Sloppy Inter Miami loses 1-0 to the Chicago Fire, Robinson re-injures hamstring
Inter Miami coach Phil Neville warned his players all week that Saturday’s road game against last-place Chicago Fire would be more challenging than it appeared on paper.
That it was.
The Fire dominated Inter Miami from start to finish at Soldier Field, ended a 369-minute scoreless drought, and earned a 1-0 victory – its first win of the season.
Chicago, which had lost four games in a row, created chance after chance while Miami repeatedly turned the ball over and struggled to get anything going in the final third. Were it not for some errant Fire shots and several big saves by Miami goalkeeper John McCarthy, the Fire would have won by a wider margin.
“The better team won, the team that looked like it wanted it more,” a dejected Neville said in his post-game remarks. “I’m really, really disappointed.
“From the very first whistle they were sharper than us to every ball. In football, what I told the team, is we all want to play beautiful football and create beautiful goals, but you have to win the battles first. You’ve got to stay with runners, win the headers, win the tackles, be disciplined, and defend well. If you don’t do that, you don’t win.”
Neville said McCarthy was Miami’s best player. “If it weren’t for John, we would have lost by two or three goals,” he said.
He also singled out substitutes Julian Carranza and Christian Makoun.
“Apart from them three, I don’t think any of us can look in the mirror and say we did our job right, myself included, my staff, players. We need to make sure we understand that you cannot just turn up and get three points.”
The Fire outshot Miami 19-4 and had 12 corner kicks to two for Miami. Inter Miami players were frustrated the entire game and were slapped with six yellow cards compared to three for Chicago. Leandro Gonzalez Pirez was among the players penalized and will have to miss the May 29 home game against D.C. United due to accumulation of five yellow cards on the season.
Neville said he would not comment on the referee because his team was not good enough to win the game.
To make matters worse, Miami was forced to play the final 12 minutes with 10 men after forward Robbie Robinson left the game in tears with a hamstring pull after Neville had used all five substitutions. Robinson had just come off the bench in the second half, returning from a hamstring injury that kept him out of the lineup the past three weeks.
Neville said Robinson was fully ready to return, that the trainers and coaches took a cautious approach, keeping him out an extra 10 days.
“He met all the strength tests, even more than the first day of preseason,” Neville said. “What we need to do now is investigate a little more because he’s a speed player and when you’re built on speed, you are susceptible to these injuries. It’s the reoccurring ones we need to make sure never happen because you see the reaction of the boy,” Neville said. “We’re devastated for him.”
Chicago scored in the 69th minute on a free kick by Luka Stojanovic that was bobbled by McCarthy. It was McCarthy’s only blunder of the game. Even after going down with an apparent thigh injury, McCarthy insisted on staying on the field and continued to make big plays.
Neville went with 10 of the same starters from last Sunday’s 3-2 road win at FC Cincinnati. The only change was left back Joevin Jones returned to the starting lineup. Jones, who plays for the Trinidad and Tobago national team, has been working overtime to reach peak fitness, as he joined the team at the end of training camp.
Playmaker Rodolfo Pizarro did not make the trip. A team official said he was nursing a minor muscle strain.
Defender Nico Figal, forward Robinson and defender Kelvin Leerdam were back on the game roster after recovering from hamstring injuries. Figal replaced Gonzalez Pirez in the second half, and lifted the team’s quality of play. But it wasn’t enough.
Center back Ryan Shawcross, asked what went wrong Saturday, replied: “Football is a very simple game. If you go out there with a better attitude than your opponent and more desire and more hard work, you usually come out on top. Today, I thought they had that in abundance and we really struggled.”
Miami dropped to 2-3-2 and remained in seventh place in the Eastern Conference with eight points. Chicago is 1-4-1 and in 13th place with four points.
“Nobody knocks at your door and just gives you three points,” Neville said. “Nobody just hands it to you on a plate. You’ve got to go out there and earn the right. We didn’t and they did, and that’s why they won the game.”
This story was originally published May 22, 2021 at 9:15 PM.