue used primarily for youth tournaments. Rather than pipe in artificial crowd noise, as some European leagues have been doing, ESPN hopes to create an “immersive, authentic” experience for fans watching from home by using more than 20 cameras, drones, and microphones embedded in the field and on the goalposts.
ESPN’s vice president of production Amy Rosenfeld, a 30-year veteran of soccer programming, told reporters in a Monday teleconference that the network’s goal is to take a negative, not having any fans, and turn it into a positive.
“We’re looking at really getting into audio and sounds and dialogue we usually wouldn’t get to hear because of the crowd,” she said. “We want to create an immersive, authentic experience for the fans, as if they were there … I’m really excited about aerial coverage, that is something that has been under-utilized in the sport. Frankly, it is expensive, which is a big part of why it is under-utilized. But you have that ‘above’ feel, where you really see the artistry and tactical nature of that sport. I think being able to really exploit the overhead coverage will be important.”
Rosenfeld is especially eager to see how the seven 9 a.m. broadcasts go. In order to avoid the hottest, wettest parts of the day in Orlando, MLS is Back matches will be played at 9 a.m., 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Inter Miami’s two other group games are July 14 at 9 a.m. against Chicago Fire and July 19 at 10:30 p.m. against Philadelphia Union.
“I think it’s ‘own the morning’, like Breakfast at Wimbledon or what the Premier League has been able to do,” she said. “I think it could be like destination viewing in the morning … People wake up, make coffee and turn on sports. We experienced it with the World Cup. There is now this ability to multitask to do your workday stuff and be able to consume soccer. This is new territory for us — we’ve never done MLS in the morning. I’m excited about it because it’s new and it’s like a cool destination.”
MLS senior vice president of media Seth Bacon says the league hopes to take advantage of the fact that it has center stage to itself. The NBA games get going in Orlando in a few weeks.
“We have expectations that we’re going to have an opportunity to reach a whole new fanbase,” Bacon said. “We know that we have a unique opportunity to deliver something to our fans because some of the competition won’t be there, at least at the outset.”
Fans at home will get to see national and local advertising on giant digital screens, and there will be fan participation opportunities.
Rosenfeld said the production will look quite different from a typical MLS regular-season game.
“You are going to be able to tell the difference. This is more than double [in costs] what we would typically use on an MLS regular-season match,” she said. “We felt, with our partners at MLS, that MLS needed to be back in a big way. People are starved for sports and we want to deliver this beautiful game in a big, big way — and that costs big bucks, there’s no two ways about it. This is a commitment to soccer in this country.”
Inter Miami captain and goalkeeper Luis Robles said it will feel strange to play without spectators.
“It’s going to feel like preseason in a way, but even if preseason you have some fans,” he said. “We’ve been able to see some on TV from the Bundesliga or the Premier League, so this is where we’re at, so we have to deal with it. But I think the moment the whistle blows, the competitive juices will flow and this organization is looking forward to getting its first MLS win in history.”
The first game promises to be the start of a lasting cross-state rivalry between Miami and Orlando.
“We finally get to what we want to do, and that’s play,” said Inter Miami midfielder Wil Trapp. “Amazingly, we get to open the tournament against our in-state rival. It’s very exciting for us as a new club to establish what that will mean. We’ve been working extremely hard to go out there and win the game. Diego and the staff has really pushed us and we’re prepared.”
Inter Miami opened the season with back-to-back road losses at Los Angeles FC (1-0) and D.C. United (2-1). Miami displayed an aggressive, attacking style in both games and new MLS players Nico Figal, Rodolfo Pizarro, and Lewis Morgan stood out.
Miami will be without veteran defender Roman Torres, who has to sit out as penalty for the red card he received in the D.C. game. The team also is missing rookie forward Robbie Robinson, the No. 1 draft pick, after he left Orlando on Sunday to be with his family for personal reasons. Robinson did not test positive for COVID-19, said Inter Miami sporting director Paul McDonough.
Look for Juan Agudelo and young Argentine Julian Carranza to fill in for Robinson. Carranza injured his foot in preseason and has been highly motivated to play.
Coach Diego Alonso said he was pleased with how his team played its first two games and believes a similar effort on Wednesday could lead to the franchise’s first victory.
Orlando’s attack is led by Portuguese captain Nani, Uruguayan midfielder Mauricio Pereyra, and English forward Dom Dwyer.
“We hope we can play similar to how we played in DC, we played a great game there,” Alonso said. “If we are capable of playing how we played that day. If we repeat that attitude and way of playing we can make history and win our first game.”
MLS is Back Tournament
▪ When: July 8-Aug. 11.
▪ Where: ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, Orlando.
▪ TV: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes, FS1, TSN.
▪ Format: Three-game group stage, 16-team knockout rounds.
▪ Schedule: Group stage July 8-23, Round of 16 July 25-28, Quarterfinals July 30-Aug. 1, Semifinals Aug. 5-6, Final Aug. 11
Groups — A: Orlando City, Inter Miami, NYCFC, Philadelphia Union, Chicago Fire, Nashville SC. B: Seattle Sounders, Vancouver Whitecaps, San Jose Earthquakes. C: Toronto FC, New England Revolution, Montreal Impact, DC United. D: Real Salt Lake, Sporting KC, Colorado Rapids, Minnesota United. E: Atlanta United, FC Cincinnati, NY Red Bulls, Columbus Crew. F: LAFC, LA Galaxy, Houston Dynamo, Portland Timbers.